with whom he had to deal. The main object of his foreign policy
was to preserve the prestige of the German army as the chief instrument of
power in Central Europe, and to allow the new Germany, after three wars in
seven years, time to develop in peace and to consolidate her position as
one of the Great Powers.

The situation was not an easy one; for Germany's rapid rise to power,
and the methods by which she had acquired it, had not made her popular.
Bismarck's foreign policy was defensive throughout, and he pursued it along
two lines. He sought to strengthen Germany by alliances, and to weaken her
rivals by embroiling them with one another. The great fruit of his policy
was the formation, completed in 1882, of the Triple Alliance between
Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.

There was nothing sentimental about the Triple Alliance. The Italians hate
the Austrians, whom they drove out of Venice as recently as 1866, while
neither the German Austrians nor the other races in the Dual Monarchy have
any love lost for the Prussians. But Bismarck decided that this combination
was the safest in Germany's interest: so he set to work to play upon
Austria's fear of Russia, and to embroil Italy with France in North Africa;
and his manoeuvres were duly rewarded.

But this was not sufficient. Faced with the implacable hostility of France,
on account of the lost provinces, Bismarck saw danger of trouble from a
French Coalition with the two remaining Great Powers, Britain and Russia.
Bismarck never liked England; but he never made his successors' mistake of
despising her. He cultivated good relations, but he rejected the idea of an
alliance, because, as he said, "the English constitution is not compatible
with treaties of assured continuity." In other words, he fought shy of
British democracy, which he felt to be an incalculable factor. This threw
him back upon Russia.

The relations between the German and the Russian peoples have never been
cordial. But between the reactionary bureaucracies of the Prussian and
Russian governments there was a strong bond of mutual interest, which
Bismarck exploited to the full. Both had popular movements to hold in
check, both had stolen goods to guard in the shape of their Polish
possessions, and both had an interest in the preservation of reactionary
institutions. The influence of Prussia upon Russia, and of the efficient,
highly-organised, relentless Prussian machine upon the arbitrary,
tyrannical