the six great powers,
Bismarck saw that he could make good use of her for his own purposes.
The adroitness by which he drew her into his net is in direct contrast
to the bovine diplomacy by which Kaiser William II. and his
subservient Chancellors have succeeded, during the past twenty years,
in smashing all their alliances and in alienating the sympathy of the
civilized world.

After the completion of Italian unity in 1870, the new Italian Kingdom
found itself harassed not only by the many details of solidifying the
civil Government, but also by the perplexities of international
relations. The abolition of the Pope's temporal power made her, in
theory at least, an object of odium to zealous Roman Catholics
throughout the world. Her nearest neighbors--France and
Austria--having long been the most loyal supporters of the head of the
Roman Church, Italy could not be sure that either or both of them
might not intrigue against her in behalf of the restoration of the
Papacy. There was also in Italy a group of patriotic Jingoes--the
Irredentists--bent on "redeeming" from Austria territory whose
inhabitants they claimed were Italian in language, ideals, and
situation. The Irredentist propaganda naturally increased the rancor
which Austria felt toward the Italians over whom she had recently
despotized.

When Crispi, who was passing from his earlier character of conspirator
and Radical to that of constitutional statesman, made the tour of the
European Chancelleries, in 1877, he found Bismarck profuse in his
expression of good-will toward Italy. If we are to believe Crispi, the
Chancellor was ready then to draw up a treaty with her, and went so
far as to hint that he approved of Italy's aspirations. Among these
were the possession of Tunis and a foothold on the east coast of the
Adriatic. The next year, at the Berlin Congress, however, Italy's
interests were ignored, and, instead, Austria was encouraged to extend
her dominion south of the Balkans, and the French were at least not
discouraged from coveting a stronger position in the Mediterranean.

Finally, in 1882, France seized Tunis, to the immense indignation of
the Italians, who had come to regard that as their predestined
province. For it lay only a few hours by steamer from the southern
coast of Sicily; it commanded the passage between the western and
eastern Mediterranean; and, above all, it was the symbol of Italy's
colonial ambition. To have a colony, if not several,