In France also hostility to Germany was increased by the conditions in Alsace-Lorraine.  Frenchmen could not forget that they had been robbed of these provinces.  Hope was kept alive that some day they might be won back.  In the city of Paris, in the Place de la Concorde, there are eight large marble statues each representing a great city of France.  One of these represents Strassburg, the chief city of Alsace.  Every year, on July 14, the national holiday of France, the people of Paris have placed a wreath of mourning on this statue.  This custom expresses the sorrow of France for the loss of her eastern provinces, as well as her hope that some day they may be restored.

ITALIA IRREDENTA.—­Italia Irreden’ta in the Italian language means “unredeemed Italy.”  It refers to the territory adjoining Italy on the north and northeast, occupied by Italians but not yet redeemed from foreign rule.

[Illustration:  Map of Italia Irredenta]

When in 1871 the kingdom of Italy took its present form through the union of former Italian states (Chapter I), Italia Irredenta remained under the rule of Austria.  Italians feel, however, that Italian unity is not complete so long as adjoining lands inhabited by Italian-speaking people are ruled by foreign governments.  So they regard these lands as “unredeemed.”

Italia Irredenta consists chiefly of the Trentino (tren-tee’no), a triangle of territory dipping down into the north of Italy, and some land around the northern end of the Adriatic including the important city of Trieste.  Both of these regions are ruled by Austria.  For many years this situation has led to ill feeling between the two countries.  While it has not had so direct a bearing on the outbreak of the World War as the question of Alsace-Lorraine, it nevertheless largely explains the entrance of Italy into the war on the side of the Allies.

RUSSIA AND THE BOSPORUS.—­Still another situation which in the years before the war was the cause of international jealousies was Russia’s long-standing ambition to control Constantinople on the Bos’porus.  As Constantinople is the capital of the Turkish Empire, the continued existence of that state, at least on the continent of Europe, was threatened by Russia’s purpose.  Russia has long been in need of an ice-free port as an outlet for her commerce.  Archangel (ark’[=a]n’jel) in the north is ice-bound most of the year.  Vladivostok’, her port on the Pacific, is ice-bound for three months of the year.  Russian trade by way of the Baltic must pass through waters controlled by other countries.  Naturally she has turned toward the Bosporus and Dardanelles (dar-da-nelz’)—­the straits connecting the Black Sea with the Mediterranean—­as the natural outlet for her trade, and this explains her desire to possess Constantinople.