An Introduction to the History of Western Europe Part 71

[Sidenote: Proclamation of the German empire, January 18, 1871.]

273. The attack of France upon Prussia in 1870, instead of hindering the development of Germany as Napoleon III had hoped it would, only served to consummate the work of 1866. The South German states,--Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Baden, and south Hesse--having sent their troops to fight side by side with the Prussian forces, consented after their common victory over France to join the North German Federation. Surrounded by the German princes, William, King of Prussia and President of the North German Federation, was proclaimed German Emperor in the palace of Versailles, January, 1871. In this way the present German empire came into existence. With its wonderfully organized army and its mighty chancellor, Bismarck, it immediately took a leading place among the western powers of Europe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EUROPE OF TO-DAY]

[Sidenote: Predominance of Prussia in the present German empire.]

The const.i.tution of the North German Federation had been drawn up with the hope that the southern states would later become a part of the union; consequently, little change was necessary when the empire was established. The king of Prussia enjoys the t.i.tle of German Emperor, and is the real head of the federation. He is not, however, _emperor of Germany_, for the sovereignty is vested, theoretically, not in him, but in the body of German rulers who are members of the union, all of whom send their representatives to the Federal Council (Bundesrath).

Prussia's influence in the Federal Council is, however, secured by a.s.signing her king a sufficient number of votes to enable him to block any measure he wishes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles]

[Sidenote: Rome added to the kingdom of Italy, 1870.]

The unification of Italy was completed, like that of Germany, by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. After the war of 1866 Austria had ceded Venetia to Italy. Napoleon III had, however, sent French troops in 1867 to prevent Garibaldi from seizing Rome and the neighboring districts, which had been held by the head of the Catholic church for more than a thousand years. In August, 1870, the reverses of the war compelled Napoleon to recall the French garrison from Rome, and the pope made little effort to defend his capital against the Italian army, which occupied it in September. The people of Rome voted by an overwhelming majority to join the kingdom of Italy; and the work of Victor Emmanuel and Cavour was consummated by transferring the capital to the Eternal City.

[Sidenote: Position of the pope.]

Although the papal possessions were declared a part of the kingdom of Italy, a law was pa.s.sed which guaranteed to the pope the rank and privileges of a sovereign prince. He was to have his own amba.s.sadors and court like the other European powers. No officer of the Italian government was to enter the Lateran or Vatican palaces upon any official mission. As head of the church, the pope was to be entirely independent of the king of Italy, and the bishops were not required to take the oath of allegiance to the government. A sum of over six hundred thousand dollars annually was also appropriated to aid the pope in defraying his expenses. The pope, however, refused to recognize the arrangement. He still regards himself as a prisoner, and the Italian government as a usurper who has robbed him of his possessions. He has never accepted the income a.s.signed to him, and still maintains that the independence which he formerly enjoyed as ruler of the Papal States is essential to the best interests of the head of a great international church.[458]

[Sidenote: Southeastern Europe.]

274. To complete the survey of the great political changes of the nineteenth century, we must turn for a moment to southeastern Europe.

The disposal of the European lands occupied by the Turks has proved a very knotty international question. We have seen how the Turks were expelled from Hungary by the end of the seventeenth century, and how Peter the Great and his successors began to dream of acquiring Constantinople as a Russian outpost which would enable the Tsar to command the eastern Mediterranean.[459] Catherine II (1762-1796) had extended the Russian boundary to the Black Sea. On the whole, however, the Turks held their own pretty well during the eighteenth century, but the nineteenth witnessed the disruption of European Turkey into a number of new and independent Christian states.

[Sidenote: Servia and Greece revolt from the Sultan.]

The Servians first revolted successfully against their oppressors, and forced the Sultan (1817) to permit them to manage their own affairs, although he did not grant them absolute independence. Of the war of independence which the Greeks waged against the Turks (1821-1829) something has already been said.[460] The intervention of Russia, England, and France saved the insurgents from defeat, and in 1829 the Porte recognized the independence of Greece, which became a const.i.tutional monarchy. The Turkish government also pledged itself to allow vessels of all nations to pa.s.s freely through the Dardanelles and the Bosporus.

[Sidenote: The Crimean War, 1853-1856.]

[Sidenote: Origin of the princ.i.p.ality of Roumania, 1859.]

