Unification of Germany

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The growth of the European super powers during the 19th century consisted of the great powers vying for territorial attainments, developing their international influence, and ensuring positive domestic attitudes of their diplomatic actions. Attempting to cement their hegemony of international politics, the Prussian Empire sought to create an ethnically and politically unified German state to rebuff the prominence granted to Austria at the Congress of Vienna. Through the machinations of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and his determination to unite the German lands through “blood and iron”, Germany quickly rose to become the epicenter of European politics and forever changed the geopolitical landscape of Europe. In examining the unification of Germany and its implications for the international system, this paper will explore the prehistory of the unification, significant diplomatic successes and failures during the bolstering of Germany’s power, and the change in the power structure of Germany that ultimately changed the military landscape of the international system and became the precursor for World War I.
Otto Von Bismarck’s ascension to the Chancellorship of Prussia in 1862 marked the beginning of the country’s aggressive move toward unification after lackluster domestic support for the creation of a German state. Undoubtedly, the need to foment support would become crucial if the Bismarck strategy for controlling the Schleswig-Holstein region was to succeed. Solidification of Prussian sentiments toward a new German state involved a multitude of strategic moves to create the illusion that the overall stability of the country was constantly threatened by the actions of neighboring powers, simultaneously creating and exploiting f...

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...aled that the new international landscape was much more diplomatically malleable than early iterations.

Works Cited

Abrams, Lynn. 1995. Bismarck and the German Empire 1871-1918. London: Routledge.
Menning, Ralph. 1996. The Art of the Possible: Documents on Great Power. New York: Mcgraw-Hill College.
Mulligan, William. 2010. "Britain, the ‘German revolution’, and the fall of France, 1870/1." Institute of Historical Research Journal 310-327.
Ollivier, Émile. 1913. The Franco-Prussian War and its Hidden Causes. London: Sir Issac Pitman & Sons.
Smith, Woodruff D. 1978. The German Colonial Empire. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
Stone, James. 1994. "Bismarck and the Containment of France 1873-1877." Canadian Journal of History 281-304.
Townsend, Mary Evelyn. 1930. The Rise and Fall of Germany's Colonial Empire. New York: The Macmillan Company.

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