Not only expelling Austria, Bismarck’s diplomatic skills were very useful when carrying out “blood and iron” policy. He was able to provoke or trap his enemies to war so that he could unify the German states which were under foreign control. He started 3 wars, namely Danish-Prussian War (1864), Austro-Prussian War (1866), Franco-Prussian War (1870) to accomplish the unification.
With regard to wars, Bismarck used his skilful diplomacy to trap each enemy and sow future conflicts for the next war. The first was Denmark. Denmark controlled Schleswig and Holstein, two places mainly inhabited by Germans. In fact, the proposal of “lesser Germany” included these two places. Therefore, Bismarck made use of the crisis that Danish king incorporated Schleswig as part of Denmark to start the Danish-Prussian War. In this war, Schleswig was unified and Holstein again was used as an excuse for starting war against Austria. In this way, Bismarck sowed the seeds for Austro-Prussian War. Finally, Austria was defeated and expelled from presidency of German Confederation. The Northern part of Germany was unified by this war and North German Confederation was formed. The next was a war with France. Bismarck trapped France early in the Austro-Prussian War. The Biarritz meeting, which secured French neutrality in the war, promised Rhineland to France.
No written agreement was reached and this provided grounds for future war against France to achieve the unification.
Apart from trapping enemies, Bismarck was an opportunist. He was able to make use of every crisis to start war against enemies. For example, in the Danish-Prussian War, the incorporation of Schleswig into Denmark stirred up protest in Germany. Bismarck could use this as an excuse to start war. What’s more, in the war against Austria, he stirred up trouble in Schleswig and accused Austria in doing so. Not only increasing hostility of France by the false promise of Rhineland, the Spanish Succession Question was used to provoke war with France. Bismarck, this time, tactfully changed the original Ems Telegram so as to make it seemed insulting to France’s ambassador and by this France declared war on Prussia. In this sense, he grasped every opportunity to start war to achieve unification.
Also, Bismarck got foreign aid to isolate the war enemies. He knew Prussia would lose the war if a third party intervened. Thus, in the 3 wars, he tried to win friendship of other countries. Russian neutrality in the Danish-Prussian War was secured for the sake of helping Russia to suppress Polish revolt in1863. Hence, it was sure that no one would help Denmark. Later, he also obtained the neutrality from Russia and France for the war with Austria. The promise of ceding Rhineland for sure made France not to interfere into the war against Austria. Bismarck knew when to keep friendship and when to let it lapse. By treating Austria leniently in the Treaty of Prague, Bismarck for sure won the future friendship of Austria and prevented possible revenge of Austria. He let the French friendship end, as it was necessary to start war with France to finish the unification. He also won the support of Southern German states by revealing the French ambition. Thereby, he could complete the unification of Germany.
To sum up, Bismarck was a very skilful diplomat that he could exclude Austria, start war, set traps for future war and isolate enemies. He also made use of every opportunity to start disputes with foreign countries in order to accomplish the goal of unifying Germany. By his skilful diplomacy and the 3 wars he provoked, the unification was completed and the new German Empire was born in 1871.
