s named Schleswig (shles'vig) and Holstein (hol'stin)
which belonged to the king of Denmark and yet contained a
great many German people. The inhabitants of Schleswig were perhaps
half Danes, while those of Holstein were more than two-thirds Germans.
These Germans had protested against certain actions of the Danish
government, and were threatening to revolt. Taking advantage of this
trouble, Prussia and Austria, as the leading states of the German
Federation, declared war on little Denmark. The Danes fought
valiantly, but were overwhelmed by the armies of their enemies.
Schleswig and Holstein were torn away from Denmark and put under the
joint protection of Austria and Prussia.

This sort of arrangement could not last. Sooner or later, there was
bound to be a quarrel over the division of the plunder. Now Bismarck
had a chance to show his crafty diplomacy. He made up his mind to
crush Austria and put Prussia in her place as the leader of the German
states. He first negotiated with Napoleon III, Emperor of the French,
and made sure that this monarch would not interfere. Next he
remembered that the provinces of Venetia, Trentino, and Istria still
belonged to Austria, as the Italians had failed to gain them in the
war of 1859. Accordingly, Bismarck induced Italy to declare war on
Austria by promising her Venetia and the other provinces in return for
her aid. Saxony, Bavaria, and Hanover were friendly to Austria, but
Bismarck did not fear them. He knew that his army, under the
leadership of its celebrated general, von Moltke, was more than a
match for the Austrians, Bavarians, etc., combined.

When Bismarck was ready, Prussia and Italy struck. The Austrians were
successful at first against the Italians, but at Sadowa in Bohemia,
their armies were beaten in a tremendous battle by the Prussians.
Austria was put down from her place as the leader of the German
Confederation, and Prussia took the leadership. Hanover, whose king
had sided with the Austrians, was annexed to Prussia. The king of
Prussia and several of his generals were anxious to rob Austria of
some of her territory, as had been the custom in the past whenever one
nation defeated another in war. Bismarck, however, restrained them. In
his program of making Prussia the leading military state in Europe, he
saw that his next opponent would be France, and he did not propose, on
attacking France, to find his army assailed in the rear by the
revengeful Austrians. Accordi