Bismarck
Bismarck was born in 1815, at Schonhausen, northwest of Berlin, the son of a landowning nobleman (Junker) and an upper-middle-class commoner. In 1862, the Prussian King Wilhelm I appointed him as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Prussia. (Hollyday, 1970:11) To justify the increase of the army, Bismarck warned that "the great questions of the day [meaning German unification] will not be settled by speeches and majority decisions ... but by blood and iron."(Williamson, 1998: 94) Thus, Historians called Bismarck the Chancellor of Blood and Iron. Through the Danish- Prussian War of 1864, the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco- Prussian War of 1870, he unified Germany. He was the first chancellor (1871-90) of the German Empire. However, the successor of Wilhelm I, Wilhelm II, dismissed Bismarck in 1890.This speech was announced to the German Reichstag in 1888, its main point was to claim the necessity of strong German armament because of its geographical position and because it faced a potential anti German coalition. Germany is located in the heart of Europe and has at least three fronts open to an attack. France and Russia could make an alliance against Germany because of their abhorrence to Germany and warlike nature
France was a warlike and restless country but Germany was peace-loving country and not interested in any aggressive war. When Russia refused to renew the Three Emperors League, Bismarck offered the Reinsurance treaty to link Germany and Russia together. Russia thus became a potential ally to France. A German army, stronger than any other nation of equal numbers in the world, was the best way to protect this great achievement. The speech also revealed same racialised ideas. He even proposed to French Prime Minister, Jules Ferry, an Association of continental powers as a counterweight to English colonial supremacy in 1884. In recent years, France had already spent three milliards for improvement of her armament. Although Bismarck described the relations between Germany and France a getting worse, some historians actually believed that the relationship was improving. (Hollyday, 1970:11) The German empire was proclaimed in the hall of Mirrors at Versailles. The Franco- Russian alliance was formed in 1894. The language of the speech is emotional. (Simpson, 1997: 51) Thus, Germany needed to keep its military superiority and increasing the military budget became necessary. Due to the different view of domestic and foreign policies, Bismarck was dismissed in 1890. Even though other countries (implied France and Russia) might wage war against Germany; the enemies would eventually be defeated because of the strong German army and the determination of Germany.
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