else than “Los von Oesterreich” or “Los von Habsburg.’ Bismarck, strong in his authority as the founder of united Germany, resisted the Pangerman extremists. His plan was to leave Austria-Hungary independent, but to use her for Germany and her programme. In reality, he heartily despised Austria, for he saw through her.
But Bismarck’s plans were not original. They were merely the continuation of older ideas and aims; it is only half true to say that he pushed Austria-Hungary towards the Balkans and the East. Austria was from the first the eastern kingdom (Ostreich, Oesterreich), and has fostered plans of conquest ever since the days of Prince Eugene. The weakening of Turkey suggested this to the neighbouring victorious Empire. It was not only Bismarck who induced Austria-Hungary to occupy Bosnia-Herzegovina; Radetzky and Cardinal Rauscher of Vienna formulated this programme long before Bismarck. In the same way, when in 1848, at Frankfurt, the German nationalists were offering the German crown to the Hohenzollerns, Austria answered by the imperialistic programme of Prince Schwarzenberg and of Baron Bruck, who, following Friedrich List, devised the programme of Central Europe as it is now preached in Germany and Austria.
Bismarck, it is true, gained Andrássy and the Magyars for his plans; but it was Dualism which unchained Magyar imperialism. Bismarck was clever enough to use it as a means of putting pressure on Vienna, which could not easily forget 1866. But long before Bismarck List had preached in Germany a very practical Pangerman Magyarophilism.
The occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina led Austria into a fatal antagonism against not only the Southern Slavs but also Russia. Germany joined her in this direction. Bismarck hoped, in spite of the Berlin Congress, not to lose the friendship of Russia, and even the creation of the Triple Aliance did not prevent him from the effort to secure the re-insurance of Russia, or rather, of Petrograd. But the new generation in Germany conceived Pangermanism in the sense of “Berlin-Bagdad,” and the road to Bagdad led to an inevitable dispute with Russia about Constantinople. William II., accepting Lagarde’s teaching and the designs of world-power which it involved, dismissed Bismarck and placed himself at the head of the new generation. Austria-Hungary and Prussia-Germany inaugurated a very decided anti-Slav
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