The modern world, from Charlemagne to the present time; with a preliminary survey of ancient times . , but to unify Germany and to carry his country tothe front rank of European states. Hitherto he had not figuredvery prominently in publiclife. He was known tobe a country nobleman, a** Junker, of very con-servative views. In therevolution of 1848 he hadstanchly defended theroyal prerogatives, to thedelight of Frederick Wil-liam, who sent him asPrussian delegate to theFrankfort Diet. There herealized the whole ridicu-lous imbecility of the Ger-manic Confederation, butalso the unbending atti-tud
The modern world, from Charlemagne to the present time; with a preliminary survey of ancient times . , but to unify Germany and to carry his country tothe front rank of European states. Hitherto he had not figuredvery prominently in publiclife. He was known tobe a country nobleman, a** Junker, of very con-servative views. In therevolution of 1848 he hadstanchly defended theroyal prerogatives, to thedelight of Frederick Wil-liam, who sent him asPrussian delegate to theFrankfort Diet. There herealized the whole ridicu-lous imbecility of the Ger-manic Confederation, butalso the unbending atti-tude of Austria in thequestion of German became convinced that the only state strong enough to bring about the creation ofa German empire was his own Prussia. Needless to say, hewas now heart and soul in favor of the new army bill whichwould strengthen Prussia for the coming struggle. The par-liament still refused the money for the enlarged army, and sohe ruled without parliament and for four years he collectedtaxes unconstitutionally. Again and again the parliament demanded Bismarcks dis-. BlSMARCK. 682 THE MAKING OF GERMANY [§704 missal, and many violent scenes took place. The Liberalsthreatened to hang him, — as very probably they would havedone if power had fallen to them by another revolution. Bis-marck in turn railed at the Liberals contemptuously as merepedants, and told them bluntly that the making of Germanywas to be * a matter not of speechifying and parliamentarymajorities, but of blood and iron ; he grimly went on bullyingor dissolving parliament, and the king steadfastly stood byhim. Meantime the army was greatly augmented. First of anylarge army, too, it was supplied with the new invention of breech-loading, repeating rifles, instead of the old-fashioned muzzle-loaders ; and Von Moltke, the Prussian chief of staff, madeit the most perfectly organized mihtary body in Europe. Bismarck was now ready to carry out his selfish needed only an opportun
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Keywords: ., bismarck, bookcentury1900, booksubjecthistor, kr7, ottovonbismarck
