as a struggle between Germans and Slavs, although Austrian hatred of Serbia was the excuse for and, in part, the cause of it. The very fact that the German Imperial Chancellor, Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg, and the Emperor William as well as the Vienna and Budapest Governments, cast the blame for the war upon Russia and pan-Slavism, enjoined prudence in accepting so German a theory; nor could the arguments of German Professors like Lamprecht and Gothein convince me of its soundness. I saw more than this in the war. Viewed in historical perspective, pan-German Imperialism seemed to me a continuation of the age-long antagonism between Rome and Greece, West and East, Europe and Asia, and, later, between Rome and Byzance—an antagonism not merely between races but also between civilizations. Pan-Germanism and its Berlin-Baghdad scheme set a narrow nationalist and chauvinistic stamp upon the inherited Roman-German tradition; and two nationalist Empires, the German and the Austrian, which had emerged from the medieval Holy Roman Empire, joined hands for the conquest of the Old World. Not only were Germans and Slavs ranged against each other, but Germans against the West, the German against Western civilization, America being comprised in the West. On the German side stood the Magyars and the Turks (the Bulgarians were of less account), and the German aim was the subjugation of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Old World. The remainder of the world revolted and, for the first time, the New World—America—lent its aid to non-German Europe in repelling the German onslaught. Though America was neutral at first, her sympathies were with France and the Allies, whom she helped from the outset with raw materials and armaments. In the end, America joined in the war and contributed greatly to the final decision—though this could not be foreseen at the beginning. In this union of many nations under Western leadership lies proof that the war was not merely racial—that it was the first grand effort to give a unified organization to the whole world and to mankind. Racial aspirations were subordinated to the general cause of civilization and served its end. Naturally, interests overlapped in many places; but I need not repeat here what I have said on this subject in “The New Europe.”
In virtue of our whole history our place was on the side of our Allies. Therefore, after analysing the European situation and estimating the probable course of the war, I decided to oppose Austria actively, in the expectation that the Allies
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