A skilled diplomat or an oppurtunitist, which term best described Bismarck's style of leadership between 1871-1890?.
Bismarck, who was mainly known as the Iron Chancellor", was both, a skilled diplomat and an oppurtunitist in his chancellor years 1871-1890. "Bismarck was a Machiavellian and immoral power politician-. (1) He used skill and opportunities to achieve his goals in the foreign and domestic policy. Bismarck used skilled diplomacy as well as opportunism to reach his goals. Did Bismarck really use every opportunity to achieve his goals, without letting anybody know what he really wants? Did he just use the liberals and the socialists? .
Bismarck's influence upon German domestic affairs was no less obvious than his international importance. Soon after its establishment, the empire was concerned by the Kulturkampf, a brutal struggle between the state on the one hand and the Roman Catholic Church and Catholic Center party on the other. The conflict initiated a phase of cooperation between Bismarck and the liberals, who were aggressively anticlerical. Bismarck used the opportunity to work with the liberals. However, the struggle lost strength after Bismarck failed to break the authority of the Center party, which made great gains in the Reichstag in 1878. The detente with the liberals foundered in the late 1870s after Bismarck's rejection to appoint three liberals to his office and his agreement of protective tariffs in place of the liberals' free trade position. Bismarck worked together with the liberals because they got 155 out of 399 votes in the Reichstag elections. The relationship with Bismarck and the liberals was one of compromise; he would have never let them control his policies. He just used the opportunities to be in charge of everything. The relations between Bismarck and the Center party continued to improve, and the chancellor turned his consideration near the socialists, who had improved their power in the Reichstag, mostly after the fusion of the LaSalle and Marxian socialists.
