Village books

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Frederick the Great left, by the death of that father who had
once threatened to execute him, at the head of a marvellous army
with a full treasury, finally decided upon war, as he admits in
his own letters, "in order to be talked about," and his desire
to be talked about led to the Seven Years' War.
The short war against Denmark in 1864, against Austria, Bavaria,
etc., in 1866 and against France in 1870, enormously increased
both the pride and prestige of the Prussian army. It must not
be forgotten that at all periods of history it seems as if some
blind instinct had driven the inhabitants of the inhospitable
plains of North Germany to war and to conquest. The Cimbri and
Teutones--the tribes defeated by Marius; Ariovistus, who was
defeated by Julius Caesar; the Goths and the Visi-Goths; the
Franks and the Saxons; all have poured forth from this infertile
country, for the conquest of other lands. The Germans of to-day
express this longing of the North Germans for pleasanter climes
in the phrase in which they demand "a place in the sun.


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