Part 71 (1/2)

[Sidenote: Proclamation of the German empire, January 18, 1871.]

273. The attack of France upon Prussia in 1870, instead of hindering the development of Germany as Napoleon III had hoped it would, only served to consummate the work of 1866. The South German states,--Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Baden, and south Hesse--having sent their troops to fight side by side with the Prussian forces, consented after their common victory over France to join the North German Federation. Surrounded by the German princes, William, King of Prussia and President of the North German Federation, was proclaimed German Emperor in the palace of Versailles, January, 1871. In this way the present German empire came into existence. With its wonderfully organized army and its mighty chancellor, Bismarck, it immediately took a leading place among the western powers of Europe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EUROPE OF TO-DAY]

[Sidenote: Predominance of Prussia in the present German empire.]

The const.i.tution of the North German Federation had been drawn up with the hope that the southern states would later become a part of the union; consequently, little change was necessary when the empire was established. The king of Prussia enjoys the t.i.tle of German Emperor, and is the real head of the federation. He is not, however, _emperor of Germany_, for the sovereignty is vested, theoretically, not in him, but in the body of German rulers who are members of the union, all of whom send their representatives to the Federal Council (Bundesrath).

Prussia's influence in the Federal Council is, however, secured by a.s.signing her king a sufficient number of votes to enable him to block any measure he wishes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles]

[Sidenote: Rome added to the kingdom of Italy, 1870.]

The unification of Italy was completed, like that of Germany, by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. After the war of 1866 Austria had ceded Venetia to Italy. Napoleon III had, however, sent French troops in 1867 to prevent Garibaldi from seizing Rome and the neighboring districts, which had been held by the head of the Catholic church for more than a thousand years. In August, 1870, the reverses of the war compelled Napoleon to recall the French garrison from Rome, and the pope made little effort to defend his capital against the Italian army, which occupied it in September. The people of Rome voted by an overwhelming majority to join the kingdom of Italy; and the work of Victor Emmanuel and Cavour was consummated by transferring the capital to the Eternal City.

[Sidenote: Position of the pope.]

Although the papal possessions were declared a part of the kingdom of Italy, a law was pa.s.sed which guaranteed to the pope the rank and privileges of a sovereign prince. He was to have his own amba.s.sadors and court like the other European powers. No officer of the Italian government was to enter the Lateran or Vatican palaces upon any official mission. As head of the church, the pope was to be entirely independent of the king of Italy, and the bishops were not required to take the oath of allegiance to the government. A sum of over six hundred thousand dollars annually was also appropriated to aid the pope in defraying his expenses. The pope, however, refused to recognize the arrangement. He still regards himself as a prisoner, and the Italian government as a usurper who has robbed him of his possessions. He has never accepted the income a.s.signed to him, and still maintains that the independence which he formerly enjoyed as ruler of the Papal States is essential to the best interests of the head of a great international church.[458]

[Sidenote: Southeastern Europe.]

274. To complete the survey of the great political changes of the nineteenth century, we must turn for a moment to southeastern Europe.

The disposal of the European lands occupied by the Turks has proved a very knotty international question. We have seen how the Turks were expelled from Hungary by the end of the seventeenth century, and how Peter the Great and his successors began to dream of acquiring Constantinople as a Russian outpost which would enable the Tsar to command the eastern Mediterranean.[459] Catherine II (1762-1796) had extended the Russian boundary to the Black Sea. On the whole, however, the Turks held their own pretty well during the eighteenth century, but the nineteenth witnessed the disruption of European Turkey into a number of new and independent Christian states.

[Sidenote: Servia and Greece revolt from the Sultan.]

The Servians first revolted successfully against their oppressors, and forced the Sultan (1817) to permit them to manage their own affairs, although he did not grant them absolute independence. Of the war of independence which the Greeks waged against the Turks (1821-1829) something has already been said.[460] The intervention of Russia, England, and France saved the insurgents from defeat, and in 1829 the Porte recognized the independence of Greece, which became a const.i.tutional monarchy. The Turkish government also pledged itself to allow vessels of all nations to pa.s.s freely through the Dardanelles and the Bosporus.

[Sidenote: The Crimean War, 1853-1856.]

[Sidenote: Origin of the princ.i.p.ality of Roumania, 1859.]

Inasmuch as a great part of the peoples still under Turkish rule in Europe were--like the Russians--Slavs and adherents of the Greek church, Russia believed that it had the best right to protect the Christians within the Sultan's dominions from the atrocious misgovernment of the Mohammedans. When in 1853 news reached the Tsar that the Turks were troubling Christian pilgrims, he demanded that he be permitted to a.s.sume a protectorate over all the Christians in Turkey. This the Porte refused to grant. Russia declared war and destroyed the Turkish fleet in the Black Sea. The English government looked with apprehension upon the advance of the Russians. It felt that it would be disastrous to western Europe if Russia were permitted to occupy the well-nigh impregnable Constantinople and send its men-of-war freely about the Mediterranean.

England therefore induced Napoleon III to combine with her to protect the Sultan's possessions. The English and French troops easily defeated the Russians, landed in the Crimea, and then laid siege to Sevastopol, an important Russian fortress on the Black Sea. Sevastopol fell after a long and terrible siege, and the so-called Crimean War came to a close.

The intervention of the western powers had prevented the capture of Constantinople by the Russians, but very soon the powers recognized the practical independence of two important Turkish provinces on the lower Danube, which were united in 1859 into the princ.i.p.ality of Roumania.

[Sidenote: Revolt of Bosnia, 1875.]

The Turkish subjects in Bosnia and Herzegovina naturally envied the happier lot of the neighboring Servians, who had escaped from the bondage of the Turks. These provinces were stirred to revolt in 1875, when the Turks, after collecting the usual heavy taxes, immediately demanded the same amount over again. The oppressed Christians proposed to escape Turkish tyranny by becoming a part of Servia. They naturally relied upon the aid of Russia to carry out their plans. The insurrection spread among the other Christian subjects of the Sultan, especially those in Bulgaria.

[Sidenote: The Bulgarian atrocities.]

Here the Turks wreaked vengeance upon the insurgents by atrocities which filled Europe with horror and disgust. In a single town six thousand of the seven thousand inhabitants were ma.s.sacred with incredible cruelty, and scores of villages were burned. Russia, joined by Roumania, thereupon declared war upon the Porte (1877). The Turks were defeated, but western Europe would not permit the questions at issue to be settled without its approval. Consequently, a congress was called at Berlin under the presidency of Bismarck, which included representatives from Germany, Austria, Russia, England, France, Italy, and Turkey.

[Sidenote: The Congress of Berlin (1878) and the eastern question.]