The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

pointed in their hope, having “received as a reward that which the Magyars received as a punishment,”’ began to look to another quarter for freedom and self-government. Those years were characterised by a bright renascence of national art and literature among the Southern Slavs who now expressed strongly their identical ideals and aspirations in one and the same beautiful idiom. The best and most prominent men in Croatia, such as Bishop Strossmayer and the historian Ratki, cultivated cordial relations with the Princes of Serbia and Montenegro and did everything in their power for the further promotion of a brotherly union of both branches of the Southern Slavs, the Roman Catholics and the Greek Orthodox.

In 1866, having lost Venetia and been ejected from Germany, Austria decided upon a new policy. The Emperor Francis Joseph I, though beaten and humiliated by Germany, always felt and acted as a German. ‘“‘ Doch, ich bin ein Deutscher Fiirst ’ (‘‘ Yes, I am still a German Prince ’’), he said to Napoleon III. After Sadowa it was impossible to govern with the Germans alone, but he never for a moment thought of depriving them of their position as the ruling people in Austria, and of recognising the equal rights of the other nationalities. It was found that the best scheme which would suit both German and Court interests was to reconcile the Magyars by making of them another ruling

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