It was in the time of Napoleon that the German people came nearer to freedom of spirit than they had been before or have been since. For in fighting a foreign enemy who sought power even as the Hohenzollern ruler of Germany seeks it to-day, the youth of Germany glimpsed the truth of democracy. With Napoleon’s defeat they stood ready to move forward toward it. But again the Kings intervened. There was formed in Europe at that time the Holy Alliance, that same group of Kings and Kingmakers who sought to restore to Spain its revolting colonies in South America, and who held firmly to the idea of the divine right of Kings. This Holy Alliance throttled free thought in Germany. By 1848 revolutions for the right of freedom surged up throughout the German states and kingdoms and principalities. They were beaten down by the ruling powers, one helping the other. It was at this time that the German emigration toward the United States began, for the leaders of the revolution sought a land where they could be free. Those who stayed came in time to accept the system which the rulers imposed upon them. The putting down of the revolution of 1848 gave Prussia increased power. She had a disciplined standing army, and a military establishment. In 1862 William I became King. He made Bismarck his prime minister, and the march of Prussia toward world conquest began. Bismarck made the whole Prussian nation into an army. Then he made alliance with Austria to secure the duchy of Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark. Then he provoked a quarrel with Austria so that Prussia might deprive her of all influence over the other German states. He won his object in a six-weeks’ war in 1866. But he was not satisfied with the power he had won, for democratic France--democratic for all her acceptance of another Napoleon for her throne--still threatened the power of Kings who claimed that their power came from God, and not from their people. Prussia waited its chance. When France was unprepared, a quarrel was brought on, and the blow struck. Prussia took Alsace and Lorraine from her. Then the King of Prussia was made Emperor of Germany. The territory which Prussia had acquired for the German Empire, for Alsace and Lorraine are the richest mineral districts of France, gave Germany opportunity for that industrial development which has marked her history since the Franco-Prussian War. Germany’s population overcrowded her territorial space. Germany grew rich and prosperous. Germany became highly efficient in mechanical arts. German trade reached out over the world, but found the barriers of the establishment of other nations. The German army remained a great machine, officered by Prussian nobles. Germany grew so mighty that she grew to believe that might makes right. She had the might, and she made ready to exercise it.