On Bismarck's Foreign Policy

Ottovon Bismarck(1815-1898) was the prime minister of the Kingdom of Prussia(1862-1890),the German Reich's prime minister(1871-1890), who was also named as the prime minister of "blood and iron" because he carried out the policy of "blood and iron" during the unification of Germany. He claimed that Germany's future did not lie in the Prussian liberalism,but in the power,blood and iron.He hoped that he could achieve the reunification of Germany thoroughly by the War Dynasty.Before unification, Germany had many states,among which Austria was the most powerful forces and Prussia was under its ranks.Bismarck,in the situation that Prussia was not dominant,fully played its role as an outstanding statesman and diplomat of the superb strategy,in a pragmatic manner,through the means of violence,with a broad vision and far-reaching ideas,completing the unification of Germany step by step.After the reunification of Germany,Bismarck created his next goal:to dominate the European continent.Bismarck continued to make good use of strategies,and skillfully used all diplomatic means.He had an accurate grasp of the complex relations between Germany,Austria,Russia,these three countries and the United Kingdom,as well as the subtle interaction and the best solutions for both sides so that Berlin had become Europe's ruling Center for International Affairs.Bismarck seeked to win over Russia to isolate France from Russia;joint Austro-Hungarian Empire to inhibit the expansion of Russia in Europe;win over Britain to aggravate Russian-British confrontation,which constituted an extremely complex network of foreign affairs.Although there were many crises occurred during the implement of this these policies,his smooth diplomacy had balanced the contradictions among the European powers thus maintaining the peace for many years.Bismarck's foreign policy was worthy of our serious in-depth studying and exploring.We could see the historical influence by a far-sighted statesman,and Bismarck's foreign policy and his principles were even the references to today's China.The first part of this article is the introduction the background of Bismarck' foreign policy,in terms of history,domestic and international economy and politics and so on.The second and third parts are the focuses of this paper,respectively discusses Bismarck's main foreign policy and diplomatic principle,with the essential analysis and summaries in all-angles. The fourth part is the overall evaluation through analyzing the case of Bismarck diplomacy.