Bismarck Advantages And Disadvantages

The unconditional support from alliances can be blamed to cause World War I. The nature of the alliances is laid out in the alliance document. The alliances stipulated assistance and contribution of the signing parties in the event of conflict. It can extend from money or logistic sponsorship, similar to the supply of materials or weapons, to military activation and a statement about war. Partnerships might likewise contain currency components, for example, trade agreements, investment or loans. It is best known to cause World War I. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, European nations formed, abolished, or restructured their own alliances. By 1914, the Great Powers of Europe split into two opposing alliance blocs. For quite a long time Europe had been a mixture of ethnic and regional competitions, political interests, contending desires, military dangers, suspicions and disorder. France and England were antiquated foes whose competition ejected into open fighting a few times between the fourteenth and mid nineteenth hundreds of years.

It was Germany's goal gain strategic position that enemy forces may gain to use against them, such as Austria. Bismarck was also contemplating another war to banish the French threat once and for all. Germany's interest played a key roll in pushing Austria-Hungary to disaster. The Emperor's League that was formed, which consisted of Germany, Austria, and Italy, did one major thing; it brought Austria and Germany closer together.

Germany started out as a divided nation fighting for dominance in Europe. Otto Von Bismarck was able to take this struggling complexity and unify it. During this process Bismarck turned the small country of Prussia into a powerhouse, growing the population from 11 to 18 million. Bismarck sprung from a landlord class and moved his way up the political ladder as realpolitik, realistic Politician. He was a man of simple ideals; he stressed duty, service, order, and the fear of God. These ideals along with manipulative tactics are what lead Bismarck on his journey of the unification of Germany, proving that without Bismarck’s diplomatic efforts between 1871 and 1890 Europe would not be the stabilized continent it is today.

World War I was caused by several issues between European powers, the first being militarism, or the huge emphasis placed on having large and strong armies and navies. Germany is an example of militarism in WWI because Germany began competing with the British for having the largest navy in the world, as well as developing new weapons like poison gas and submarines, the latter being a great tool in surprise attacks. Militarism was also associated with the Romanticism of war; Europeans wished to fight so that they could become heros. The constant military build ups in several European countries left countries looking for alliances with other strong countries, in the event that war was to break out. Germany, Italy, and Austria created the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente was comprised of Great Britain, France, and

At the Convention of Gastein, Austria took over a German state. This bad feeling for Austria made Prussia more popular. Bismarck then isolated Austria by persuading Russia, France and Italy to remain neutral towards her. Prussia then defeated Austria in a war. Afterwards, the Prussian king and generals wanted to finish Austria off, however, Bismarck showed strength and wouldn't let them. Instead he made peace with Austria to ensure her future support. Bismarck stated: "We shall need Austria's strength ourselves". A good example of opportunism is when Bismarck goaded France into declaring war by editing the EMS telegram. Bismarck edited the telegram to make it seem as if Prussia had insulted France. This angered Napoleon and he declared war. This made France seem like the aggressor, which ensured the neutrality of the other powers. Bismarck described it as: "a red rag to a Gallic bull". All of these points show that Bismarck undoubtedly played an important role in unifying Germany.

Bismarck’s alliance system brought peace between the European countries. (Stewart, Fitzgerald, Pickard 12) His alliance system starts with a treaty with Austria-Hungary who was one of the 5 powers in Europe. In 1879, Germany and Austria-Hungary signed the Dual Alliance, which was planned as a merely defensive arrangement or military alliance. Both governments promised that they should help or remain neutral when other powerful countries such as Russia or France attack. (Stewart, Fitzgerald, Pickard 13) The second allied country was with Italy. In 1882, Bismarck turns Dual Alliance into Triple Alliance by making Italy to join in his alliance system. Since Italy had close friendship with Great Britain, although Italy was not a strong military nation, it was an influential part of the Alliance. And at the same time, Great Britain and Germany had conflict in North Africa on colonial aspiration. Therefore, it was the perfect time to be an ally with her to isolate France. (Stewart, Fitzgerald, Pickard 14) Making Great Britain as a close friend was a benefit for Germany. Bismarck’s next target to isolate France was Russia. In 1881, the Dreikaiserbund was made a treaty, which was the agreement between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia promising not to help the fourth power, France. However in 1884, this treaty had renewed and Russia refused to renew her membership in Dreikaiserbund. Then Bismarck discussed the Reinsurance Treaty with

Despite the fact that Italy was unified, it wasn’t as nearly as strong as Germany was becoming. Bismarck joined both authoritarianism and nationalism to increase Prussia’s power. He was a very clever diplomat and used whatever means possible to work towards his goal. Bismarck’s Realpolitiks, the pursuing of realistic goals by any available method instead of the pursuit of an ideology. Bismarck never wanted to have enemies for long and hoped to pacify the Liberals with foreign policy achievement, notably the unification of Germany. He wanted to exclude Austria from the unification process. This led to the Austria-Prussian and Franco-Prussian wars. His plan was successful. Even with the fact south German states were reluctant to join in his unification because of strong religious and political traditions. After the overpowering of France in 1871 the southern states finally joined. This was the defeat the brought them together.

