German dominance in Austria, it should be added, meant a close alliance with the German Empire; and every fresh effort of the subject races to emancipate themselves from Germanising or Magyarising tendencies forged the chains of the alliance closer and increased the dependence of the Magyar oligarchy upon Berlin.  As in mediaeval times, so in the twentieth century Habsburg policy is explained by two famous Latin mottoes—­Viribus unitis ("Union is strength”) and Divide et impera ("Divide and rule").  Between these two watchwords Francis Joseph and his advisers have wavered for sixty-five years.

What then are the forces which have held Austria-Hungary together under Francis Joseph?  First unquestionably comes the dynasty; for it would be difficult to over-estimate the power exercised by the dynastic tradition on the many races under Habsburg sway.  Next comes the Joint Army; for there is no finer body of men in Europe than the Austrian officers’ corps, poorly paid, hard-worked, but inspired to the last man with unbounded devotion to the Imperial house, and to a large extent immune from that spirit of caste which is the most offensive feature of the allied German army.[1] Hardly less important are the Catholic Church, with its vast material resources and its powerful influence on peasant, small tradesman and court alike, and the bureaucracy, with its traditions of red tape, small-mindedness, slowness of movement and genial Gemuetlichkeit ("easy-goingness").  It is only after these forces that we can fairly count the parliaments and representative government.  And yet there are no fewer than twenty-three legislative bodies in the Monarchy—­the two central parliaments of Vienna and Budapest, entirely distinct from each other; the two Delegations; the provincial Diets, seventeen in Austria, one in Croatia; and the Diet of Bosnia, whose every legislative act requires the ratification of the Joint Minister of Finance and of the Austrian and Hungarian Governments.

[Footnote 1:  It is in no way a “preserve” of the aristocracy, being largely recruited from the middle and even lower-middle class.]

Against all this there is one supremely disintegrating force—­the principle of Nationality.  Only a map can make clear the racial complications of the Dual Monarchy, and even the largest scale map fails to show how inextricably the various races are interwoven in many districts of Hungary or Bohemia.  The following table offers at least a statistical survey: 

(1) Racial—­ Austria.  Hungary.  Bosnia. 
  Germans 9,950,266 2,037,435 .. 
  Czechs {6,435,983 .. .. 
  Slovaks { 1,967,970 .. 
  Poles 4,967,984 .. .. 
  Ruthenes 3,518,854 472,587 .. 
  Magyars (including
  900,000 Jews) .. 10,050,575