Diplomatic History of Europe 1500 - 2000 | The Bismarckian System (Lecture 21)

Lecture 21: After Bismarck had forged the German Empire, the new challenge that faced him was finding a way of reconciling the powerful new empire’s neighbors to the fact of the German Revolution and presenting Germany as a guarantor of stability. This lecture examines the period from 1871 to 1894, as we follow the development, functioning, and eventual breakdown of the Bismarckian system of diplomacy, which could not long outlast the firing of Bismarck himself in 1890. We consider the repeated crises weathered by the European state system in this period, the tangled webs of alliances woven by Bismarck, and the perilous trends strengthening at this time.

Essential Reading:
Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy, pp. 137–67.

Supplementary Reading:
A. J. P. Taylor, Bismarck: The Man and the Statesman, pp. 123–274.