The German Empire is therefore something unique in the annals of the world; it is at once a nation-State, like Italy, France, and Great Britain, and also a military Empire, like Rome under Augustus, Europe under Napoleon, Austria under Joseph II., _i.e._ a State in which the territory that commands the army holds political sway over the rest of the country.

It is not mere accident of geographical proximity, or even the kinship between Austrians and Germans, which has led to the long and unshakable alliance of Germany with the Hapsburg dominions.

They are associated by common political interests and by similarity of political structure.

Each stands for the supremacy of one dynastic State over a number of subordinate States or nationalities.
[Footnote 1: The chapter entitled "Dynasties and Stocks" in the _Reflections_ should be carefully studied on this point.

Bismarck was obviously uncomfortable about the old frontiers.] [Footnote 2: _Lectures on the History of the Nineteenth Century_, p.