German history, like the history of France, may be dated from the dissolution of the Frankish Empire. Unlike France, Germany knew no unity until the very latest times. The establishment of the Holy Roman Empire in the tenth century connected the political fortunes of Germany with those of Italy and the Papacy, and the history of the empire is but the history of the separate states within the empire. After 1273, the imperial dignity is held, as a rule, by members of the house of Hapsburg, and the imperial interests become more and more Austrian. Disunion is fostered by the Reformation and perpetuated by the Thirty Years' War. In the eighteenth century, Prussia enters into competition with Austria for leadership in the empire, which, after existing for more than eight hundred years, is dissolved by Napoleon in 1805. The quarrel between Prussia and Austria is fought out in the nineteenth century, and the former triumphs. A new German Empire is formed, differing from the Holy Roman Empire in its national character, and, as the strongest military power on the Continent, occupies a leading place in the European system. See: Germany Prussia Bavaria Lorraine Otho I Holy Roman Empire Henry II Conrad II Henry IV Guelphs and Ghibellines Passau, Treaty of Pragmatic Sanction Maria Theresa Succession Wars (Austrian) Seven Years' War Francis II of Austria Frederick William III Stein Scharnhorst Blücher Gneisenau Leipzig, Battles of Vienna, Congress of Frankfort, Council of Moltke North German Confederation William I Kulturkampf Triple Alliance William II Caprivi Hohenlohe Bülow For the Historians: Dahlmann, F. C. Dahn, F. Droysen, J. G. Dümmler, E. Erdmannsdörffer, B. Gfrörer, A. F. Giesebrecht, F. W. B. Häusser, L. Janssen, J. Lamprecht, K. Maurenbrecher, W. Müller, Johannes Oncken, W. Ranke, L. Raumer, F. L. Sybel, H. Treitschke, H. 4. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. Austria-Hungary is a political unit merely and in no sense a national State, and its history is largely that of the several states that compose it. The relationship to European affairs resulting from the close connection between the house of Austria and the Holy Roman Empire, for five centuries, is best traced under GERMANY, which see. Here, the internal affairs alone will be touched upon, and the history may be summed up in the history of a family, the Hapsburgs, that, starting with small territorial possessions in the Swabian mountains, brought under its sway by conquest or marriage the heart of Central Europe, from the Carpathians to the Alps and from the Vistula to the Danube and the Adriatic Sea. See: (a) For Austria: Austria-Hungary Bohemia Dalmatia Styria Moravia Galicia Albert II Charles V Maximilian II Ferdinand II Thirty Years' War Succession Wars (Spanish) Eugéne, Prince Joseph II Pressburg Vienna, Congress of Metternich Francis II Francis Joseph Seven Weeks' War (b) For Hungary: Hungary Arpad Báthory Louis I Sigismund Hunyady, János Matthias Corvinus Louis II Mohács Zápolya Tökölyi John III, Sobieski Batthyányi Kossuth Bem Dembinski Görgey Mészáros Klapka Haynau (b) For the Historians: Arneth, A. R. Krones, F. Zeissberg, H. 5. THE IBERIAN PENINSULA. One of the richest regions of the Roman Empire, Hispania, was wrested from the Romans by successive waves of barbarian invaders in the fifth century of our era. The Christian Gothic kingdom was overthrown by the Arabs, who developed in the peninsula a civilization that was long the highest in Europe. The remnants of the Christian inhabitants rallied in the northern mountains and a slow but steady process of reconquest was begun, hastened by the dissolution of the Arab Caliphate, retarded by strife among the various Christian kingdoms, completed before the end of the fifteenth century, when the greater part of the peninsula had been brought under one crown. gal alone preserved its independence of Castile. Enriched by the wealth of a newly discovered world and her Lowland possessions, Spain, in the sixteenth century, plays the leading rôle in European affairs and then enters on a course of political and economic decline which has continued to the present day. Portugal and Great Britain. have been friends since the beginning of the eighteenth century. See: (a) For Spain: Spain Iberians Phoenicia Portu Goths and the Byzantines for the possession of Italy. The latter held the south while the north passed from the Goths to the Lombards and the Franks. Constituted with Germany into a shadowy Holy Roman Empire, Italy enters upon a period of utter disunion with the Papal power established in the centre of the peninsula, the north parceled out into independent principalities and republics, the south ruled by Normans, Saracens, French, and Spaniards. The Italian cities rise to great prosperity after the Crusades and become the cradle of the Renaissance. The state of political disintegration continues till the later part of the nineteenth century and Italy suffers from internal strife and foreign domination, Spain and Austria playing the master in the greater part of the peninsula. Union comes to the country from the house of Savoy, whose power, spreading over Sardinia and Piedmont, after a contest with Austria, the Papacy, and Spain, spreads over the entire peninsula. Early Italian history is best studied in the story of separate states and celebrated families. See: Rome Venice Florence Milan Genoa Pisa Lucca Verona Bologna Ravenna Ferrara Naples Papal States Two Sicilies, Kingdom of Sicily Foscari Falieri Malatesta Medici Visconti Colonna Orsini Este Borgia Theodoric the Great Normans Guiscard Charles VIII of France Condottieri Louis XII of France Suvaroff Nelson Murat Carbonari Holy Alliance Victor Emmanuel I Charles Albert Mazzini Young Italy Radetzky Manin Cavour Garibaldi Victor Emmanuel II Villafranca Lamoricière Rattazzi Ricasoli |