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158 British naval power continued the while to envelop West Europe from Heligoland, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Gibraltar, and Malta. By changes precipitated in the years 1830 to 1832 the temporary reaction in the West was brought to an end, and the middle classes came into power in Britain, France, and Belgium. In the years from 1848 to 1850 the democratic movement spread eastward of the Rhine, and Central Europe was ablaze with the ideas of freedom and nationality, but from our point of view two events, and two only, were decisive. In 1849 the Russian Armies advanced into Hungary and put the Magyars back into their subjection to Vienna, thereby enabling the Austrians to reassert their supremacy over the Italians and Bohemians. In 1850 took place that fatal conference at Olmütz when Russia and Austria refused to allow the King of Prussia to accept the All-German Crown which had been offered to him from Frankfurt in the West. Thus the continuing unity of East Europe was asserted, and the Liberal movement from the Rhineland was definitely balked.

In 1860 Bismarck, who had been at Frankfurt, and who had also been Ambassador in Paris and Petrograd, was called to power at Berlin, and resolved to base German unity