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together in the Congress of Vienna to readjust boundary lines. 
Holland was made a kingdom and given the status of a Euro- 
pean power, and to it was added the Austrian Netherlands. 
Luxemburg was put under the rule of Holland as a grand 
duchy. The other territory along the Rhine which Napoleon 
had annexed to France was given to Prussia, the power more 
responsible than any other German state for the overthrow 
of the “little Corsican”. Prussia with Westphalia on one side 
and the grand duchy of the Rhine on the other now sat astride 
the famous river frontier. From this position she was not to 
budge in the future. She sat there as a ruler over a large 
part of Lothair’s middle kingdom and Burgundy’s lost annexa- 
tions. Midway between the buffer kingdom of the Nether- 
lands and her Austrian rival to the east, she was a sentinel to 
guard the Rhine frontier against her neighbor state, France. 
She sat there, a young Macedonia, waiting the touch of a 
strong hand to guide her along the road of conquest and em- 
pire. With the passing of Napoleon’s territorial creations, 
and the advent of Prussia as a strong power on the Rhine, the 
sixth landmark in the kaleidoscopic changes of Lothair’s mid- 
dle kingdom was fixed. 
While Prussia waited for the guiding hand, Belgium re- 
volted against the Netherlands. The principal European 
powers recognized her as an independent state in 1839 and 
guaranteed her neutrality. Luxemburg revolted with Bel- 
gium; at the close of the war a part of it went to Belgium; 
a part was left under the king of the Netherlands as grand 
duke. It ceased to be a part of Germany in 1866, and its 
neutrality was guaranteed by the Treaty of London in 1867. 
In the meantime the guiding hand came to Prussia. It 
was Bismarck, the iron chancellor. Just as the Germanic 
Confederation of 1815 had taken the place of the Holy Roman 
Empire, so was Prussia to succeed the Confederation. Just 
as the 39 states took the place of 343, so was one to succeed 
38. This was the road to empire and Prussian leadership. 
But Austria was in the way. Bismarck could easily take care 
of this obstacle if he v/as sure France would not interfere. 
He interviewed Napoleon III, emperor of the French, at 
Biarritz, and, in all probability, to get a promise of neutrality 
in case of an Austro-Prussian War, dangled territorial com- 
pensations along the Rhine before his eyes. At any rate, 
Prussia made war on Austria and defeated her. France re- 
