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Rh word they wished for a federal Austria, without renouncing for ever the realisation of their supreme goal—the complete independence of their country.

But the constitution granted by the Emperor in February 1861 was, on the contrary, essentially centralistic; moreover, the system of election sought to reduce the Slav element throughout the Empire to impotence. The throne continued its historic aim of uniting under its sceptre the whole of Greater Germany—and this programme necessitated the annihilation of all the Slavs.

Even the defeat of Sadova did not put an end to this mad policy, and after Sadova the Court of Vienna would not renounce its hegemony in the German lands, and began to think of revenge. However, worn out by war and internal struggles, the Habsburgs were obliged to grant concessions to the Magyars, and in 1867 the Emperor consented to divide the Monarchy into two States each under a centralised government. This was, after all, the inevitable and final act of a historic evolution. This combination had the advantage for Francis Joseph and the Magyars of subduing the Slavs. The Austrian Slavs were given over to the Germans, those of Hungary to the Magyars. Divide et impera was always the motto of the Viennese government.

Then the fight between the Czechs and Vienna began anew. The creation of the German Empire c