The growth of democratic ideas made men desire to choose their rulers, and elected assemblies inevitably increased the expression of national feelings. Thus each minority began to demand more and more government by its own nationals, and, where these were organized in another State, to look to that State for help against its own rulers. Side by side with these national aspirations there still persisted religious ties such as those of the Greek or Roman Churches, which were sometimes strong enough to hold the other in check. There were, moreover, racial as distinct from national groups, which helped to unite Slav and Teuton or was at any rate an instrument in the hands of Russia and Germany, the most powerful representatives of each "race." These forces operating throughout the 19th century were one of the main causes of the formation of the German empire and the unification of Italy, bringing together men of the same na tionality, hitherto divided into small units. But the German em pire made by the sword of Prussia contained also Danes and Lorrainers incorporated in it by force, as well as the Poles given to Prussia by the Treaty of Vienna (1815). Italy on the other hand, being weak, many Italians were still left under the domination of the Austrian Government. Meanwhile, as a result of national f eel ing, the Austro-Hungarian empire had grown less united. The Ger man part had been cut off from Germany by Prussia's arms. The Hungarians established an equality with the German-ruled half of the monarchy. In both parts, the Slays became self-conscious after the revolution of 1848 and struggled to express themselves. The same process had begun even earlier in the Balkan peninsula, where the Christian nationalities, with the assistance of the Great Powers, especially of Russia, threw off the Turkish yoke and gradually obtained autonomy and complete independence, the whole culminating in the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, when they had become strong enough to defeat the Turks themselves. The na tionalities along the Russian frontier, also, developed from the same causes, but only two were strong enough to make their cause much known in the rest of the world—the Finns, because of their previous connection with Sweden and semi-independence, and the unquenchable Poles, whose insurrections in 183o and 5863, though ruthlessly put down, had shown that they were still determined to assert their national rights. In other countries there were also, minorities, which did not accept their position, the most alive being the Irish, whose struggle for Home Rule or semi-independ ence went on uninterruptedly throughout the 19th century.
In pre-war Europe, therefore, there was a body of people, which has been estimated at about ioo millions, which was dis contented with its rulers, and wished to obtain complete independ ence, or to unite with some other State, or to have some form of autonomy inside their present State. There were the people of Alsace-Lorraine the majority preferring France to Germany, or at least some form of autonomy, and the Danes of Schleswig, as well as the Poles of Posen and Upper Silesia of whom the former could look back to citizenship in a Polish State of fairly recent date, while the latter, though most of them were more recent emigrants, were still conscious of their Polish nationality, which was reinforced by their Catholicism, which contrasted with the Protestantism of the Prussian State.
Austria-Hungary was a mosaic of nationalities. In the Austrian part they had been given much autonomy. The Czechs and Poles of the north and the Slays of the south had obtained many cultural rights, and played a great part in the government. In the
Hungarian part, however, the Magyars since they had won their own rights in 1867 had done their best to deny them to their minorities. The Slovaks and Ruthenes in the north, one with an affinity to the Czechs, and the other to the Ruthenes of Galicia and Russia, were kept down in every way. The Croats and Serbs of the south, and the Rumans of Transylvania were more able to assert themselves of ter an independent Rumania and Serbia came into existence. But they were denied adequate representation under a pseudo-democratic constitution, and their cultural rights were reduced to the lowest possible minimum. The situation was indeed a difficult one, for islands of Magyars and Germans ex tended into these lands, and especially in Transylvania, the land lords tended to be of the dominant race. An economic motive was thus added to the other causes of the increase of the national spirit of the minorities, whose combined total was greater than that of the Germans in Austria, or that of the Magyars in Hungary.
In the Balkans, though the Turks were confined to the region round Constantinople the subsequent interference of the Powers and the war between the Balkan States had resulted in large minorities being left under alien rule. Rumania, Serbia and Greece all had Bulgarian subjects. Indeed the mixture of races in Mace donia and other parts was such that minorities were inevitable, though the final arrangement might have been much juster. The creation of Albania had made another national State, but both in its northern frontier with Serbia and its southern with Greece national minorities were necessarily left in all three States.
Meanwhile in the Russian empire the Poles were subjected to worse treatment than in Germany and, of course, much worse than in Austria. The Finns lost many of their old privileges and grew more rebellious in consequence. The peasants of the Baltic prov inces of Esths, Letts and Lithuanians were also much affected by the revolution in Russia, a result of the weakness of the Gov ernment in the Russo-Japanese War, and there were fierce agrarian outbreaks, later ruthlessly suppressed. In Ireland by 1914 the attempt by the Liberal Government to pass a Home Rule bill against the wishes of the Protestant minority had brought civil war into sight.