Another extremely good example others mistakes was the Hollenzollern Candidature crisis in 1870. There was a problem that a new sovereign was needed for Spain, the position had been offered to Prince Leopold, and although declining the first time on the second offer of the crown he accepted. This was much to the displeasure of the French who felt that this was Prussia’s way of creating a threat to France, but having, in effect two Prussia forces on either side. The whole situation lead to a great increase in tension and Bismarck was placed in an awkward position. The mistake was that the French has publicly accused Prussia of allowing Leopold to take the throne and threatening France. This public accusation meant that Bismarck could not just ignore it or quietly work out a solution. Instead he had to refute the French accusation in order to keep the Prussians happy. The second mistake by the French was that after the withdrawal of the candidate, the French ambassador had a meeting with King Wilhelm; in short the French implied a lack of faith in the Prussian monarch and to try to embarrass Prussia. However a telegram from the king to Bismarck about the meeting was edited by Bismarck and released to the press, it portrayed the French in a bad light. Thus it was this final act that lead to the Franco-Prussian war. The mistake to publicly accuse Prussia and then to try and humiliate Prussia after the event had been Frances mistakes and played into Bismarck’s hands that took advantage of the situation and manipulated it to his benefit.
A more subtle point is that it could be seen that on a personal level Bismarck was extremely successful due to the mistakes of others. After the constitutional crisis in 1862 Bismarck proposed the Indemnity Bill to the zollparliament. It meant that Bismarck would be forgiven for any actions, which may have been seen as against Prussia. The liberals, who also made up a large proportion of the nationalists signed this bill and so in a way sold their political views in order for economic views. This was a mistake that has been heavily criticised by many historians such as ……. The mistake was that the liberals were arguably naïve at the time or that nationalism was more important to them than liberalism.
Therefore it can be seen that although in many situations Bismarck’s skill and opportunism was important it was ultimately the mistakes of others that allowed him to progress with unification and have such success.
However it can also be seen that the mistakes of others was a lesser factor in his success and there are more important factors to consider. Firstly the fact that Bismarck was an opportunist was not a small point. Although he was a free opportunist and had responsibilities on him that would mean it impossible for him to be totally opportunist, it was vital in many situations. A key example is the Ems telegram. It was due to Bismarck editing of the telegram and quick skill that meant that Prussia won a propaganda victory as well as almost guaranteeing a war with France and the French being the aggressors. Another example where the skill of Bismarck is apparent is in 1864, Bismarck wanted to remove Austrian influence in the North German Confederation and in 1864 Austria agreed to a division of influence in Germany. Yet on a personal scale possibly Bismarck’s greatest success was at the very beginning, despite the king’s thoughts Bismarck was bought in to sort out the constitutional crisis. It was a complicated situation and Bismarck was well aware that if he did solve it and quickly there would be little need for him in the future. Some historians have said that Bismarck took his time in solving the problems and it could have been achieved earlier. If this is true then it shows his cleverness, not only did he manage to solve the constitutional crisis, get the backing of the liberals and nationalist, remove some Austrian influence and gain more power, he stayed in power and became important to King Wilhelm.
