Bismarck - How much did Bismar

A detailed Summary of Bismarck - How much did Bismar

Bismarck - How much did Bismarck's success from 1862-70 depend on the errors and misjudgements of others?

According to the traditional German view, German unification was achieved in 1871 as a result of the actions of one great man, Otto von Bismarck, the Minister-President of Prussia, who planned the events leading to unification in detail. However, more recent historians have argued that Bismarck had no such ``master plan''. Instead, Bismarck's success was a result of his flexibility as a statesman, combined with the advantages Prussia enjoyed both in its resources and its diplomatic situation, the latter of which was improved by the mistakes and misjudgements of others.

There were essentially two halves to Bismarck's supposed master plan: defeat Austria, keeping her as an ally by treating her leniently, and defeat France. Defeating Austria required the neutrality of France and Russia, and a way in which to trick Austria into declaring war with Prussia, so that Austria would appear to be to blame. According to the traditional view, Bismarck planned ways in which to carry this out.

Originally it was said that Bismarck's handling of the rebellion in Russian Poland resulted in Russian neutrality: the rebellion was a potenti

Furthermore, Bismarck was in a good situation financially. Previous Prussian governments had ensured that the government shared in the economic prosperity by investing government money in the railways. So, when Bismarck came to fight a war, he had enough money to fight it without needing to raise any extra taxes. Previous governments had also spent large sums on the Prussian army, investing in new weapons.

The North German Confederation was a step towards German unification, with the next step being the incorporation of the south German states into the Prussian empire Bismarck had created. However, it was not Bismarck's immediate aim to gain south Germany. In November 1869, Bismarck wrote to King William I, ``In regard to the South German situation...The distant and by far the greater aim is the national unification of Germany. We can wait for this in security...We cannot accelerate it unless out of the way events in Europe...offer us an unsought opportunity to do so...''. In short, Bismarck was not planning to actively pursue unification, but suggesting a wait-and-see policy; although there is always the possibility that by ``out of the way events'' he was alluding to the Hohenzollern candidature crisis.

This is in fact what happened. On 4th July 1866, Napoleon III wrote to King William I proposing an armistice. If Bismarck refused, there would be the risk of France joining the war, and a longer war would allow Austria to transfer troops from Italy at a time when the Prussian army was being weakened by spreading cholera. Fortunately for Bismarck, Napoleon III's terms were generous, and allowed the creation of a North German Confederation dominated by Prussia, in return for the promise that the south German states should remain independent from Prussia and allowed to form their own federation. Bismarck had anticipated having to make greater concessions, as shown by his preparations to buy off France with the Saar.

Either way, it was France's handling of the situation that led to Bismarck's success after the war in forming the German Empire. France overreacted to the candidature crisis, Bismarck saw the opportunity to exploit this, and France made the mistake of starting a war which they would not win: The diplomatic situation was against France, since Italy, Russia, Austria and the south German states were friendly with Prussia at that time, while Britain had been alienated by France's plan to annex Belgium.

It also seems unlikely that Bismarck planned in advance to use the Schleswig-Holstein dispute as a pretext for war with Austria. His aim instead was to annex the duchies to Prussia, hence the joint action with Austria in 1864 which reduced

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Approximate Word count = 1803
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History