off the voting and democratic reform was to militarize them, turn their thoughts to problems outside Germany, setting them into a war with the Dutch. I saw no sense in this, but obviously Otto von Bismarck did. This militarizing of the mittelstand did create more unity in the German populace. Many different regions could now see that they were all German, and not just a conglomerate of different peoples. National pride grew from this new unity, which is another factor in the growing desire to expand the German Empire. I also cannot help but think that these new thoughts of nationalism were also a primary reason that Hitler could grow in power. It amazes me how quickly national pride can grow to a hate of other races.Bismarck, an agrarian Junker, is credited with doing what no one else could. The city-states of Germany were at one time bound together with the thought of never being unified, but Bismarck changed all this, bringing a multitude of small provinces under the rule of Austria and Prussia, Bismarck ruling both from his seat in Prussia.Bismarck saw all the small provinces as not being Hamburgs or Hapsburgs, but as all being German, and he brought it all together under his iron rule. He supposedly was bringing about the wishes and desires of William I, but even Wilhelmine scholars know that Bismarck is the one who called the shots. He kept the Junkers in power, and suppressed the complaints of the German people with making war against others, in the effort to get their minds off the troubles at home. I believe Bismarck succeeded in accomplishing what he set out to do, and it might have worked better, had the Chancellors who followed after him had the same will and determination as he. No one, it seems, was able to match Bismarcks will in this, and Germany suffered as a result. There lies the failure of Bismarck as well. He made the assumption that what he accomplished would outlast him, but instead, it led to more destruction an...
