Page:Namier The case of Bohemia (1917).pdf/6

 the trials of centuries; and yet by the logic of history the common war-aim of all those who fight on the side of the Entente is now closely bound up with the cause of this most isolated of nations. The international position of Bohemia after the war will be the truest test of victory.

The war broke out over an attempt on the part of the Central States to lay down the law to Europe on a question in which the interests of other nations were known to be involved. For the Germans and Magyars, what was behind it was a problem of power, not of territory. Very soon, however, power came to be conceived in terms of territory. German and Magyar dominion was to be secured by cessions of land such as would for the future incapacitate their opponents. On the other hand, the nations represented by the Entente now naturally bethought themselves of their unredeemed lands remaining under German or Magyar rule; claims of nationality, which for fear of war had been left dormant for generations or even centuries, sprang to life once war had broken out. The original Germanic programme in the war was expansion all round; that of the Allied States was the attainment of national unity.

The events of the next fifteen months, their failures and successes, transformed the programme of the Central Powers; a vague principle changed into a clear and definite scheme. For years German policy had suffered from a