ore Austria-Hungary withdrew from the international concert
and devoted itself to its internal difficulties which seemed to
increase in frequency and violence as the years passed by. It was
not until the summer of 1912 that it again became active in
connection with foreign politics. Then, when the Balkan question had
become acute, the Austrian Foreign Minister, Count Berchtold,
suggested to the other powers that they combine for the purpose of
settling the Balkan disputes. The suggestion was accepted and
although it did not succeed in avoiding war between the different
Balkan States themselves, it, at least, localized this war and kept
the rest of Europe out of it.

Of course, Austrian diplomats were busily occupied throughout this
entire period in guarding their country's interests, and
Constantinople especially was the scene of many a diplomatic battle
between Austria-Hungary and the other powers. From time to time
relations with Russia became somewhat strained on account of the
conflicting interests of the two countries in the Balkans. But in
spite of this conditions were friendly enough to permit an
arrangement between these two powers in March, 1913, whereby they
agreed on the demobilization of their respective forces along the
Russo-Austrian border.

The murder of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne, and
his wife during a visit at Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, however,
changed immediately Austria-Hungary's attitude toward Serbia. Like
one man the country rose and demanded the punishment of the
murderers and of the nation which, it was claimed, had planned and
financed the murder, Serbia. Racial differences and dissensions of
long standing were forgotten and forgiven over night, as it were,
and a country, more solidified than at any other period in its
history, stood behind its Emperor Francis Joseph, a man who
throughout his life of more than eighty years--of which more than
three-fourths were spent on the throne--had suffered all the
disappointments and sorrows that can come to a man, but had never
lost the trust and love of his subjects.

CHAPTER III

RUSSIA

In the middle of the nineteenth century the Russian Empire, in spite
of its vast extent and resources, played a comparatively negligible
part in international politics. To a certain extent this was the
result of the Crimean War. But still more was it due to the internal
difficulties which were so many and so serious that they k