Otto Von Bismarck had many intentions with improving Prussia as a state. One of the main goals was to unify the north German states under the Prussian control as well as to weaken it’s rivals such as Austria, by removing it from the Bund. Other goals were to make Berlin the center of German affairs and reform from the Liberals in the Prussian Parliament (the Reichstag).
By the 18th century Prussia was one of the most ruling powers in Europe along with other nations like Britain, Italy and Russia. In order to expand, Prussia had to take over some territories. Prussia had won wars due to previous efficient leaders and had strong nationalism, which helped them to move their goals forward. Over the years, many rulers such as Frederick I, helped
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Austria had lost its key allies and was losing influence in Europe. Austria had refused to help Russia in the Crimean War, 1854-56, against France and Britain and lost a major ally as a result. Afterwards, Austria was defeated in a war against the northern Italian states and the French. As a result, Austria had to surrender some territories in order to still function properly. With Austria weakened, Bismarck now turned his attention to another territory he intended to unite - France. France had watched Prussia's growing power with alarm. Using the same technique with Austria, Bismarck attempted to weaken France as well. Russia was an ally of France but Bismarck used diplomacy to make sure Russia stayed out of the up-coming war. He also made sure Italy stayed neutral and wouldn't fight for France. Bismarck also wanted to make sure that Britain does not get in to this, as he didn’t want it to become even more powerful than it was …show more content…
To succeed in his aims war seemed inevitable. Before he fought the powerful Austrian empire, however, he needed to weaken its position in Europe. Bismarck wanted to build up Prussia's army in case his unification plans led to war. In order to take action of this procedure, he needed it to be funded financially. The Prussian parliament refused to allow money to be raised for Bismarck's military reforms. Although, Bismarck ignored the Reichstag and simply collected the money for army reforms through general taxation. He never bothered to get permission from the Reichstag. Economic co-operation meant that unification may have happened eventually anyway, but Bismarck made sure that it happened. He also successfully isolated other countries by making them look like aggressors. As well, he made Prussia appear to be the defender of the German states and protector of their rights.
To counter Prussia's growing influence; Austria tried to strengthen its position in the Bund. Since it was in theory the leading member of the Bund, an increase in the power of the Bund would strengthen Austria. Bismarck thwarted Austria's plans by insisting on popular elections to the Bund's parliament. Austria refused and neither its or Bismarck's reforms happened. Bismarck had successfully ruined Austria's plans and was seen, ironically, as a defender of the Liberal
Before Frederick took charge Prussia was not a country. It was broken into separate territories. France and England had become very powerful in the 1600's and Prussia felt endangered. Frederick's father Frederick the I was the elector of Prussia. When Frederick came to power his goal was to make Prussia a country. He believed that good government was rational but also authoritarian. Frederick was the first modern organizer. He put most of the country's wealth intro the military. He believed that the key to a country's wealth was through its military. 80% of Prussia's income went to the military. Prussia selected people for the military through the draft. Eventually Frederick died and left the kingdom to his son. Frederick the great was left with a 72,000 person military. This was a great deal of people for such a little country. Prussia only had 2,000,000 people.
Bismarck believed that Germany should be united under Prussian leadership and that Austria should have nothing to do with Germany. Bismarck was chosen as chancellor by the Prussian king as he had a proven record as a monarchist and had little time for liberal and excessive parliamentary ideas. Bismarck helped his long term plan to unite Germany and to be the ruler by getting in a strong position with the king. The king owned Bismarck a 'favour´ as Bismarck had solved the king´s constitutional crisis. Bismarck played a crucial part in the unification of Germany as he helped to set up the Northern German Confederation after defeating Austria in the second of three wars.
The German state was forged out of the fires of the Franco-Prussian war in 1871 by the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Prussia was by far the largest and most dominant state of the 25 unified in the creation of Germany, with the King of Prussia automatically becoming the Kaiser (Emperor) of the German Reich. In 1888, Kaiser Wilhelm II ascended to the throne, obtaining absolute and total control of the country. However, there is still debate as to whether Wilhelm II exercised full control of Germany or if true power lay in the hands of others in the years preceding the First World War.
First Germany lost lots of land bordering Poland, France, and Denmark. East Prussia was still a part of Germany, but was like an island, disconnected from the homeland. This weakened Germany very much, having land be stripped from her. In Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf he says, “No nation can remove the hand from it’s throat except by the sword” (Document A). Hitler is saying in order to stop the unfair treatment, war is inevitable. He said this to help him come to power. He inspired people to not get pushed around by other countries with the Versailles Treaty. Hitler promised redemption and glory if he was put to
After Bismarck's dismissal the Kaiser and his advisers were convinced that the most likely wars in Europe were Germany against France of Austria-Hungary against Russia and in neither case could Russia and Germany be on the same side because of the existing alliances. This meant the rupture of the Russo-German friendship and the starting point were the two fronts that battled in the Great War started to shape up. Another example of a failed attempt of alliance was that of with Britain. Kaiser Wilhelm inherited her mother's admiration for English liberalism and the accepted view of English pre-eminence while keeping his father's strict Prussian military code of behaviour.
