Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/673

 The Kingdom oj Italy and the German Empire 515 Austria tried to call out the troops of the German Confederation against Prussia, and Prussia declared the union of 1815 dissolved. 918. Speedy Victory of Prussia over Austria (ises). On June 12, 1866, Prussia formally declared war on Austria. Almost all the German rulers took sides against the Hohenzollern aggres- sion, but the powerful Prussian army was ready for immediate action, so that, in spite of the suspicion and even hatred which the Liberal party in Prussia entertained for the autocratic Bis- marck, all resistance on the part of the states of the North was promptly prevented. Austria was defeated on July 3 in the deci- sive battle of Sadowa, and within three weeks after the breaking off of diplomatic relations the war was practically over. The in- fluence of Austria was at an end, and Prussia had proved her power to do with Germany as she pleased. 919. The North German Federation. Prussia was aware that the larger states south of the Main River were not ripe for the union that she desired. She therefore organized a so-called North German Federation, which included all the states north of the Main. Prussia had grasped the opportunity to increase her own boundaries and round out her territory by seizing the North German states, with the exception of Saxony, that had gone to war against her. Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Nassau, and the free city of Frankfort, along with the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, all were added to the kingdom of the Hohenzollerns. 920. Formation of the Austro-Hungarian Dual State. After Austria had been expelled from Germany in 1866 the relations between the Austrian Empire and the kingdom of Hungary were adjusted by a compromise. Francis Joseph agreed to regard him- self as ruling over two separate and practically independent states: (i) Austria, including seventeen provinces Upper and Lower Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Carinthia, and the rest; and (2) Hun- gary, including Croatia and Slavonia. Each of these two states had its own parliament, one at Vienna, the other at Pesth. But the dual state was to have one army and a sort of joint parlia- ment to manage the affairs common to both parts of the union. In spite of a great deal of discontent on the part of the Slavic