Page:The Science of History and the Hope of Mankind.djvu/54



relations of all states. The rivalry of the French monarchs with the Austro-Spanish Habsburgs, the predominance of France as the power in Europe and dictator in European politics, and the conflicts of the German Emperors with the Turks, gave the Markgrafs of the borderlands of the Empire and the Slavs of the outlying regions opportunities to acquire an independent status in international diplomacy. The rising into importance of these puisne states necessarily limited the range of the ambition of the older peoples and circumscribed the field of their activity. In this way the decay of Sweden, Austria, and Turkey, the humiliation of the Emperor, wars of the Reformation, and the rise and development of new powers were due to the mutual influences upon one