Otto von bismarck biography summary of 100

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Initially, he refused the ducal title, which he received upon his dismissal from office, only to later accept—which was the highest rank of the non-sovereign nobility, and was styled “serene highness.”

A Junker, Bismarck held deep conservative, monarchist and aristocratic views. The major battles were all fought in one month (August 7 to September 1) and the French were defeated in every battle.

In 1858, Friedrich Wilhelm IV suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed and mentally disabled. During the early 1880s, Germany joined other European powers in the “Scramble for Africa.” Among Germany's colonies were German Togoland (now part of Ghana and Togo), Cameroon, German East Africa (now Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania), and German South-West Africa (now Namibia).

He excluded Austria from a unified Germany, for he sought to make Prussia the most powerful and dominant component of the nation.

The Kulturkampf won Bismarck a new supporter in the secular National Liberal Party. Wilhelm replied that he wasn't willing to open his reign with a bloody campaign against his subjects. However, he also implemented progressive policies, including social insurance laws (1881-1889).

Foreign Policy

Isolation of France and European Alliances

Bismarck established a complex system of alliances to ensure Germany's isolation of France and maintain peace in Europe.

Other laws restricted the employment of women and children. In the role of an “honest broker,” Bismarck was also successful in maintaining peace and stability in Europe by settling arising political conflicts through negotiations. But, after the realignment caused by the Prussian war with Austria, Gramont wanted to humiliate Prussia so as to restore French primacy in Europe.

These efforts, however, were not entirely successful; the working class largely remained unreconciled with Bismarck's conservative government. He then escalated a quarrel with Austria and its German allies over the administration of these provinces into a war, in which Prussia was the victor. In 1851, King Frederick Wilhelm IV appointed Bismarck as Prussian representative to the German Confederation.

In December 1862, Bismarck told the Austrian ambassador that the situation would eventually lead to war unless equality became a fact.

The Franco-Prussian War

Bismarck spent much of the year prior to the outbreak of hostilities at Varzin, his country home, recovering from jaundice, and was hardly in a position to initiate a war.

Bismarck resigned at Wilhelm II's insistence in 1890, at age 75, to be succeeded as chancellor of Germany and minister-president of Prussia by Leo von Caprivi.

This was a promotion in his career as Russia was one of the two most powerful neighbors (the other being Austria). Although socialist organizations were forbidden, socialists could still gain seats in the Reichstag; under the German Constitution, candidates could run independently, unaffiliated with any party. His king (later emperor), Wilhelm I, rarely challenged the chancellor's decisions; on several occasions, Bismarck obtained his monarch's approval by threatening to resign.

A suitable premise for war arose in 1870, when the German prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was offered the Spanish throne, which had been vacant since a revolution in 1868.