How successful was Bismarckas Chancellor in his foreign policies between 1871-1890?

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Verónica Rosinha 5IB

How successful was Bismarck as Chancellor in his foreign policies between 1871-1890?

        The aim of this essay is, as the title suggests, explaining how successful Bismarck’s foreign policies were at a time where diplomatic relations within European powers were extremely important in order to maintain peace and stability.

        By 1871 the German Empire was a federal state composed by four kingdoms – Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Württenberg- whose local governments were called Landstags and were unified by a constitution. However, Prussia was by far the largest and the most powerful of the four kingdoms. Although there was an Assembly – the Reischtag – it had no actual power as Bismarck had the power to rule the way he wanted, only having to obey Kaiser Wilhelm I, who let him rule Germany as he wished. Until then, we can say Bismarck’s primary aims concerning foreign policies were to free Germany from Austrian power by replacing the latter for the influence of Prussia in domestic affairs – Bismarck was a Junker, in other words, he belonged to the Prussian aristocracy – and deflect the hostility of France, which was considered the dominant European Power. After releasing Germany from Austrian power by means of war and having successfully beaten France in the Franco-Prussian War – which helped uniting the different kingdoms that made up Germany - what policies did he undertake and what changes did he make concerning foreign affairs?

        Many historians would agree that the main aim in Bismarck’s foreign policy was to maintain peace and stability in Europe. As it is said in W.L. Langer’s book “European Alliances and Alignments”, he wanted peace at all costs “…for Germany’s sake to avoid any conflict in Europe”. In order to achieve that, Bismarck developed a complex system of alliances that made peace beneficial to all the great powers for most of the time. AJP Taylor, on the other hand, considers that Bismarck firstly wanted to guarantee Germany’s security and if war had to break out, he preferred it to be the farthest possible from German territory. Furthermore, there is also one important aspect that was always present in the decisions he took concerning foreign affairs: his desire to keep France isolated.  How can we describe Bismarck’s policy then? What were his actual aims and what did he do to achieve them?

        As it has been said above, Bismarck was victorious in his Franco-Prussian war: not only did he win, but the outcome of the war – the Treaty of Frankfurt, signed in 1871 – benefited Germany: France had to pay a 5 billion francs war indemnity and the areas of Alsace and Lorraine to be part of Germany. The latter part concerning the territories pleased many German nationalists “This territory is ours by right of the sword” (von Treitschke, a German nationalist referring to Alsace). Moreover, the war showed a new hierarchy of powers in Europe, where Germany was above France, which was the dominant power until then. As D Richards says in the book “An Illustrated History of Europe” (London, 1985), Bismarck thought “Firstly… France would take many years to recover from the Franco-Prussian war. Secondly…he could use the bogey of a French war of revenge to make the Reichstag maintain a high level of German armaments. And thirdly…his diplomatic genius could keep France isolated”. However, not all his expectations turned out to be real. Although he was able to alter the military budget in order to build up a powerful army – not only to reaffirm Germany as a power but to unify it –, France recovered quicker than he expected: by 1873 the war indemnity was paid off and the French Third Republic rebuilt its army increasing its size significantly, which was a threat. That is why Bismarck then focused in keeping France isolated by establishing a complex and perhaps ambiguous system of alliances with Russia and Austria-Hungary. Was he successful? To a certain extent he was, as I will explain later in the essay, but not for a long time because after his dismissal in 1890 the alliance with Russia was dissolved which meant Russia had to turn to France and that would eventually split up Europe in two alliances that led to the outbreak of war in 1914.

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Bismarck’s primary aims were to prevent a war in Europe to maintain Germany’s security, to keep France isolated and to prevent from socialist ideals that were then spreading through Europe and represented a threat to conservative regimes such as Germany’s. What could he then do? In order to guarantee all those he established an alliance with Russia and Austria-Hungary, the Dreikaiserbund (League of the Three Emperors), in 22 October 1873. It consisted of a series of military agreements promising aid to any party in case they were attacked by a fourth power. In part this agreement could be maintained: the ...

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