Otto von Bismarck, or the Prince of Bismarck, was a conservative statesman in Prussia during the 19th century. His father was a wealthy, land-owning noble, while his mother was from a family of successful academics and government ministers. During his time as a leader he became known as the “Iron Chancellor” due his decisive victories and annexation of Germany, Austria, and France; he united thirty-nine countries under Prussian leadership. A major revolution to occur was the revolutions of 1848, where Blood and Iron is focused. The revolutions sparked in what is now modern day France, and quickly spread throughout Prussia, because the people were dissatisfied with their government leaders and had very little trust in their policies. The outcome …show more content…
Otto von Bismarck degrades the government himself to try to make a point towards the common man. Keep in mind that he has some political influence towards the common man, as he made it legal for every man to vote in Prussia. He criticizes the upper class, although he is an aristocrat himself, in order to try to get the people of Prussia to submit and accept his leadership. He simply doesn’t want another bloody revolution to occur, yet he is ignorant to what political changes must take place. He momentarily goes into greed, implying that he believes the people fighting to oppose him are greedy, and only want what’s best for themselves and not for what is best for the nation. In his speech he makes it sound like he only wants what is best for Prussia, but he truly is just pandering to that “common-man” in order to keep his political influence …show more content…
Although he was seemingly talking down to these people he very vaguely mentions the actual revolution, and uses “we” a lot, but not as in “We, the people” but more of “We, the politicians”. He speaks with a proper tone, as if this speech weren’t for the people until the final sentence “Prussia’s borders according to the Vienna Treaties [of 1814-15] are not favorable for a healthy, vital state; it is not by speeches and majority resolutions that the great questions of the time are decided – that was the big mistake of 1848 and 1849 – but by iron and blood.” He uses this purposefully to spark emotion within his audience. His audience consists of the people that were directly affected by the 1848 Revolutions, Prussians, and will most likely have an emotional tie to the events of the revolution. In this last sentence he wants to bring out the humanity in people in order to discourage another spur of revolutions to prevent another bloody conflict. He wants to keep his people under control by his government, not within
Napoleon III and Bismarck are similar in the way they employed the idea of Realpolitik when making decisions in that they both switched back and forth from liberal to conservative agendas in order to gain more power. After the National Assembly denied him of being able to stand for reelection and revise the Constitution, Napoleon III seized control of the government through the use of troops, showing that he is willing to do whatever it takes to have power. Napoleon III also managed to switch from liberal to conservative ideals depending on which one benefited him. For example, he advocated a legislative body that would be elected by universal male suffrage to appeal to the growing liberalists in France. On the other hand, once he was reelected,
Prussia had been a relatively conservative nation for a while with the monarch as the central point of power and Fredrick William did not want to change that at all, he spent years passing constitutions and electing representative bodies to keep his control. When in 1848 when rebellion began in Berlin to avoid upsetting many he refused to send in troops hoping the rebellion would fissile out. He even made concessions in their liberal favor and allowed a re-election. When the rebellion didn’t diminish a few days after his announcement of concessions he sent in troops to clear out the square, which ending in killing a few people. When angry protestors surrounded the palace Fredrick William IV showed respect to those who had died in the clearing of the square the day before and made even more concessions allowing an assembly to form. However soon the assembly soon revealed it was full of strong liberal radicals and he soon dismissed the assembly and filled it with more conservatives, showing just how deeply conservative Fredrick William was and how unwilling he was to change.
After the struggle of the Seven Years’ War, Frederick the Great considered more benevolent policies for the country of Prussia. He realized that more humane sta...
Frederick the great believed that the idea of Prussian buacracy was that if you pay people well you would get loyalty. Frederick saw government as a contract with his people. Frederick was a very enlightened ruler. He believed that God had not chosen him to be Prussia's ruler. This was shocking because in Frederick's time kings were thought to be chosen from God. Frederick was enlightened in three ways. He didn't allow government officials to take money. He didn't allow his subjects to be tortured. Finally, he had religious toleration. Frederick found that it was time to expand Prussia into a great nation so he conducted a series of wars. These wars were called the Silesian Wars. Frederick started these wars for three reasons. The first reason was to show the rest of Europe how powerful Prussia was. The second reason was Frederick had an ambition to expand Prussia. The final reason was that silesia had over 1,000,000 people. This was half the size of his nation. More people meant more money for his army.
