.

That extraordinary Empire known as the Austrian Hungarian Dual
Monarchy is less an Empire or a Kingdom or a State than the
personal property of the Hapsburgs, whose hereditary talent for
the acquisition of land is recorded on the map of Europe to-day.

For centuries this royal family by treaty, by intrigue, by war,
purchase and marriage has been adding to its dominions, bringing
under its personal rule races who do not understand each other's
language and who differ widely in customs, intellectual
attainments and religion.

The last acquisition of territory by the house of Hapsburg was in
the year 1908, when the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Office boldly
declared that Bosnia and Herzegovina, placed under the protectorate
of Austria-Hungary by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878, had been
annexed to the Empire. The German Kaiser, standing by like a
watching accomplice while the burglary was in progress,
threatened a general European war if any nations protested.

At a time when Prussia was a struggling state, Austria was the
dominant power in Central Europe, but the one battle of Sadowa in
1866 settled for ever the question of supremacy and the German
States like Bavaria, Saxony, Wuertemburg, etc., which stood with
Austria in that war, after receiving a sound beating, ranged
themselves on the side of the victor and, in 1870, joined in
acclaiming the King of Prussia as the First German Emperor.

That event settled the question of leadership in Central Europe
and the dream of the Emperor Frederick who died about the time of
the discovery of America. It was he who wrote the famous anagram
on the vowels A, E, I, O, U.

ustria st mperare rbi niverso
A E I O U
lles rdreich st esterreich nterthan

"It is the fate of Austria to rule the world."

In upper and lower Austria, so-called, there are about twelve
million German Austrians. This territory is comparatively small
and in it lies the city of Vienna. To the north and northeast lie
Bohemia and Moravia, the country of the Tchechs or Szechs of
Slavic blood. These people together number about six million.
Prague is the capital of Bohemia, while in Moravia there is no
great city. For centuries these peoples have been oppressed by
the Austrians and in the Hussite rebellion the lands of Bohemia
and Moravia were parcelled out to the Austrian nobles as well as
to the warlike adventurers who had joined the Austrian armies.