Bismarck was an exceptional politician and was extremely outspoken but also a great negotiator. He was first installed as Chancellor of Prussia as he had a reputation for employing strong tactics and for being a strong believer in Realpolitik, which meant that, he was going to be harsh with the opposition. Bismarck’s aim was not to unify Germany.

Bismarck was not employed because he was viewed as being the man who could unify Germany, but because Wilhelm I was advised that he was the man that could make Prussia stronger and make them into a power that could challenge Austria. However Bismarck did play a big hand in uniting Germany even though it was not his primary aim from the outset.

By the early 1860’s Bismarck was in a highly favourable situation for implementing his aims. These aims were to seize any possible opportunities that occurred to make Prussia the dominant power in Germany but he was aware that this could result in extreme international ramifications, which could have resulted in a hostile coalition of powers being formed against Prussia. Bismarck was in a favourable situati

Bismarck was aware that war was imminent but didn’t want Prussia to look like the aggressor and this is clearly shown in the earlier military alliances with the southern states, when they state that the states will come to Prussia’s aide if she was attacked. Bismarck went on to engineer a situation whereby the smaller states were forced to abide by their agreements and come to Prussia’s aide. He did this by such events as the Ems telegram situation, and it is unlikely that he engineered this situation so as to unite Germany and create a wave of patriotism, but it is impossible to be sure.

The outcome of the Austro Prussian war in 1866 which was engineered by Bismarck to a certain extent, was not only a Prussian victory, it also resulted in the creation of the Peace of Prague. The Peace of Prague abolished the German federation and created the North German Federation, which was dominated by Prussia, which could hardly be seen as encouraging unification. The other terms of the treaty meant that a large section of Germany as Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, Hesse-cassel, Frankfurt, and Nassau were all annexed by Prussia. The agreement also stated that the smaller southern states of Bavaria, Baden, Wurttemburg, and Hesse-Darmstadt should all remain independent.

Bismarck’s military alliances with the south did awaken a lot of people to the possibility of a united Germany but the alliances weren’t created with that outcome in mind. Unification was not down to planning by Bismarck because it was not something that he had wanted when he came to power or whilst he was in power, until patriotism gripped Germany and it was what the majority of people wanted. Bismarck saw that to go against it would have been political suicide so adhered to popular opinion.

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