WOODROW WILSON
powers, it was a prize to be fought for. Alternately conquered by several neighboring kingdoms, it finally fell into German hands and became an appanage of the empire. It was as such that the Hapsburgers seized it when its throne became vacant in consequence of the extinction of the Luxemburg line of princes. In 1526 their hold upon it became complete, and they were thenceforth able to keep it secure as an hereditary possession within their family.(Par. 732.)
Moravia also was and is Slavonic. Slavs early drove out its Teutonic possessors, and were prevented from joining the Slavs of the southeast in the formation of a vast Slavonic kingdom only by the intervention of the Magyars, the conquerors of Hungary. This dominant race in the tenth century thrust themselves in between the Slavs of the northwest and those of the southeast, and, driving back the Slavs of Moravia, reduced the once “Great Moravia” to the dimensions of the present province. Striven for by Hungary, by Poland, and by Bohemia, Moravia finally met her natural fate in incorporation with Slavonic Bohemia (1029), and passed, along with that kingdom, into Austrian hands, in 1526.(Par. 733.)
The present constitution of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy practically recognizes but two parties to the union, Austria and Hungary. Bohemia, for all she has so much individuality and boasts so fine a history of independence, is swallowed up in Austria: only the Magyars of Hungary among all the races of the heterogeneous realm of the Hapsburgers have obtained for the kingdom of their making a standing[ 37 ]
