the close of the struggle, and became integral features of a new
era.

During the five years that followed the close of the Franco-
Prussian war, European diplomacy spent its strength in en-
deavouring to adapt itself to the new situation. But it was
difficult for Europe to believe that the future was to be one of
peace. Inasmuch as three great wars had destroyed the illu-
sions of the earlier period, and for more than twenty years, war
and the rumour of war had kept the diplomatic world in a state
of constant unrest, it seemed reasonable to suppose that the new
leader, with his seat at Berlin, might continue the aggrandising
policy of the recent past, invade the adjacent German-speaking
countries, and annex them to the new Empire in order to make
complete the unity of the German nationality; or that Ger-
many, anticipating the French desire for revenge, and seeing
in the rapid recovery of that country a menace to her own in-
tegrity, might undertake a new war for the protection of the
new Reichsland, and for the purpose of obtaining new milliards
of indemnity. That such thoughts were in the minds of politi-
cal writers and thinkers of this period, there is abundant evi-
dence to prove. In 1873, alarmists predicted that Germany
would interfere in the civil war in Carthagena; in 1875, that a
conflict would break out between Germany and Belgium; and
most important of all, they felt certain of the approach of war
with France, when in 1875, after the French Assembly had
passed a military law reorganising the army, certain diplomatic
queries gave rise to exaggerated newspaper reports regarding
the relations between the two countries. But a renewal of the
war of 1870 was in the highest degree improbable; for Germany
was the head and arbiter of the new European system, and her
Emperor and chancellor, having accomplished the purpose for
which they had entered into war, had no further desire to dis-
turb the peace. In his speech of January 18, 1871, Emperor
William had struck the keynote of the new policy: "I wish to

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