said, "unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years." (4) The
French people carried through a revolution and established a
republic--for the third time in their history--which has continued down
to the present.

After 1870 Germany made remarkable material progress. By 1911 her
population had grown from 41,000,000 to 65,000,000. Her coal and iron
production in 1911 was eight times as much as in 1871. In wealth,
commerce, coal production, and textile industries, among European
countries, Germany was second only to Great Britain; while in the
production of iron and steel Germany had passed Great Britain and was
second only to the United States.

But this great industrial and commercial advance was not accompanied
with a corresponding liberality in government. The constitution of the
German Empire gave very large powers to the emperor, and very little
power to the representatives of the people. Prussia, the dominant state
in the empire, had an antiquated system of voting which rated men's
votes according to the taxes they paid, and placed political power in
the hands of a small number of capitalists and wealthy landowners,
especially the Junkers (yoong´kerz), or Prussian nobles. The educational
system, while giving a rudimentary education to all, was really designed
to keep large masses of the people subject to the military group, the
government officials, and the capitalists. Blind devotion to the emperor
and belief in the necessity of future war in order to increase German
prosperity, were widely taught. The "mailed fist" was clenched, and "the
shining sword" rattled in the scabbard whenever Germany thought the
other nations of Europe showed her a lack of respect. Enormous
preparations for war were made in order that Germany might gain from her
neighbors the "place in the sun" which she was determined upon. Other