or Prussian nobles.  The educational system, while giving a rudimentary education to all, was really designed to keep large masses of the people subject to the military group, the government officials, and the capitalists.  Blind devotion to the emperor and belief in the necessity of future war in order to increase German prosperity, were widely taught.  The “mailed fist” was clenched, and “the shining sword” rattled in the scabbard whenever Germany thought the other nations of Europe showed her a lack of respect.  Enormous preparations for war were made in order that Germany might gain from her neighbors the “place in the sun” which she was determined upon.  Other nations were to be pushed aside or be broken to pieces in order that the German “super-men” might enjoy all that they wished of this world’s goods and possessions.

Austria-Hungary.—­The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1910 had a population of 49,000,000, made up of peoples and races who spoke different languages and had different customs, habits, and ideals.  These races, instead of being brought under unifying influences as foreigners are in the United States, had for centuries retained their peculiarities.  Germans comprised 24 per cent of the total population; Hungarians, 20 per cent; Slavic races (including Bohemians, Poles, South Slavs, and others), 45 per cent; Roumanians, over 6 per cent; and Italians less than 2 per cent.  The Germans and Hungarians, although only a minority of the total population, had long exercised political control over the others and by repressive measures had tried to stamp out their schools, newspapers, and languages.  Unrest was continuous during the nineteenth century; and the rise of the independent states of Serbia, Roumania, and Bulgaria tended to make the Slavic and Roumanian inhabitants of Austria-Hungary dissatisfied with their own position.

After 1815 the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy continued under the rule of the royal family of Hapsburgs, whose proud history extends back to the fifteenth century.  Austria (but not Hungary) was part of the German Confederation, and her representative had the right of presiding at all meetings of the confederation.  Between 1815 and 1848 the Austrian emperor and his Prime minister were the leaders in opposition to popular government and national aspirations.  But in 1848 a serious uprising took place, and it seemed for a time that the diverse peoples would fly apart from each other and establish separate states.  The emperor abdicated and his prime minister fled to England.  Francis Joseph, the young heir to the throne, with the aid of experienced military leaders succeeded in suppressing the rebellion.  For sixty-eight years (1848-1916) he was personally popular and held together the composite state.