Inasmuch as a great part of the peoples still under Turkish rule in Europe were--like the Russians--Slavs and adherents of the Greek church, Russia believed that it had the best right to protect the Christians within the Sultan's dominions from the atrocious misgovernment of the Mohammedans. When in 1853 news reached the Tsar that the Turks were troubling Christian pilgrims, he demanded that he be permitted to a.s.sume a protectorate over all the Christians in Turkey. This the Porte refused to grant. Russia declared war and destroyed the Turkish fleet in the Black Sea. The English government looked with apprehension upon the advance of the Russians. It felt that it would be disastrous to western Europe if Russia were permitted to occupy the well-nigh impregnable Constantinople and send its men-of-war freely about the Mediterranean.

England therefore induced Napoleon III to combine with her to protect the Sultan's possessions. The English and French troops easily defeated the Russians, landed in the Crimea, and then laid siege to Sevastopol, an important Russian fortress on the Black Sea. Sevastopol fell after a long and terrible siege, and the so-called Crimean War came to a close.

The intervention of the western powers had prevented the capture of Constantinople by the Russians, but very soon the powers recognized the practical independence of two important Turkish provinces on the lower Danube, which were united in 1859 into the princ.i.p.ality of Roumania.

[Sidenote: Revolt of Bosnia, 1875.]

The Turkish subjects in Bosnia and Herzegovina naturally envied the happier lot of the neighboring Servians, who had escaped from the bondage of the Turks. These provinces were stirred to revolt in 1875, when the Turks, after collecting the usual heavy taxes, immediately demanded the same amount over again. The oppressed Christians proposed to escape Turkish tyranny by becoming a part of Servia. They naturally relied upon the aid of Russia to carry out their plans. The insurrection spread among the other Christian subjects of the Sultan, especially those in Bulgaria.

[Sidenote: The Bulgarian atrocities.]

Here the Turks wreaked vengeance upon the insurgents by atrocities which filled Europe with horror and disgust. In a single town six thousand of the seven thousand inhabitants were ma.s.sacred with incredible cruelty, and scores of villages were burned. Russia, joined by Roumania, thereupon declared war upon the Porte (1877). The Turks were defeated, but western Europe would not permit the questions at issue to be settled without its approval. Consequently, a congress was called at Berlin under the presidency of Bismarck, which included representatives from Germany, Austria, Russia, England, France, Italy, and Turkey.

[Sidenote: The Congress of Berlin (1878) and the eastern question.]

The Congress of Berlin determined that Montenegro, Servia, and Roumania should thereafter be altogether independent. The latter two became kingdoms within a few years, Roumania in 1881 and Servia in 1882. Bosnia and Herzegovina,[461] instead of becoming a part of Servia, as they wished, were to be occupied and administered by Austria, although the Sultan remained their nominal sovereign. Bulgaria received a Christian government, but was forced to continue to recognize the Sultan as its sovereign and pay him tribute.[462]

To-day the once wide dominions of the Sultan in Europe are reduced to the city of Constantinople and a strip of mountainous country stretching westward to the Adriatic.

General Reading.--In addition to the works of Andrews and Fyffe referred to in the footnotes, the following are excellent short accounts of the political history of Europe since 1815. W.A.

PHILLIPS, _Modern Europe_ (The Macmillan Company, $1.50); SEIGn.o.bOS, _Political History of Europe since 1814_, carefully edited by MacVane (Henry Holt & Co., $3.00), and the readable but partisan German work of Muller, _Political History of Recent Times_ (American Book Company, $2.00). For Germany: MUNROE SMITH, _Bismarck and German Unity_ (The Macmillan Company, $1.00) and KUNO FRANCKE, _History of German Literature as determined by Social Forces_ (Henry Holt & Co., $2.50). For Italy: THAYER, _Dawn of Italian Independence_ (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 2 vols., $4.00); STILLMAN, _Union of Italy_ (The Macmillan Company, $1.60); COUNTESS CESARESCO, _Liberation of Italy_ (Charles Scribner's Sons, $1.75) and her _Cavour_ (The Macmillan Company, 75 cents). For England: MCCARTHY, _History of our Own Times_ (issued by various publishers, e.g., Coates & Co., 2 vols., $1.50).

CHAPTER XLI

EUROPE OF TO-DAY

275. The scholars and learned men of the Middle Ages were but little interested in the world about them. They devoted far more attention to philosophy and theology than to what we should call the natural sciences. They were satisfied in the main to get their knowledge of nature from reading the works of the ancients, above all of Aristotle.

Roger Bacon, as we have seen, protested against the exaggerated veneration for books. He foresaw that a careful examination of the things about us,--like water, air, light, animals and plants,--would lead to important and useful discoveries which would greatly benefit mankind.

