Here was another and seemingly a much better opportunity. The
Balkan War had almost accomplished the conquest of the great
Turkish capital and left Turkey in a state of serious weakness.
If Europe should be thrown into the throes of a general war, in
which every nation would have its own interests to care for,
Russia's opportunity to seize upon the prize for which she had so
long sought was an excellent one, there being no one in a
position to say her nay. To Russia the possession of
Constantinople was like the possession of a new world, and this
may well have been her secret motive in springing without
hesitation into the war. Her long-sought prize hung temptingly
within reach of her hand, the European counterpart of the "Monroe
Doctrine" could not now be evoked to stay her grasp, and it seems
highly probable that in this may have lain the chief cause of
Russia's participation in the war.

FRANCE'S HATRED OF GERMANY

The Republic of France was less hasty than Russia and Germany in
issuing a declaration of war. Yet there, too, the order of
mobilization was quickly issued and French troops were on the
march toward the German border before Germany had taken a similar
step. France had not forgotten her humiliation in 1870. So far
was she from forgetting it that she cherished a vivid
recollection of what she had lost and an equally vivid enmity
towards Germany in consequence. Enmity is hardly the word. Hatred
better fits the feeling entertained. And this was kept vitally
alive by the fact that Alsace and Lorraine, two of her former
provinces, still possessing a considerable French population,
were now held as part of the dominions of her enemy. The sore