When Bismarck was ready, Prussia and Italy struck.  The Austrians were successful at first against the Italians, but at Sadowa in Bohemia, their armies were beaten in a tremendous battle by the Prussians.  Austria was put down from her place as the leader of the German Confederation, and Prussia took the leadership.  Hanover, whose king had sided with the Austrians, was annexed to Prussia.  The king of Prussia and several of his generals were anxious to rob Austria of some of her territory, as had been the custom in the past whenever one nation defeated another in war.  Bismarck, however, restrained them.  In his program of making Prussia the leading military state in Europe, he saw that his next opponent would be France, and he did not propose, on attacking France, to find his army assailed in the rear by the revengeful Austrians.  Accordingly, Bismarck compelled the king to let Austria off without any loss of territory except Venetia, which was given to the Italians.  Austria was even allowed to retain Trentino and Istria, and was not required to pay a large indemnity to Prussia. (A custom which had come down from the middle ages, when cities which were captured had been obliged to pay great sums of money, in order to get rid of the conquering armies, was the payment of a war indemnity by the defeated nation.  This was a sum of money as large as the conquerors thought they could safely force their victims to pay.) The Austrians, although they were angry over the manner in which Bismarck had provoked the war, nevertheless appreciated the fact that he was generous in not forcing harsh terms upon them, as he could have done had he wanted to.

The eyes of all Europe now turned toward the coming struggle between Prussia and France.  It was plain that it was impossible for two men like Bismarck and Emperor Napoleon to continue in power very long without coming to blows.  It was Bismarck’s ambition, as was previously said, to make Prussia the leading military nation of Europe, and he knew that this meant a struggle with Napoleon.  You will remember also that he planned a united Germany, led by Prussia, and he felt that the French war would bring this about.  On the other hand, the French emperor was extremely jealous of the easy victory that Prussia and Italy had won over Austria.  He had been proud of the French army, and wanted it to remain the greatest fighting force in Europe.  He was just as anxious for an excuse to attack Prussia as Bismarck was for a pretext to attack him.

It should be kept in mind that all this time there was no ill-feeling between the French people and the Germans.  In fact, the Germans of the Rhine country were very friendly to France, and during Napoleon’s time had been given more liberties and had been governed better than under the rule of their former feudal lords.  All the hostility and jealousy was between the military chiefs.  Even Bismarck did not dislike the French.  He had no feeling toward them at all.  It was part of his program that their military power should be crushed and his program must be carried through.  Europe, to his mind, was too small to contain more than one master military power.