The Russians made some gains at Berlin, including independence for her slavic allies Serbia and Montenegro, but the Tsar was disappointed not to have achieved more and blamed Bismarck for this. The settlement that emerged out of the Congress of Berlin did not answer the 'Eastern Question' which the decline of the Ottoman Empire had revealed. The long-term causes of the First World War He invited the powers to a Congress at Berlin in June 1878 which successfully avoided war for now, but also lay the foundations for the war that finally would break out in 1914. Bismarck had no interest in the Balkans but he feared war would destroy his European order. Austria and Britain prepared to defend the Ottoman Empire. The Austrians saw an opportunity to their south to make up for their northern losses to the Prussians and the British feared Russian ambitions would threaten access to their Suez canal. The southern European slavic nations' desire for independence from Turkish rule encouraged the support of Russia who declared war on the Ottomans in 1877. The continued decline of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans provided another test of the stability of the European peace. In reality the Three Emperor's League did nothing to limit French ambitions to reclaim her lost territories. (What is the meaning of the cartoon opposite? Clue - Bismarck's estates were in Varzin, Warcino in modern day Poland) As France recovered after the shock of 1870-1, the threat to Bismarck's new European order became apparent. Central to his plans was keeping France isolated diplomatically. The Three Emperors League created by Bismarck in 1873 brought Tsar Alexander II, Emperor Franz Joseph I and Kaiser Wilhelm I together in a vague agreement to co-operate in preserving the general European peace. This net included a modest state pension plan, medical insurance and insurance against disability caused by industrial accidents.Īfter 1871 Bismarck's diplomacy was focused on the maintenance of the new European order he had created. He also introduced a series of paternalistic laws designed to provide a basic social safety net for German workers. But Bismarck did not rely on simple banning and censorship to eliminate socialism from German political and social life. The antisocialist laws were renewed regularly until 1890 by which time the growth of the German socialist movement had been curtailed. Socialist newspapers were banned and meetings outlawed. Two failed attempts on the Kaiser Wilhelm's life gave Bismarck the reasons he needed. After 1878 the abrupt end to the Kulturkampf allowed Bismarck to focus the repressive power of the state on Germany's socialists. The rise of this working class movement and its revolutionary threat to capitalism became an obsession for the ruling classes across Europe. Most importantly Bismarck was now looking for conservative ally to help him fight the rising threat of socialism. The Centre Party was strongly protectionist and tariffs would also bring money into the state. In addition, a worldwide depression and a flood of American and British goods into German markets meant that protectionism, rather than free trade, had become popular with Germany's major industrialists. Despite the persecution of Catholics, the conservative Centre Party was doing well in the elections. As in Switzerland the Jesuits were essentially expelled from Germany.ġ878-1890: Bismarck and the Centre (Catholic) Partyīy 1878 the situation in Germany had changed. Schools were brought under the authority of the state. To meet this challenge, Bismarck declared a legislative war against the Catholic Church in Germany, what liberals called a Kulturkampf a "cultural war" between the Church and the state. When, in 1870, Pope Pius IX introduced the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, he seemed to be demanding the opposite from German Catholics and as such posed a direct challenge to the authority of the German state. He believed Catholics within the Reich were Germans first and as such owed primary allegiance to the Crown, not to Rome. For Bismarck it had nothing to do with individual rights. The Empire contained a significant Catholic minority, especially in the southern states and this interest group formed the core of the Centre Party that took seats in the Reichstag. Liberals were ideologically opposed to any role for the Church, any Church, in affairs of state, infringing as they saw it on natural individual rights.
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