Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/671

 The Kingdom of Italy and the German Empire 513 state would claim seven of the years of early manhood and have an effective army of four hundred thousand without including men who were approaching middle life. The lower house of the Prussian parliament refused, however, to vote the necessary money for increasing the strength of the army. 915. Bismarck Leader of Prussia ( 1862). The king proceeded, nevertheless, with his plan, and in 1862 called to his side Otto von Bismarck, a Prussian statesman who could carry out that plan despite opposition. The new minister was a Prussian of the Prussians, and he dedicated his great abilities to the single object of Prussianizing all Germany. He believed firmly in the divine right of the Hohenzollern rulers ; he hated parliaments and ex- pressed contempt for the Liberal party, which had striven to create a democratic Germany in 1848. He had every confidence in the mailed fist and shining sword, by which he foresaw that he must gain his. ends. He belonged to the highly conservative group of Prussian landed proprietors, the so-called Junkers, the same class that assumed so much responsibility in precipi- tating the World War in 1914. 916. Four Items in Bismarck's Program. In order to raise Prussia to the position of a dominating European power, Bis- marck perceived that four things were necessary : ( i ) The Prus- sian army must be greatly strengthened, for without that he could not hope to carry out his audacious program. (2) Austria, hith- erto so influential in German affairs, must be pushed out of Ger- many altogether, leaving the field to Prussia. (3) Prussian territory must be enlarged and consolidated by annexing those German states that separated the eastern possessions of the Hohenzollerns from their important holdings on the Rhine. (4) And, lastly, the large South German states, which disliked Prussia and suspected her motives, must in some way be induced to join a union under her headship. The first obstacle that Bismarck met was the refusal of the lower house of the Prussian parliament to grant the money necessary for increasing the army. Bismarck frankly proclaimed, however, that the great questions of the time had to be decided "not by