The German Empire: A Short History by Michael Sturmer

Author:Michael Sturmer [Sturmer, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Europe, Germany, History, Military
ISBN: 9780307432254
Google: 6v6vXqvSeFgC
Amazon: B000XUBETS
Publisher: Modern Library
Published: 2007-12-18T03:00:00+00:00

5

EUROPE—A CONCERT NO MORE

The repose of Europe, as British statesmen of the early decades of the nineteenth century used to describe the balance of power, had been rudely disturbed by the national and social revolutions of 1830 and 1848 all over Europe. Ever since, the foundations of power and legitimacy had been shaky.

Governments and regimes now had to prove, not their ancient lineage but their effectiveness in dynamic nation-states, providing jobs, raising incomes and harnessing modern industry to the needs of society. Rising populations and the quickening pace of industrialization made it imperative to secure raw materials and to open markets. The new mood from the Bristol Channel to the wetlands of the Vistula was a constant forward flight to produce consensus within societies driven by class conflict at home and competition abroad. Germany was no exception.

In 1871 the British government watched, with some unease, how the balance on the Continent was forcefully rearranged through the German triumph over France. While the war was being wound up, Benjamin Disraeli gave expression to deep-seated anxieties about the implications of what had happened on the European continent in the course of the last decade. He termed it “the German revolution,” betraying through this term that the events defied traditional British statesmanship and balance of power politics.

Disraeli had looked far into the future but subsequent British governments, including his own, took a much more relaxed view of the new Germany. When, as Lord Beaconsfield and Prime Minister, he attended the Berlin Congress in 1878, he appreciated Bismarck’s performance, and Bismarck returned the compliment saying, “Der alte Jude, das ist der Mann.” Her Majesty’s Government, concerned about the Great Game in central Asia against the Russians who were advancing towards India, as well as with French meddling in Africa, much appreciated Germany’s mediating role at the Congo Conference convoked in Berlin in 1884 to delineate borders. Bismarck and his British counterparts, however, never found enough common ground to come to a formal understanding. Bismarck feared what he called “a German Gladstone cabinet” and did everything to prevent it. To him, and to the social milieu he came from, parliamentary government was a contradiction in terms, parliaments invariably being seen as divided, weak and incapable of organizing national strength. Germany’s exposed position in the center of Europe gave an added argument for keeping ultimate control in the hands of a military monarchy. But regardless of differences in philosophy and power structure, the silent alliance between Britain and Germany worked well under Bismarck and for a few years after. The dynastic ties between the House of Hohenzollern and the House of Hanover looked like a promise of partnership throughout Europe and the world. Queen Victoria, “Grandmother of Europe,” was also the grandmother of Crown Prince William, who came to the throne in 1888.

By the time Bismarck had to leave the Chancellor’s office in 1890, France and Russia were working to forge an alliance in both commercial and military terms. French capital markets were supplying Russian industrialization

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