THE NEW ALIGNMENT IN EUROPEAN POLITICS.
What the Oakland “Tribune” Has to Say of the European Kaleidoscope—the Uncertainty of the European Outlook from a Human View-point.
It is interesting to note how Emperor William has completely reversed the foreign policy of Bismarck, and at the same time radically altered the political conditions resulting from the Bismarckian policy. Internal complications caused the repeal of the Falk anti-clerical laws and the resumption of intimate friendly relations with the Papacy, but entirely different motives have prompted the cultivation of friendly relations with Russia. The growing German antagonism to Great Britain is undoubtedly at the bottom of that. But, as Germany gets closer to Russia and the Vatican, France gets closer to the kingdom of Italy and England gets closer to France. While France is driving out the religious congregations, Germany is inviting the Jesuits to return. The emperor of Germany goes again to Canossa to make his peace with the supreme pontiff, and the president of France goes in state to visit the king of Italy, who is on ill terms with his holiness. It is like a fancy dance in which partners change and all waltz. After the fall of Paris and the crowning of William I. to be the emperor of the reorganized German Empire, Bismarck found England, France, and Russia mutually antagonistic. There was a hereditary antagonism between France and England that had existed since the days of the Plantagenets, and Russia had bitter feelings against both since the Crimean War. The Papacy was at outs with the kingdom of Italy on account of the seizure of the temporal dominions of the church and the sequestration of the property appertaining to the civil government of the papal states. Bismarck hated the church, which was closely allied to France. He desired to humble the successor of Hildebrand, and he also desired to keep France isolated. He was jealous of Russia, and looked forward to the dismemberment of Austria and the ultimate absorption of the German provinces of the dual monarchy by the newly-formed German Empire. So he constructed the Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria, and Italy, and bade defiance to the Papacy. By this stroke he isolated both France and Russia and hoped he had eliminated British influence from European continental politics. However, when he decided to humble Russia after the Balkan War, he found that he had to take Great Britain into partnership. Disraeli, a far-seeing opportunist, was the central figure at the Berlin Conference, and not the Iron Chancellor, and Great Britain emerged from the scene of Russia’s humiliation with greater prestige than Germany. It rankled in Bismarck’s mind to have the splendid diplomatic coup he had planned to redound to the greater advantage of England than Germany, and to9the greater glory of another statesman, but he was forced to be content. Russia on the east, as well as France on the west, was crippled and unable to resist German influence in European politics. France, defeated and humiliated, was still further embittered by being virtually ignored at the Berlin Conference. This was the situation till new alignments began to develop, and internal politics began to affect the external policy of the German Empire. Mutual hatred, and a common cause of grievance against Germany and Great Britain, caused France and Russia to forget their ancient differences and form an alliance to combat the combined German and British influence. Then the development of the German policy and commercial and colonial expansion created antagonism between Berlin and London. Next the rise of the Social Democratic party in Germany compelled the kaiser to placate the unbroken phalanx of Catholics in the Reichstag. The success of his foreign policy depended upon his ability to carry out his military and domestic policy. He was forced to treat with the clericals on their own terms, and it finally led him to go again, like his predecessor William the Fowler, to the feet of the Roman pontiff. This had its immediate effect on France and Italy. As Germany grew closer to the Vatican the French republic pulled away, and the king of Italy began to feel restive in the Triple Alliance. So France and Italy got together, and the former began a relentless crusade against the religious orders. As Germany grew antagonistic to England, she began to cultivate Russia to detach her from the French alliance, and King Edward promptly began to woo La Belle France as a counter move. So France, England, and Italy are completing a rapprochement which is distinctly antagonistic to Germany, Austria, Russia, and the Papacy. The situation is somewhat analogous to the time when the great Richelieu threw the weight of France in the scale in favor of Sweden, Denmark, and the Protestant princes of northern Germany against the empire and the church, and thus prevented the triumph of the latter. The Russo-French alliance still exists, but its force has been greatly weakened by recent events. Its necessity is disappearing, and the reverses of Russia in the Far East are making it evident that Russian aid is a broken reed for France to depend upon. So French sentiment cools toward the czar and grows warmer for perfidious Albion. Thus the international comedy is growing more mixed.