The Unification of Germany

Prussian Chancellor Bismarck, known for the phrase “iron and blood,” unified Germany through military force. In the process, the balance of power in Europe was greatly transformed.

Bismarck and the Blood-and-Iron Policy

Prussian Chancellor Bismarck (Otto von Bismarck) took office in 1862 and promoted military expansion despite opposition from parliament. His policy is called the Blood-and-Iron Policy because of his speech stating that “the great questions of the present will not be decided by speeches or majority votes, but only by iron and blood.” Bismarck skillfully used diplomacy and war to unify Germany in three stages. In 1864, Prussia and Austria jointly fought Denmark and gained Schleswig-Holstein. In 1866, he started the Prussian-Austrian War against Austria and won in only seven weeks, excluding Austria from German unification and dissolving the German Confederation.

The Franco-Prussian War and the Establishment of the German Empire

In 1870, Bismarck provoked France into declaring war through a diplomatic plot, the Ems Dispatch Affair. In the Prussian-French War (Franco-Prussian War), Napoleon III was captured and the Second French Empire collapsed. France ceded Alsace-Lorraine, a region rich in iron ore, and paid a large indemnity. On January 18, 1871, Prussian King Wilhelm I became German emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, once the magnificent palace of Louis XIV, and the German Empire was established. Holding the coronation ceremony on French territory deeply humiliated the French people and became one of the distant causes of the First World War.

Practice

1. Which Prussian chancellor was known for the “Blood-and-Iron Policy”?
2. What was another name for the Prussian-Austrian War of 1866?
3. Give the date and place where the German Empire was established.