2 To What Extent Were Bismarck S Domest

To what extent was Bismarck’s domestic and foreign policy a success?
In the period after German unification (1871-1890), Otto Von Bismarck had to face lots of problems both on the domestic and foreign fronts that proved his political and practical skills. Many historians said when commenting Bismarck’s policies after his death that the ‘Iron Chancellor’- as he was also nicked-named - had many successes in both domestic and foreign policies but also had to face some failures, especially regarding domestic policies. Overall, historians all agree by saying that: ‘during the reign of Kaiser William I, Bismarck was the most powerful man in the Empire and completely dominated the government of the Reich’. There have been various schools of thought in the past few years that have claimed that Bismarck was wrong in probably focusing too much on his domestic policies among which were reducing the power that Church had in southern Germany and trying to strengthen the party of the ‘Free Conservatives’, the closest one to him, party of big business that helped and supported him during the years before unification.
Focusing on his domestic policies it is possible to identify four main events as the most important ones in Bismarck’s attempts to put his credo in practice. They are; the “Kulturkampf”, germanization, economic change and his attempts to curb the growth of socialism.
Bismarck started the Kulturkampf (struggle for Civilisation) because in 1870 the Catholic Centre party (Zentrum) was formed. Its goal was to defend the interests of Catholics within the Reich. Bismarck feared them a lot because he thought that they would give their allegiance to Rome and not to the Reich. That is why he harassed them as a ‘state within a state’. Bismarck began his work to reduce the Zentrum power by introducing the “May laws” that instituted Civil marriage, one of the first countries in the world to do so; candidates for the priesthood had to attend a German University and the laws also extended State control over the education of the clergy. These facts can be seen as a success of his domestic policies but as it was shown by history the Catholic Church reacted against this laws and at the end even Bismarck himself believed that the Zentrum could actually become an ally of his government. This last fact can surely be seen as a big failure of his Kulturkampf policy also as Carr wrote: ”the chancellor had to cut his losses before the Empire was seriously weakened by a campaign that had only succeeded in deepening the confessional divisions in Germany.”
Bismarck tried to Germanize the state 's national minorities, situated mainly in the borders of the empire, examples can be the Danes in the North of Germany, the French of Alsace-Lorraine and the Poles in the East of Germany. Regarding the Poles, he was very hostile against them. He introduced many policies against polish rights and freedom. The policies were motivated by Bismarck 's view that Polish existence was a threat to the German state. Bismarck compared Polish population to animals that need to be shot and privately confessed that he would like to exterminate them. in order to achieve his goal Bismarck made Poles marry to Germans, so that they couldn’t claim themselves as full Poles anymore. It can be said that Bismarck was successful in this policy of Germanizing national minorities in German.
It can be said that the period after unification was one of economic prosperity for Germany. This phase of Bismarck’s domestic policies is absolutely a success because so many innovations were introduced into the German economy and these included: the invention of the internal combustion engine (1876), the electric train (1879), the telephone network introduced into Berlin (1881), four-wheeled cars were patented by Daimler and Benz. As proof of all this, it can be pointed out that Germany in 1900 rivaled British economy as continental Europe’s largest. Railways, coal and iron production quadrupled in less than twenty years. The growth of German economy brought about workers’ development as well and this expanded the consensus that the SPD had in Germany. , Bismarck tried to curb their expansion by introducing the anti-socialist laws, but the Socialist party started to revolt against Bismarck’s rules and this led to the introduction of measures such as the ‘accident insurance law’ or the ‘old age pension scheme’--all of these measures were used by Bismarck to calm down protests all over the country and allowed him as well to recover consensus, such that Massie said: ‘Bismarck had given the German working class the most advanced social legislation in the world.’ This phase of domestic policies can be interpreted both as a success to some extent, if one looks at economic and social legislation but also as a failure if one looks at his goal of defeating the SPD.
Focusing on Bismarck’s foreign policies, one can pick out five main events that occurred: formation of the Dreikaiserbund (1873), the congress of Berlin (1878), the Dual Alliance (1879), the renewal of the Deikaiserbund (1881), the reinsurance treaty (1887).
Bismarck had two main goals after unification: limiting the power of France and preventing a war in Europe. In order to isolate France he formed, along with Russia and Austria, the Dreikaiserbund (league of the three emperors). It also insured co-operation among the three powers rather than rivalry which was Bismarck’s primary objective. This can be seen as a great success in his foreign policies. The congress of Berlin was proposed by Bismarck to settle the revolts that were occurring in the Balkans during the 1870s. Bismarck did not want a war to break out and his goal was to preserve peace. Unfortunately for him the results of the congress disappointed Russia, which withdrew from the Dreikaiserbund. Tensions between the two countries grew vastly, and Bismarck’s introduced tariffs against Russian grain imports. The congress of Berlin was a big failure by Bismarck in his foreign policies.
The Dual Alliance was born as a secret pact between Germany and Austria because Bismarck saw he could reap two benefits out of it: securing the German southern frontier in case of a war with Russia and also frightening Russia from seeking a closer relationship with Germany. In 1882 Bismarck wanted Italy to join it, thus making it become a Triple Alliance so that France could lose a potential ally. The Dual Alliance was one of Bismarck’s successes in foreign policy. The Renewal of the Dreikaiserbund was also a great success in foreign policy because it reunited Germany, Austria and Russia together, and it also reduced tensions in the Balkans between Russia and Austria. This renewal also prevented a big European war between France, Germany and Russia. As Carr said: ’Germany faced the real danger of war on two fronts if she was on bad terms with France and Russia simultaneously.’
After analyzing both domestic and foreign policies and after looking at both successes and failures of Bismarck’s policy, it can be spontaneous to say that Bismarck showed greater political skill in foreign affairs than in domestic affairs. This statement can be strengthened by quoting Joll,who says: ‘In the years between 1870 and 1890 it was German foreign policy that dominated the international scene.’
Simone Sacchetti IB History

Bibliography: http://quizlet.com/19577943/ib-history-bismarcks-domestic-and-foreign-policy-flash-cards/ http://italiangermanuni.wikispaces.com/Bismarck+Domestic+%26+Foreign+Policies http://www.historyhome.co.uk/europe/bisdom.htm http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/imperialism/notes/bismarck.html

Bibliography: http://quizlet.com/19577943/ib-history-bismarcks-domestic-and-foreign-policy-flash-cards/ http://italiangermanuni.wikispaces.com/Bismarck+Domestic+%26+Foreign+Policies http://www.historyhome.co.uk/europe/bisdom.htm http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/imperialism/notes/bismarck.html