The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-23
DOWNFALL OF
 THE HAPSBURGS

Germany and Austria will celebrate to-day the rounding out of half cen tury of peace between the Teutonic peoples, as it was on August 23, 1866, that the treaty of peace was signed at Prague which brought to an end the brief but decisive war between the two countries. Within the brief space of seven weeks Prussia had lcomplete1y triumphed over Austria and her allies among the German states. By that treaty the house of Haps- burg, long dominant in central Flu rope, was reduced to playing second fiddle to the Hohenzellerns. Austria became a tail to the Prussian kite. It needed only another victorious war, with France as the victim. to raise the Hohenzollerns to the imperial heights from which the Hapsburgs had been cast down.
 In dealing with her vanquished foe, Prussia showed no disposition to be lenient. By the treaty signed at Prague, Austria recognized her exclusion from Germany, consented to the breaking up of the Germanic confedera ton, and to the annexation by Prussia of Han over, Nassau, Hesse-Cassel and Frank fort; gave up her claims to Schleswig and Holstein, and her political inf1u- ence in North Germany; left Prussia free to organize Germany as she pleas ed, without interference, and agreed to pay an indemnity of 20,000,e0o thalers. Great Britain protested, but in vain against the Pru3sian annexa- tiens of territory. Having settled with Austria, and broke once for all the German power of the Hapsburgs, Prus- sia imposed upon Bavaria, Wurtem- burg and Baden secret treaties of of fensive and defensive alliance, and was guaranteed the control of their armies in case of war.
 The bitter pills prescribed by Prus- sia were hard for the proud Hapsburg monarch te swallow. but he had no all formative. For years the Austrians entertained bitter resentment toward the Prussians, but the Hungarians and Slavs of Francis Joseph's empire were inclined ot gloat over this great blow te the .dynastic pride of the Emperor. Bismarck, who had wrought the downfall of the Hapsburgs, had no sooner finished with France than he began to plan an alliance with Austria. It was the latter's fear of Russia which finally drove her into the arms of her conqueror. After the Russo-Turkish conflict of 1S77-1S7S, as a result of which Austria secured Bosnia and Her. zogovina, Francis Joseph was smitten with fear of his powerful neighbor to the north. The Russian bear loomed large in his imagination. Bismarck seized the opportunity and negotiated with Austria secret treaty which provided for "an alliance for peace and mutual defense" This document, although signed in 1879. was not made known to the world until 1888. Italy's s signature to the secret pact in 1882 brought into being the Dreibund, or Triple Alliance, whcih stood until put to the test of great war.
 Austria, reduced to a secondary posi- tion by the treaty wrung from her by Prussia half century ago, became by the Dual Alliance pact the puppet of the new Germany dominated by the Hohenzollerns.
 The treaty of Prague in 1866 was followed in October by a treaty be- tween Austria and Italy, Prussia's al- ly, by which Austria gave up Venetia, and lost her dominance in Italian affairs. It was not enough, however, and to-day Austria finds herself con- fronted by an Italian army determined to wrest from her the remainder of the Italia Irredenta" which remained un- der the Hapsburg banner.