(Versaware, 1999, p.1) (Chastain, 1998, p.1) (World Book, 1999, p. 381)(Richards, 1977, p.139-143)(Compton's Encyclopedia, 1999, p.1) This is when Bismarck, a beneficiary of good fortunes, set his own designs for Prussia into motion (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1994, p.3) Otto von Bismarck , during the course of 1860-1862, benefitted from some unpredictable circumstances. "That same year [1862] a bitter dispute between the Prussian government and Parliament over the size of the army reached an impasses.
In the late 1800s, Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck used different strategical plans in order to gain as much power possible, the majority of the plans consisted of him taking advantage of the different political parties. Bismarck used many traditional political strategies in order to gain the power he craved for, such as creating harsh laws and prohibiting certain beliefs or ideas. Unfortunately, these strategies did not satisfy the people, so Bismarck later started to increase the welfare of the working class, apologized to the Socialists, and did much more to obtain more political strength which eventually created a new conservatism. In an effort to increase political power for the Kaiser, Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck uses liberal and traditional
During his rule, he passed legislation such as the “Law of Concerning the Equality of All Religions with Respect to Civil Rights and Citizenship of July 3rd, 1869” and the “School Inspection Law of March 11, 1872” which all contradicted traditional conservative ideology and were more socialist and liberal, respectively (Document 1). By allowing policies that were clearly against traditional conservative positions, it helped prove that he lacked any strong loyalty towards a specific side, proving he wasn’t exactly a traditional conservative. His legislation wasn’t limited to simple social institutions and structures, but also involved the use of economic reform, particularly involving worker conditions. The Emperor of Prussia spoke of the policies involving “Consistent organization to the commercial health insurance system,” “state welfare,” all based off “moral foundation of a Christian national life” (Document 5). These statements allowed Bismarck to implement policies all over the board while maintaining a general and public position as a conservative who supported religion. This directly contradicts hs policies of religious equality rather than favoritism in Document 1. But he still maintains other conservative ideas by preventing any radical reform and maintaining stability within the
He brought in the Carlsbad Decree, banning the teaching of nationalism and liberalism. Lecturers were expelled for teaching nationalism and students were not allowed to talk about liberal and nationalist ideas. On the other hand, the second most powerful Germanic state, Prussia was open to the idea of liberalism and nationalism. Prussia welcomed the idea of one German nation. Other states grew closer to Prussia and an economic union called Zollverein was created that did included Austria in it. This economic union allowed Prussia to improve its economic situation and its military. An attempt to unify Germany was made in 1848, which ended up in a partial failure. The 1848 attempt made it clear that the German’s wanted Germany without Austria. The attempt was partially a failure because Prussian king did not take the title of German Emperor since the commoners were giving it and it made the Prussian King feel
Prussian economic policy used an internal revenue system of various taxes and tolls with the sole purpose of supporting a standing army. Realizing the limited resource base that Prussia had to draw upon, Frederick II achieved a synergistic resourcing effect through his choice of strategic objectives, limiting his internal recruiting base, and using his peacetime military for social gain. The resource rich state of Silesia remained Frederick the Greats’ primary strategic objective, possession of it would drastically increase the economic capacity of Prussia.
Research will be drawn from many sources including several historical studies and online articles. The sources used revolve around Bismarck's attitudes and actions toward German unification and general policy. Sources include works by historians A.J.P. Taylor and James Wycliffe Headlam. The policies of Bismarck during the interwar period were researched as well, through several scholastic journals and written works.
The Prussia Army increased state power through economic and social policies under the leadership of Frederick the Great. His economic and social policies were ever changing thus leaving other states questioning how this unlikely king become one of Europe’s major powers. Parker stated, “ through both argument and naked military force, Frederick wrung concessions from his territories that allowed him to collect taxes from each to support a single army and to recruit that force in all his lands.” As a result, he began to conceptualize that economy as operating under its autonomous laws and saw individual enterprise as the deregulation of production as the key to the growth of his army. In addition to a tax system, Frederick “compelled his young aristocrats to serve as an officer, and once they joined the army, only debility or death could release them.” Through this action the officer corps was created with a male of royalty and rich inheritance, thus increasing the economic power of
This ruined relations between Russia and Germany and Austria. The move towards France: In 1914 when WWI broke out, Russia fought with Britain and France because
France made an alliance with Russia because it was against Germany. France wanted Revenge on Germany because of the humiliation of losing the Franco-Prussian war and the valuable land lost, like "Alsace - Lorraine". They wanted revenge and this widely known. France knew that "without Russia's help, the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871, in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine could never be repaired", so it was important France allied with a relatively strong power. Karl Marx said "If Alsace - Lorraine is taken, then France will later make war with Germany in conjunction with France".
In order to determine the importance of the alliance system as a cause for the war we must first explore the origins of these alliances. We will take high-point of the Bismarck system in 1878 as our starting point as the Franco-Prussian war is a key factor for the development of this system. The alliance system ideated by the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck kept peace in Europe but its main aim was, however, to forestall the possibility that, in the event of war, Germany would have to fight it on two fronts (basically France and Russia). This was achieved by diplomatically isolating France so that its dream of recapturing its lost provinces of Alsace-Lorraine couldn't be fulfilled.