Denmark, not, as they had required, in
support of Augustenburg, but on the ground that the king of Denmark had
violated his promise not to oppress his German subjects. Austria
continued to act with Prussia, and, after the defeat of the Danes, at
the peace of Vienna the sovereignty of the duchies was surrendered to
the two allies--the first step towards annexation by Prussia. There is
no part of Bismarck's diplomatic work which deserves such careful study
as these events. Watched as he was by countless enemies at home and
abroad, a single false step would have brought ruin and disgrace on
himself; the growing national excitement would have burst through all
restraint, and again, as fifteen years before, Germany divided and
unorganized would have had to capitulate to the orders of foreign powers
(see SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN QUESTION).

War with Austria.

The peace of Vienna left him once more free to return to his older
policy. For the next eighteen months he was occupied in preparing for
war with Austria. For this war the was alone responsible; he undertook
it deliberately as the only means of securing Prussian ascendancy in
Germany. The actual cause of dispute was the disposition of the
conquered duchies, for Austria now wished to put Augustenburg in as
duke, a plan to which Bismarck would not assent. In 1865 a provisional
arrangement was made by the treaty of Gastein, for Bismarck was not yet
ready. He would not risk a war unless he was certain of success, and for
this he required the alliance of Italy and French support; both he
secured during the next year. In October 1865 he visited Napoleon at
Biarritz and Paris. No formal treaty was made, but Napoleon promised to
regard favourably an extension of Prussian power in Germany; while
Bismarck led the emperor to believe that Prussia would help him in
extending the frontier of France. A treaty of alliance with Italy was
arranged in the spring of 1866; and Bismarck then with much difficulty
overcame the reluctance of the king to embark in a war with his old
ally. The results of the war entirely justified his calculations.
Prussia, though opposed by all the German states except a few
principalities in the north, completely defeated all her enemies, and at
the end of a few weeks the whole of Germany lay at her feet.

Settlement of 1866.

The war of 1866 is more than that of 1870 the crisis of modern German
history. It finally settled the controversy which had begun