As matters stand at present the balance of power oscillates between two groups represented by Teutonic and Slavonic elements respectively. Their clashing zone is the Balkan peninsula. The “Drang nach Osten” of Pan-Germanism found concrete geographical expression on the map, in 1908, by Austria’s final absorption of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A further step in the same direction was marked by the creation of a new Balkan nation, Albania. All this was a result of efforts to obtain control of the remarkable highway we have been considering. This easterly spread was hampered, however, by the steady southerly progress made by the Balkan countries. Their victories in 1912 and 1913 lengthened perceptibly Russia’s southwesterly strides toward ice-free coasts. The process taken as a whole is one of recurrence. Time has converted the stream of early Asiatic invaders into these two opposing currents. The Teutons are now repeating the exploits of the Greeks, the Macedonians, the Byzantines and the Crusaders. The Slavs, whose differentiation from Altaic ancestors has not been as thorough as that of their western neighbors, are likewise playing anew the part of their forefathers seeking milder regions by way of the Balkan peninsula. South of the Hungarian and Slovene linguistic zones the Austro-Hungarian domain comprises a large portion of the area of Serbian speech. The language predominates everywhere from the Adriatic coast to the Drave and Morava rivers as well as up to the section of the Danube comprised between its points of confluence with these two rivers. Serbian in fact extends slightly east of the Morava valley towards the Balkan slopes lying north of the Timok river, where Rumanian prevails as the language of the upland.[180] To the south contact with Albanian is obtained. The area of Serbian speech thus delimited includes the independent kingdoms of Montenegro[181] and Serbia. Within the territory of the Dual Monarchy it is spoken in the provinces of Croatia, Slavonia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia. The language is therefore essentially that of the region of uplift which connects the Alps and the Balkans or which intervenes between the Hungarian plain and the Adriatic. Union between the inhabitants of this linguistic area is somewhat hampered by the scission of Serbians into three religious groups. The westernmost Serbs, who are also known as Croats, adhere to the Roman Catholic faith in common with all their kinsmen the western Slavs. Followers of this group are rarely met east of the 19th meridian. A Mohammedan body consisting of descendants of Serbs who had embraced Islam after the Turkish conquest clusters round Sarajevo as a center. The bulk of Serbians belong, however, to the Greek Orthodox Church. Cultural analogies between the Mohammedan and orthodox groups are numerous. Both use the Russian alphabet, whereas the Croats have adopted Latin letters. [Illustration: