Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/39

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To all this we must add that besides its Emperor, Austria obtained a second ruler in the person of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who in 1896 became heir to the throne, just about the time when Germany was embarking on her fatal naval policy. The imperialistic tendencies which at this period seized on all the Great Powers, began from that date to be felt in Austria too. Austria, however, could have no designs on oversea dominion. Austrian imperialism, like the Russian, sought to extend its territories on land. That was best to be attained in the south by conquering the road to Salonika, a policy which required that Albania and Serbia should be turned into an Austrian colony. What no State in Europe had dared to attempt since 1871, since the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine—the forcible incorporation against its will of a politically independent population—this was what the senile though extensive Power of Austria now undertook to accomplish through the systematic maltreatment of the small but youthfully vigorous State of Serbia.

Franz Ferdinand, young, energetic and even reckless, who knew no need of repose, no vacillations between concession and suppression, but built on force alone, became the incorporation of these imperialist tendencies, which he was able to emphasize all the more since, as the Emperor grew older, the influence of his heir with the army and on foreign policy increased. Since 1906, when Goluchowski was superseded by Aehrenthal, foreign policy was directed by Franz Ferdinand.

Ignorant braggarts, he and his tools did not shrinz from the grossest provocations, caring nothing that they were thus challenging Russia, the protector of Serbia, and endangering the peace of the world. Why Rh