Bismarck Research Paper
“The Second Reich was proclaimed in 1871. It was war – nothing more and nothing less – that was responsible for its creation”
In January 1871 King William first of Prussia became Kaiser William the first of the new German empire. The creation of the empire was one of the most important developments of the nineteenth century. However, the process by which Germany came to be unified has been and area of heated historical debate ever since. There are many people and events to consider in weighing up contributions to unification, but no one man was more central to the process of unification than Otto Von Bismarck. Bismarck became chancellor of Prussia in 1962 and his main aim was to unify the 39 German states under Prussian rule. Some historians …show more content…
The Austrians proposed to reform the Bund by strengthening its military, economic and legal powers. They called a conference of all the Bund members to discuss proposals. Bismarck persuaded the king to ignore the conference and without the Prussian presence there were no decisions taken and the conference collapsed. As well as embarrassing Austria the incident enhanced Prussian prestige and set them apart as the main German state. This early example of ‘realpolitik’ in Bismarck’s foreign policy isolated the power which Bismarck perceived as the biggest obstacle to German unification at the same time as allowing a notion of an empire under Prussian control to creep further into German national consciousness as the success of the Zollverein had done in the early nineteenth …show more content…
However Bismarck had to be careful as he suspected that France would become involved in any war he started with Austria. So, to guarantee this wouldn’t happen, Bismarck met with Napoleon the third in October 1965. Napoleon left the meeting with the impression he would receive territory if France remained neutral during the war with Austria. Also, to be certain of victory Bismarck wanted to gain some allies for the war - he turned to Italy. The Prussians signed a treaty with the Italians in April 1866 that stated: Austria had to declare war; Italy would declare war after Prussia; Italy would get Venetia without question and the war was to start within three months. This is strong evidence to support the theory that Bismarck was master planner who targeted Austria long before the war
In January 1871 King William first of Prussia became Kaiser William the first of the new German empire. The creation of the empire was one of the most important developments of the nineteenth century. However, the process by which Germany came to be unified has been and area of heated historical debate ever since. There are many people and events to consider in weighing up contributions to unification, but no one man was more central to the process of unification than Otto Von Bismarck. Bismarck became chancellor of Prussia in 1962 and his main aim was to unify the 39 German states under Prussian rule. Some historians …show more content…
The Austrians proposed to reform the Bund by strengthening its military, economic and legal powers. They called a conference of all the Bund members to discuss proposals. Bismarck persuaded the king to ignore the conference and without the Prussian presence there were no decisions taken and the conference collapsed. As well as embarrassing Austria the incident enhanced Prussian prestige and set them apart as the main German state. This early example of ‘realpolitik’ in Bismarck’s foreign policy isolated the power which Bismarck perceived as the biggest obstacle to German unification at the same time as allowing a notion of an empire under Prussian control to creep further into German national consciousness as the success of the Zollverein had done in the early nineteenth …show more content…
However Bismarck had to be careful as he suspected that France would become involved in any war he started with Austria. So, to guarantee this wouldn’t happen, Bismarck met with Napoleon the third in October 1965. Napoleon left the meeting with the impression he would receive territory if France remained neutral during the war with Austria. Also, to be certain of victory Bismarck wanted to gain some allies for the war - he turned to Italy. The Prussians signed a treaty with the Italians in April 1866 that stated: Austria had to declare war; Italy would declare war after Prussia; Italy would get Venetia without question and the war was to start within three months. This is strong evidence to support the theory that Bismarck was master planner who targeted Austria long before the war