Bismark had an the idea that Prussia's position in Germany would be made known through military power. The liberals resisted him even though he said this military idea would bring German unification. Bismark carried out his military measure even though Parliament turned down his military reform. Bismark was not met with much resistance since the liberals could not come together to give any resistance. The Prussian king and many others feared that German unification would dilute Prussian power and influence. In order to succeed Bismark had to be very clever. The events that followed gave Prussia a direct link to the Rhineland with the annexation of some of Austrian controlled lands after Prussia defeated Austria. Bismark became a hero. Was Bismarks plan to unify Germany an idea to benefit Prussia or to boost Bismark's popularity?
One may never know the true answer to this question, but I believe that Bismark had more personal gains. I do not think that the Prussian empire was being taken into consideration when Bismrk decided to move forward. He basically did all of these things without the permission of the Prussian king. He was clever enough to make the Prussian king and it's people think that this would benefit them, but as history shows it would not. The unification of Germany did not benefit Prussia, but maybe for a little while, or we would still have a Prussian presence now. Germany as a independent country would soon follow the unification of Germany and Bismark would go down in the history books as the man who started it all.
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I don't know if I'm as cynical as you are Jeff. I tend to think you could look at it as Bismarck looked to increase Prussia's power so that his power and or popularity would increase. As Jenn said in class, he was willing to serve HIS William. In order to make his William more power he needed to expand Prussia, and if that made him more popular, well that was a sacrifice he was willing to make.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting perspective since many people argue that Prussia's taking the lead in German unification resulted in the "Prussification" of Germany rather than the Germanization of Prussia. People often see Germany as reflecting the militaristic and Junker traditions of Prussia rather than the absorption by Prussia of the cultural values of the other German states.
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