The States of the Latin race on their side now put forward strong claims to the universal imperium in order to suppress the German ideas of freedom.  Spain first, then France:  the two soon quarrelled among themselves about the predominance.  At the same time, in Germanized England a firs-class Protestant power was being developed, and the age of discoveries, which coincided roughly with the end of the Reformation and the Thirty Years’ War, opened new and unsuspected paths to human intellect and human energy.  Political life also acquired a fresh stimulus.  Gradually a broad stream of immigrants poured into the newly-discovered districts of America, the northern part of which fell to the lot of the Germanic and the southern part to that of the Latin race.  Thus was laid the foundation of the great colonial empires, and consequently, of world politics.  Germany remained excluded from this great movement, since she wasted her forces in ecclesiastical disputes and religious wars.  On the other hand, in combination with England, the Low Countries and Austria, which latter had at the same time to repel the inroad of Turks from the East, she successfully curbed the French ambition for sovereignty in a long succession of wars.  England by these wars grew to be the first colonial and maritime power in the world.  Germany forfeited large tracts of territory, and lost still more in political power.  She broke up into numerous feeble separate States, which were entirely void of any common sympathy with the German cause.  But this very disintegration lent her fresh strength.  A centre of Protestant power was established in the North—­i.e., Prussia.

After centuries of struggle the Germans had succeeded in driving back the Slavs, who poured in from the East, in wrestling large tracts from them, and in completely Germanizing them.  This struggle, like that with the niggard soil, produced a sturdy race, conscious of its strength, which extended its power to the coasts of the Baltic, and successfully planted Germanic culture in the far North.  The German nation was finally victorious also against Swedes, who disputed the command of the Baltic.  In that war the Great Elector had laid the foundations of a strong political power, which, under his successors, gradually grew into an influential force in Germany.  The headship of Protestant Germany devolved more and more on this state, and a counterpoise to Catholic Austria grew up.  This latter State had developed out of Germany into an independent great Power, resting its supremacy not only on a German population, but also on Hungarians and Slavs.  In the Seven Years’ War Prussia broke away from Catholic Austria and the Empire, and confronted France and Russia as an independent Protestant State.