[Sidenote: Modern scientific methods of discovering truth.]

[Sidenote: Experimentation.]

He advocated three methods of reaching truth which are now followed by all scientific men. In the first place, he proposed that natural objects and changes should be examined with great care, in order that the observer might determine exactly what happened in any given case. This has led in modern times to incredibly refined measurements and a.n.a.lysis.

The chemist, for example, can now determine the exact nature and amount of every substance in a cup of impure water, which may appear perfectly limpid to the casual observer. Then, secondly, Roger Bacon advocated experimentation. He was not contented with mere observation of what actually happened, but tried new and artificial combinations and processes. Nowadays experimentation is constantly used by scientific investigators, and by means of it they discover many things which the most careful observation would never reveal. Thirdly, in order to carry on investigation and make careful measurements and the desired experiments, apparatus designed for the special purpose of discovering truth was necessary. As early as the thirteenth century it was found, for example, that a convex crystal or bit of gla.s.s would magnify objects, although several centuries elapsed before the microscope and telescope were devised.

[Sidenote: Astrology grows into astronomy.]

The progress of scientific discovery was hastened, strangely enough, by two grave misapprehensions. In the Middle Ages even the most intelligent believed that the heavenly bodies influenced the fate of mankind; consequently, that a careful observation of the position of the planets at the time of a child's birth would make it possible to forecast his life. In the same way important enterprises were only to be undertaken when the influence of the stars was auspicious. Physicians believed that the efficacy of their medicines depended upon the position of the planets. This whole subject of the influence of the stars upon human affairs was called astrology, and was in some cases taught in the mediaeval universities. Those who examined the stars gradually came, however, to the conclusion that the movements of the planets had no effect upon humanity; but the facts which the astrologers had discovered through careful observation became the basis of modern astronomy.

[Sidenote: Alchemy grows into chemistry.]

In the same way chemistry developed out of the mediaeval study of alchemy. The first experimentation with chemicals was carried on with the hope of producing gold by some happy combination of less valuable metals. But finally, after learning more about the nature of chemical compounds, it was discovered that gold was an element, or simple substance, and consequently could not be formed by combinations of other substances.

[Sidenote: Discovery that the universe follows natural laws.]

In short, observation and experimentation were leading to the most fundamental of all scientific discoveries, namely, the conviction that all the things about us follow certain natural, immutable laws. The modern scientific investigator devotes a great part of his attention to the discovery of these laws and their application. He has given up any hope of reading man's fate in the stars or of producing any results by magical combinations. Unlike the mediaeval writers, he hesitates to accept as true the reports which reach him of miracles, that is, of exceptions to the general laws, because he is convinced that the natural laws have been found to work regularly in every instance where they have been carefully observed. His study of the natural laws has, however, enabled him to produce far more marvelous results than those reported of the mediaeval magician.

[Sidenote: Galileo's telescope.]

276. In a previous chapter the progress of science for three hundred years after Roger Bacon has been briefly noted.[463] With the exception of Copernicus the investigators of this period are scarcely known to us.

In the seventeenth century, however, progress became very rapid and has been steadily accelerating since. In astronomy, for example, the truths which had been only suspected by earlier astronomers were demonstrated to the eye by Galileo (1564-1642). By means of a little telescope, which was hardly so powerful as the best modern opera gla.s.ses, he discovered (in 1610) the spots on the sun. These made it plain that the sun was revolving on its axis as astronomers were already convinced that the earth revolved. He saw, too, that the moons of Jupiter were revolving about their planet in the same way that the planets revolve about the sun.

[Sidenote: Sir Isaac Newton and his discovery of the law of universal gravitation.]

The year that Galileo died, the famous English mathematician, Sir Isaac Newton, was born (1642-1727). He carried on the work of earlier astronomers by the application of higher mathematics, and proved that the force of attraction which we call gravitation was a universal one, and that the sun and the moon and the earth, and all the heavenly bodies, are attracted to one another inversely as the square of the distance.

[Sidenote: Development of the microscope.]

While the telescope aided the astronomer, the microscope contributed far more to the extension of practical knowledge. Rude and simple microscopes were used with advantage as early as the seventeenth century. Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch linen merchant, so far improved his lenses that he discovered the blood corpuscles and (1665) the "animalculae" or minute organisms of various kinds found in pond water and elsewhere. The microscope has been rapidly perfected since the introduction of better kinds of lenses early in the nineteenth century, so that it is now possible to magnify minute objects to more than two thousand times their diameters.