affairs for centuries; but her rulers were now incompetent and corrupt.  Prussia, on the other hand, was an upstart, whose strength lay in universal military service.  As the century progressed, the influence of Prussia became greater; and the jealousy of Austria grew proportionately.  Bismarck, the Prussian prime minister, adopted a policy of “blood and iron.”  By this he meant that Prussia would attain the objects of her ambition by means of war.  Under his guidance she would intimidate or conquer the other German states and force them into trade and commercial agreements, or annex their territory to that of Prussia.

Bismarck looked for success only to the army.  With the king back of him, he defied the people’s representatives, ignored the Prussian constitution, and purposely picked quarrels with his neighbors.  In 1866, in a brief war of seven weeks, Austria was hopelessly defeated and forced to retire from the German Confederation.  In 1870, when he felt sure of his military preparations, Bismarck altered a telegram and thus brought on a war with France.  The Franco-Prussian War lasted only a few months; but in that time the French were thoroughly defeated.  Many important results followed the war:  (1) The German states, influenced by the patriotic excitement of a successful war, founded the German Empire, with Prussia in the leading position, and the Prussian king as German emperor or “Kaiser.” (2) A huge indemnity of one billion dollars was exacted by Prussia from France, and this money, deposited in the German banks and loaned to individuals, played a large part in expanding the manufactures and commerce of Germany. (3) Prussia took away from France, against the wishes of the inhabitants, the provinces called Alsace-Lorraine.  This “wrong done to France,” as President Wilson has said, “unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years.” (4) The French people carried through a revolution and established a republic—­for the third time in their history—­which has continued down to the present.

After 1870 Germany made remarkable material progress.  By 1911 her population had grown from 41,000,000 to 65,000,000.  Her coal and iron production in 1911 was eight times as much as in 1871.  In wealth, commerce, coal production, and textile industries, among European countries, Germany was second only to Great Britain; while in the production of iron and steel Germany had passed Great Britain and was second only to the United States.

But this great industrial and commercial advance was not accompanied with a corresponding liberality in government.  The constitution of the German Empire gave very large powers to the emperor, and very little power to the representatives of the people.  Prussia, the dominant state in the empire, had an antiquated system of voting which rated men’s votes according to the taxes they paid, and placed political power in the hands of a small number of capitalists and wealthy landowners, especially the Junkers (yoong’kerz),