When Otto von Bismarck was recalled from Paris to become Minister-President of Prussia in 1862, German nationalism was already more than 40 years old. First apparent in the opposition to Napoleon´s occupation of the German states, national feeling grew into a movement after 1815. This feeling was encouraged by a growth of interest in German literature and music and by increased economic cooperation between the north German states. By 1848 it was strong enough to make the creation of a united Germany one of the main demands of the revolutionaries. Otto von Bismarck was a Prussian patriot who inherited the traditions of love of king, army and country from his family.
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.
(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.
For example, in Herman Wagener’s memorandum, or private letter, to Otto Von Bismarck, he gave recommendations on strategies to strengthen the army and essentially gain more dominance and power (doc 3). Herman Wagener, being a conservative politician, advised Bismarck in the private letter that he shift the masses’ opinion while strengthening the power and reliability of the army. Also, Kaiser Wilhelm 1 made a speech to Reichstag proposing that they enforce “... the repression of Social Democratic excesses ...” (doc 5) and also promote workers’ welfare. This German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm 1, made his speech to Reichstag naturally hoping to influence the parliament to support Bismarck by saying that they need to convict the socialists in order to cure defects which will lead to more support from many people and more power. In addition, in 1884 Bismarck spoke in support of the Socialists, in support of their ideas, and apologized for the proposal that the government tried to win more support for the Anti-Socialist law (doc 6). Bismarck made this speech in support of the Socialists in order to gain their support to increase his dominance and power. Finally, Eugen Richter wrote a newspaper article in 1890 explaining Chancellor Otto Von
Frederick II, the Great, overcame the resource limitations within Prussia by mastering three aspects of the western way of war: the ability to finance war, possessing a highly disciplined military, and an aggressive mindset toward achieving quick decisive victory, which established Prussia as a major European power. Frederick II accomplished this feat while being surrounded by powerful neighbors that possessed larger populations, armies, and financial excess. His initial assessment on the state of his Prussian inheritance from his personal writings follows:
He is reminding us what is expected of us from that point forward. Repeating the word “people” he wanted his ideas cemented in the heads of his audience. “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
The focus of this study is the effect that Otto Von Bismarck's leadership and politics had on Pre-World War One tensions in Europe. This study investigates to what extent the actions of Otto Von Bismarck led to World War One. The focus of this study is the period between Bismarck's appointment to Minister President of Prussia on September 23, 1862 and the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war on Serbia on July 28, 1914. Bismarck's earlier career is discussed briefly but only as a method to understand his political attitudes. And similarly, as Bismarck was removed from office in 1890, the only events discussed between 1890 and 1914 will be based off of policies instilled by Bismarck, not those of Wilhelm II.
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
He feels that the Versailles treaty was a disgrace and guaranteed to regain German lands. This signals the real nature of Hitler, a leader that although exceptionally charismatic, was an extremely deranged man. Hitler was an
The Franco-Prussian War (also called the Franco-German War) was a military conflict between France and Germany that occurred from 1870 to 1871. The idea of a unified German nation was very popular at the time. The other major nations of Europe feared that a unified Germany would be a threat on the global stage. Germany had recently been victorious under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in 1864 against Denmark and 1866 against Austria. These victories helped “establish Prussia as the dominant power among the German states” (“Franco-Prussian War”). Bismarck negotiated an alliance with the southern German states and prepared the Prussian army for war against France because Bismarck saw “French opposition as a major obstacle to German unification” (“Franco-Prussian War”).
“Bismarck and German Nationalism.” The American Historical Review Vol. 60, No.3 (1955): pg. 78. 548-556.