Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/661

FRANCE AND GERMANY.] FRANCE 625 emperors without a single witness on either side, were embodied, in October, in the treaty of Zurich. The result, of for the moment, satisfied no one. Austria was humiliated by it ; Italy disappointed, in the very moment of hope and triumph ; Germany and England deemed both the war and the peace a high-handed proceeding ; and France herself, in spite of the successes of her army, wished that the high- sounding promise of her emperor, " Italy free, from the Alps to the Apennines," had been more nearly fulfilled. Finally, military critics noted that the generalship of the war left much to be desired, and that the organization of the army was very far from perfect. Further changes, re sults as much of the force of ideas as of diplomacy or of war, were sure to follow before long. Ominous utterances and influences of the Ul tramontanes in France heralded coming difficulties even before the conclusion of the peace of Zurich. The pope, Pius IX., guided by the Jesuits, threw himself into the arms of the reactionary party ; and Napoleon saw good reason to give up his chimerical .scheme for an Italian federation under papal presidency. He de clared his intention of founding a great kingdom of Northern Italy, and announced that Savoy and Nice were to be united to France, by way of counterpoise. The forms of a plebiscite were duly gone through in those districts ; and the transfer took place shortly afterwards. Even this change of attitude on the Emperor s part, coupled as it was with the continuance of the French garrison at Rome, and the cession of Nice and Savoy, was offensive to Italian independence. Garibaldi, with his noble band of volunteers, amidst the warm sympathy of all liberal Europe, landed in Sicily, and soon defeated the half hearted supporters of the wretched Neapolitan Government; Naples and Sicily were at once united to the Italian king dom. Piedmontese troops entered the papal territories, and won the battle of Castelfidardo ; general Lamorrciere, who commanded the Papalini in the battle, was soon after taken, when Ancona surrendered, and was sent back to France by the Italian Government. The victorious troops, leaving Rome and its French garrison on one side, joined the triumphant volunteer-army of Garibaldi, In February 1861 Francis II. king of Naples, who was besieged in Gaeta, capitulated, and a new Italian parliament in the same month proclaimed Victor Emmanuel king of Italy. Home alone was left out, the natural capital of the king dom, defended from herself and from Italy by French bayonets. The political situation was indefensible. During these years France had also been engaged in distant expeditions ; a Chinese war, in alliance with Eng land, occupied her from 1858 to 1860; the capture of Pekin brought this war to an end. In Cochin-China, also, France had Spain as an ally, and closed an obscure if successful war with a treaty of peace in 1862. The Syrian expedition of 1860, undertaken in harmony with the other Christian powers, speedily reduced the sultan to reason, and a French occupation, which lasted till June 1861, did much to relieve the oppressed Christians of that part of the Turkish dominions. Lastly, the affairs of Mexico, in which the empress, guided by her clerical tastes, took an active part, led to the intervention of the emperor on behalf of the archduke Maximilian of Austria ; at first England and Spain, which also had grievances against the revolu tionary Government of Mexico, joined with France. England, however, had little real interest at stake ; Spain wanted to place a prince of her own on the Mexican throne ; when it came to the point, France was left to carry out her schemes as she could. The whole affair ended in a terrible disaster for the archduke in 1867, and discredit and loss t the imperial Government. It was seen by the elections i >f 1863 that, while the peasant-vote remained true to Xnpoleon ILL, the towns, following the leading of Paris, and in spite of all official efforts, sent up a strong minority 1863-66. to the opposition. It was clear that the educated and think ing part of France was already weary of the second empire. Now broke out the Danish war, which was the beginning The of the consolidation of Germany. In 1852 the conference Danish of London had settled the succession to the Danish crown war * on the duke of Gliicksburg, who had married a Danish princess; when Frederick VII. died in 1863 and Christian IX. succeeded to the throne, the Germanic confederation, which had never agreed to the arrangement, protested against the union of Schleswig and Holstein to the Danish kingdom. Holstein had always been a German duchy, and vigorous colonization had made South Schleswig in large part German in population. The Danish Government allowed the federal forces, commanded by Baron Halkett, a Hano verian general, to occupy Holstein provisionally, while it refused them possession of Schleswig ; Prussia and Austria, acting in concert, early in 1864 invaded Schleswig, drove the Danes back, and stormed their lines at Diippel ; after which they quietly occupied all the disputed territory. When England, with Russia and Sweden, pressed for a conference to settle the dispute by international arbitration, France held back, and refused to oppose Prussia and Austria. The emperor suggested, as a middle course, that a plebiscite, his favourite idea when nationalities were in ques tion, should be taken in the two duchies. The conference admitted this for Holstein, and refused it for Schleswig, and on this point the negotiations w r ere broken off. The allied Germans speedily brought the war to an end by their over whelming strength, and in October 1864 it was agreed, after some difficulties, that Austria should take charge of Holstein, and Prussia of Schleswig. The confederation gained nothing ; and it was obvious that Austria, .too, could gain nothing by the occupation of so distant a province. France, which had so much to lose, according to the "doctrine of nationalities," had placed on record her linn belief in that idea, and had helped Prussia to become the champion of it for Germany ; the foolish Mexican war, and the state of feeling at home, had in fact hampered Franco so much as to render her almost powerless at this moment. The jealousy between north and south Germany, which The has existed ever since the time of the Reformation, now growth passed into a new phase. Prussia stood forward again as f . the champion of German unity, which had failed in 1848, p OWL1 . though it had never ceased to be the desire of the nation ; and the convention of Gastein, by which Austria retained Holstein, provided a starting-point for a new war in 1866, the " Seven Weeks War." A visit of Count Bismarck to Napoleon in 1865 had shown that great statesman that he had nothing to fear from France ; the second empire seemed paralysed ; Italy hastened to treat at Berlin for the com pletion of her unity, for north Germany and she had the same aims and the same enemies. They both wanted their national life to be completed ; both were struggling, in )arge part, against the Catholic Church ; both had Austria as their chief foe. Thus secured, Bismarck went boldly to war ; and in an incredibly short time had crushed the resistance of Hanover, while he destroyed the Austrian power at Sadovva. The treaty of Prague, under the mediation of The Napoleon III., soon followed. Though the Italians had treaty of been defeated at Custozza in the end of June, Sadowa had 1>KI " C - stricken such a blow at the heart of Austria that she aban doned all thought of further resistance, delivered Venetia over to Napoleon, who restored it at once to Italy, and signed the peace of Prague in August 1866. By this docu ment the old German Confederation was dissolved ; Prussia took full possession of Holstein, and also of Schleswig, under the promise that if the northern or Danish-speaking part of that duchy desired to return to Denmark, it might IX. - 79