Emperor Karl's effort to make a separate peace recalls the period,
beginning with the Summer of 1849, when Austria and Prussia were
literally at daggers drawn. Twenty-eight North German States had just
formed a Prussian League, under the leadership of Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
of Prussia. Austria, under the leadership of Franz Josef, organized a
counterleague of South German States, and had the support of Nicholas
I. of Russia, who had helped Austria to subdue Hungary. Schwarzenberg,
the fighting man of the Austrian Confederation, announced his policy:
"First humiliate Prussia, then destroy her." The practical collision
between Prussian North Germany and Austrian South Germany came when the
Elector of Hesse quarreled with his people. The Hessians appealed to the
Council of the Prussian League, of which Hesse was a member, while the
Elector of Hesse appealed to the Emperor of Austria. Austria and Prussia
both set armies in movement, the Austrian force being mainly composed of
Bavarian troops, and a kind of half-battle was fought on the frontier of
Bavaria. But the Prussian Army was weak and inefficient, while Nicholas
I. of Russia was open in his support of Austria. Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
of Prussia met Schwarzenberg in a conference at Olmütz on Nov. 28, 1850,
and offered Prussia's submission to Austria. Austria then restored the
old Diet and reorganized the German Confederation upon the basis of
1815, the Federal act creating this confederation having actually
antedated the battle of Waterloo by a week. In this confederation, which
was composed of sovereigns, not of peoples, (thirty-four sovereign
Princes and the four "free cities" of Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck, and
Frankfort,) and which met in the Federal Diet at Frankfort, the Austrian
representatives presided, and Austria's pre-eminence lasted until the
battle of Sadowa, in 1866, when the simultaneous attacks of Prussia and
Italy brought about Austria's defeat.