[Billthedrill]

Lots of context here. Germany had never been united, the Thirty Years' War had taught them one potential price of disunity, and Prussia had long been an aggressive state over-willing to upset the existing European modus vivendi in order to deflect a threat to Prussia - Frederick the Great's forcible annexation of Silesia is a case in point. Bismarck simply brought this pattern of activity to a higher level in forcibly uniting Germany under Prussian leadership. It is difficult to imagine a peaceful way of accomplishing that.

His basic foreign policy following this period of expansion was rather conservative and avoided war - that eventually got him fired in 1890 by the young and very aggressive Wilhelm II, whose own policies came to a thundering head in August 1914. That one didn't end well for Germany.

[GenXteacher]

Not to mention the fact that the Hapsburgs had set themselves up after the Napoleonic Wars to block German unification by Austrian manipulation of the German Confederation post-1815, which was a significant obstacle. We tend to forget the Austro-Hungarian Empire had its own agendas, even in its dotage.....