![]() But diplomacy, no matter how skilled, could not overcome geopolitical realities. ![]() As Germany’s Chancellor, Bismarck spent the next twenty years using his considerable diplomatic skills to maintain the general peace of Europe. The Kingdom of Prussia, under the guiding genius of Otto von Bismarck, waged three short and successful wars between 18 to establish the German Empire in the center of the continent. Taylor called the Congress of Berlin “a watershed in the history of Europe.” It demonstrated, wrote Taylor, that “a new balance of power centered on Germany had come into existence.”Ī united Germany was the most important geopolitical development of the second half of the nineteenth century in Europe. When events threatened to upset the general balance of power, European statesmen gathered in conferences, such as the Congress of Berlin in 1878, to resolve disputes without resorting to major wars. ![]() The Concert of Europe had survived revolutionary stirrings in 18, the unification of Italy in 1861, the creation of the German Empire in 1871, the scramble for imperial possessions by the great powers, small wars, and minor crises. The Concert of Europe, established after Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo and which had maintained the “general” peace of Europe for a century, gave way to what Raymond Aron called the century of total war.Īt the dawn of the twentieth century, few statesmen and observers sensed the gathering storm. ![]() Kennan called the First World War the “seminal catastrophe of century.” Between 19, the major powers of Western civilization waged brutal and unrelenting war against each other, resulting in the fall of four empires, the collapse of the religious and monarchical old order of Europe, and its replacement by secularism, relativism, ideological fanaticism, and totalitarian politics. The American diplomat and historian George F. ![]()
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