with Italy. In
that country was a large party which, under the name of the "Irredentists,"
demanded that those Italian-speaking districts, South Tirol, Istria and
Trieste, which were under Austrian rule, should be joined to Italy; there
were public meetings and riots in Italy; the Austrian flag was torn down
from the consulate in Venice and the embassy at Rome insulted. The
excitement spread across the frontier; there were riots in Trieste, and in
Tirol it was necessary to make some slight movement of troops as a sign
that the Austrian government was determined not to surrender any territory.
For a short time there was apprehension that the Italian government might
not be strong enough to resist the movement, and might even attempt to
realize these wishes by means of an alliance with Russia; but the danger
quickly passed away.

[Sidenote: Alliance with Germany.]

In the year 1879 the European position of the monarchy was [v.03 p.0020]
placed on a more secure footing by the conclusion of a formal alliance with
Germany. In the autumn of that year Bismarck visited Vienna and arranged
with Andrassy a treaty by which Germany bound herself to support Austria
against an attack from Russia, Austria-Hungary pledging herself to help
Germany against a combined attack of France and Russia; the result of this
treaty, of which the tsar was informed, was to remove, at least for the
time, the danger of war between Austria-Hungary and Russia. It was the last
achievement of Andrassy, who had already resigned, but it was maintained by
his successor, Baron Haymerle, and after his death in 1881 by Count
Kalnoky. It was strengthened in 1882 by the adhesion of Italy, for after
1881 the Italians required support, owing to the French occupation of
Tunis, and after five years it was renewed. Since that time it has been the
foundation on which the policy of Austria-Hungary has depended, and it has
survived all dangers arising either from commercial differences (as between
1880 and 1890) or national discord. The alliance was naturally very popular
among the German Austrians; some of them went so far as to attempt to use
it to influence internal policy, and suggested that fidelity to this
alliance required that there should be a ministry at Vienna which supported
the Germans in their internal struggle with the Slavs; they represented it
as a national alliance of the Teutonic races, and there were some Germans
in the empire who supported them in thi