Page:Democratic Ideals and Reality (1919).djvu/167

Rh to the North Sea that Venice and the Netherlands may lie to the west, and also that part of Germany which has been German from the beginning of European history, but so that Berlin and Vienna are to the east, for Prussia and Austria are countries which the German has conquered and more or less forcibly Teutonised. On the map thus divided let us 'think through' the history of the last four generations; it will assume a new coherency.

Dingbat 001.jpg Dingbat 001.jpg Dingbat 001.jpg Dingbat 001.jpg Dingbat 001.jpg

The English Revolution limited the powers of Monarchy, and the French Revolution asserted the rights of the People. Owing to disorder in France, and her invasion from abroad, the organiser Napoleon was thrown up. Napoleon conquered Belgium and Switzerland, surrounded himself with subsidiary kings in Spain, Italy, and Holland, and made an alliance with the subordinate Federation of the Rhine, or, in other words, with the old Germany. Thus Napoleon had united the whole of West Europe, saving only insular Britain. Then he advanced against East Europe, and defeated Austria and Prussia, but did not annex them, though he compelled them to act as his allies when he afterwards went forward against Russia. We