THE WORLD WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 April 1920, Page 9

THE WORLD WAR.

ITS DIPLOMATIC BACKGROUND. (By A. L. King.) NO. 1. THE BISMARCKIAN VICTORIES AND ALLIANCES. Now that the war is over, it may not be amiss to consider calmly some of the diplomatic features that led up to it. Undoubtedly the diplomatic hegemony secured for Germany by the adroit diplomacy of Bismarck constituted one of the fundamental causes of the great world war. By his unscrupulous cunning and his policy of "blood and iron," Bismarck brought about the unification of Germany—an age-long drenm that the German people, owing t.o the autocratic! pride and stubbornness of their princes, had never been able to effect by peaceful, democratic means. To accomplish his purpose, Bismarck fought three highly successful wars, the glory and intoxication of which went a Ion" way to turn Germany's head- °

Jn conjunction with Austria, he fcu»ht little Denmark in ISG4. With two large I owersattacking a small nation, the inevitable quickly happened and Denmark was soon beaten, and forced to surrender the duchies of stein, containing the- splendid harbo* of Kiel.

THE WAR OP IS6G. Then, as he had previously planned, over the disposition of the spoils of Schleswig-Holstein, Bismarck squabbled with Austria for the leadership of the ■erman people. The Anstrians, armei: with the muzzle-loader, were no match tor die i russians equipped with the new needle-gun, which could fire-three shots 10 , on P , tlu ' Austrian muzzle-loader, and at koniggratz, or Sadowa, tlio pride ot the main Austrian armv went down m overwhelming defeat. 'Prussia was now the leading Germanic State and Bismarck calmly proceeded to annex Hanover and some five smaller States He also formed the North German .Confederation, with Prussia at its head'. But in order to bring in the South icrman States and thus effect a united icrmany, Bismarck determined to IHit Mother war, preferably with France. He now devoted all the powers of his evil though masterly genius to the weaving of a diplomatic web in which lo entrap I'rance, his purpose bmmr - n isolate her and to make her appear" the aggressor. THE "EMS TELEGRAM." It has often been related how he "edited"' the famous Ems despatch whereby, without the addition of a single word, he so altered the sense as to make it appear that the interview between the French Ambassador, Count Bernedetti, and King Wil'--n I. at Ems, in which the King had-,. nrtcously but firmly refused the >f Bernedetti that no Hohenzollem be permitted to reign on the Spanish throne, had been a stormy one, in which Bernedetti had been virtually insulted. This edited despatch Bismarck now published, on July 14, 1870, as ''a. red flag to the Gallic bull. The angry effect was precisely what Bismarck intended. Frenzied crowds surged up and down the'boulevards of Paris, clamoring for wat. The French Government declared war on July 19.

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR. Napoleon 111. had expected that the m T f rman States—Bavaria, Baden, Wurtemburg—which were jealous of i russia, would join him in the war against her. But the astute Bismarck, m his carefully studied policy of isolat- ° Flan ce, had seen to it that they were educated to look upon her as their common arid hereditary enemy; and on tl!! v " fttlou of war they joined with tilt Aorth against France. France was wretchedly prepared for !' h . er « rm ies were badly equipped and miserably led. On the ither hand, •bismarck in conjunction with Boon, as Minister for War, and Moltke, the first °t the new modern line of scientific generals as Chief of Staff, had made the most elaborate preparations, which were unprecedented in history and almost uncanny in their details. The consequence was that the German armies \ e ?r e them; antl 011 January sHI, "i ! e tll(! Gern >an guns were stui thundering against Paris, there «as staged in the Palace of Versailles an historic* scene fraught, as time, has unown, with momentous consequences to posterity, when King William I. of Prussia was offerad and accepted tlte imperial Crown of a united Germany. The . ™ ,lream of German unity, Bismarck »ad realised in less than a decade, by a policy of trickery and brute force.

GERMAN HEGEMONY IX EUROPE. The full effect, of the German victories was not realised until the beginning of the twentieth century. They had given •ermany a new and remarkable prcst'Re. Riding in on the rising tide of military glory, she had leaped into the position of the leading Continental Power. This hegemony or prestige, Bismarck was determined to maintain, fearing the coalition against; him of some State with France, which was naturally burning for revenge, Bismarck ' e .ermmed to create alliances of his own. LEAGUE OP THE THREE EMPERORS • irS '' ven,m ' ft was the formation. H 1 "f the League of the Three , Perors, between Germany, Austria (with whom he had effected a reconciliation), and Russia. But two crises demonstrated that this League could not be us»d to isolate Trance, First

in .187:',, when with the proclamation of (ho .French Republic, France increased lier army, ami Berlin, interpreting tills as an indication of the coining war of revenge, rattled the sabre menacingly. |Bnt together with England, intervened and prevented the threatened ■ attack.

Again in 187S, at the conclusion of the Rnsso-I urkish \\ ar, (he international congress of Berlin, with Bismarck in .the chair, gave Russia practically nothing as the result ol her victories, while Austria was granted permission to occupy and administer Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bismarck was really indifferent to the Eastern question, declaring it to be not worth the hones of a Pomeranian grenadier," and he probably tried, as he professed, to act the "honest broker." However, angry with Austria and annoyed with Bismarck, Kussin withdrew from the league of the Three Emperors, which was dissolved.

THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE. • In October of the next year, 1870, Bismarck entered into an alliance with Austria, whereby he wa~ assured of Austrian help should Russia join France in an attack on Herman v. Three years later, in 1882, he strengthened this alliance by the inclusion of Italy.' Italy really had nothing in common with the Central Powers. Italia irredenta (unredeemed 'ltaly), comprising Trieste and Trentino, was still in Austrian hands, while the economic and maritime interests of both countries clashed acutely in the Adriatic and on the Albanian coast.

But Italy hail feed her eyes upon Tunis as a compensation for French success in Algeria, and when in ISSI France sent an expedition to Tunis and established over it a French protectorate, Bismarck experienced little trouble in persuading Italy, angry over the French action, to throw in her lot with the Central Powers.

Htc next article will deal ■with tlie results of tlie Bismarckian alliances and Germany's enormous expansion.