Clemenceau: Since our Alsace-Lorraine area was forced to cede to Germany during Franco–Prussian War, the nationalism ideological trend took control of the whole France, and then effects its government since France is a democracy state ruled by elected officers like me. Based on the purpose of avenge, France started engage in arms expansion. At 1905, The Morocco Crisis sharpened the conflict between Germany and France based on the colony issues. Since that, France started expand its armed force on a fast speed. At 1914, the tonnage of France navy already become the third in European

The mastery Bismarck demonstrated in foreign policy was such that he was able to outwit all other powers and make their leaders appear inadequate. Bismarck believed that the unification of German states was determined by Prussia’s foreign policy. He was also persuaded that "nothing but a change in our foreign attitude can liberate the position of the Crown in domestic matters from the pressure which it will otherwise be impossible to resist." On September 30, 1862 Bismarck followed through on this belief in his famous blood and iron speech, which implied that if Germany was to unify it would be with the use of military force. These armies would than be used in three wars which Bismarck intentionally started though an aggressive foreign policy to unify the country. The Ems Telegram of 1870 was a prime example of Bismarck’s ability to use a hostile foreign policy to outwit a country. After editing a letter sent to Napoleon, Bismarck ensured that the amended version was released to the newspapers and telegraphed to all of Prussia's foreign embassies. French court circles

Germany's industrial emphasis can be seen as heightening in this period as a result of their unification; now they had the means of exploiting materials as well as manufacturing it. Part of the reason that during this period, Germany was not seen as an aggressor is due to its Chancellor, Bismarck, who was conscious of the importance of pursuing a peaceful foreign policy and abstained form excessive Imperialism. Berlin, in 1894-95, was the centre for the diplomatic partition of Africa, with Bismarck heading up the talks between the powers. Germany's approach to other countries, and its foreign policy underwent a dramatic change in 1890, when Bismarck was dismissed from office and Caprivi was instated to the position. In

had one of the best education rates to be seen in a long time. Along

23 July 1905, Tsar Nicholas of Russia had come close to forming an alliance with Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, but a prior agreement with France and Russian desire to avoid upsetting their ally led to denial of the treaty by officials in St. Petersburg. Convinced that Germany could drive a wedge between the Entente powers, Berlin demanded an international conference in Algeciras, as promised by the treaty of 1881. Initially, the Germans were sure that Britain would not intervene in a dispute regarding Morocco, but France gave compensation deals to Britain, Italy, and Spain, and promised more money to Russia for support in the Algeciras conference held January 1906. Not only was the Entente proven stronger than Germany had initially thought, historian Christopher Clark also argues that ‘the uselessness of the Triple Alliance [between Austria, Italy, and Germany] was revealed for all to see.’ Not only did actions taken by Kaiser Wilhelm II in the First Moroccan Crisis of 1905 not have the desired effect of pushing apart the Entente powers, they led to a stronger connection between France and Britain, Italy, Spain, and Russia, impacted the European view of Germany negatively, and isolated Germany and Austria

Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm were two German officials around the time of world war one. They both had foreign policies and they were both pretty different. Bismarck’s foreign policy had many aims. One of the aims was to leave territorial expansion behind. He unified Germany and to do so had to incorporate many other states into Prussia. He was also very much in favor of peace instead of war. He also never tried to strengthen the naval forces of Germany especially not to ruin the relationship with England. Next, he decided to keep France isolated as well as friendless so that could not start a war as revenge. He also focused on Germany 's relationship with Austria and Russia. He also distrusted Italy.

Many, on the other hand, blame the flaws in the world's alliance systems for the war. Development of political and military alliances caused tension and hostility among nations leading up to World War I. Two major alliance systems developed due to conflicting national interests, which had been evident during the past two decades throughout Europe. These were the 'Triple Alliance' of Germany, Austro-Hungary and Italy and the 'Triple Entente' of Britain, France and Russia. Also several smaller countries became indirectly involved in the alliances, which effectively divided Europe into two 'Armed Camps'. Russia pledged to support Serbia in order to prevent further Austrian-Hungarian expansion into the Balkans. Germany stated its support for Austria-Hungary and Britain had given its support for Belgium's independence in 1839. However, historians such as A. J. P. Taylor argue that 'Pre 1914 alliances were so precarious and fragile that they cannot be seen as the major cause of war'. This points to the fact that it should also be stressed that even a formal alliance in 1914 did not guarantee support for war, therefore not being a significant factor.

Bismarck was the man who did the most to unify Germany. It was clear that unification was one of his major objective which he announced in his famous ‘Blood and Iron speech’. I was fascinated by how he managed to unify the so many divided states. Thus, my historical investigation examines the question, to what extent was the Franco-Prussian war Bismarck’s final step to unify Germany? To assess whether the Franco-Prussian war was Bismarck’s final step for unifying the loose net of 39 German states or not, the investigation analyses the previous steps made by Bismarck to unify Germany. It investigates the events between 1962, when Bismarck became Minister president of Prussia and 1971, when Germany became officially unified. The events analyzed are the Danish war, The Prussian Austrian war and the Franco Prussian war.