Slav populations, their racial pride and confidence roused by Servian and Bulgarian victories, no longer endured with patience the persecutions of Germans and Hungarians. Disloyalty was on the increase on all sides, and Austria seemed about to succeed Turkey as "the Sick Man of Europe."
In this situation German newspapers and public men began to demand that the clash between the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente should be postponed no longer. Time patently was with the enemy. Austria was growing weaker, Austro-Italian rivalry in Albania as well as secular rivalry in Trieste and the Trentino plainly promised future quarrels which might destroy the fighting value of the Triple Alliance and leave Germany alone between France and Russia.
It was the German temper which made the Servian crisis serious. At the time of the Bosnian clash no nation in Europe desired war, and only Germany was ready. At the moment of the Moroccan dispute Germany backed down because she found France, England and Russia ready and the possible gain incommensurate with the possible loss a great war might bring.
In July, 1914, a very considerable faction of German official life believed that only by war could Germany maintain her predominance in Europe and that a few years more of peace would leave her far behind Russia in strength, in resources and in allies. In 1914 she could count on Austria and presumably