How Successful Was Bismarck in Bringing About the Full Unification of Germany in the Years 1871-78?
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- Category: History: European
- Date Submitted: 09/30/2014 01:20 PM
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How successful was Bismarck in bringing about the full unification of Germany in the years 1871-78?
To unify a number of things or people, you join or bring them together, they become a whole or they agree to work together for a particular purpose. I think that Bismarck was successful in bringing about the full unification of Germany, although some of his goals were not achieved until after 1878. For example, when Bismarck and von Bennigsen began the process of standardising law based on Prussian law codes, a national penal code was introduced in 1872, but the full codification of civil law was not completed until 1900.
Although Bismarck’s reasons for wanting to bring about the full unification of Germany are often debated, he did in many ways manage it, there were many new laws passed that unified Germany, for example, from 1876, the mark became the only legal tender, this meant that as there was only one currency through the Reich, the German people would feel more equal as they were all using the same currency and this will have been good for the economy.
Bismarck favoured Germanisation in the East; in 1872-3, German was made the only language to be used in schools in the polish speaking areas, and in 1876, it was made the sole language of commerce. This shows that Bismarck’s efforts were being realised as Germany became united in language, currency and culture. Although it appears that Bismarck successfully managed to unify most of the areas who had never wanted to be part of Germany, it seems he never succeeded in truly integrating the people of provinces such as Alsace-Lorraine with the rest of Germany as Alsace repeatedly elected deputies committed to the separation of the area from Germany.
The Kulturkampf is one event that did not appear to go as planned for Bismarck but ended up helping him to achieve full unification of Germany, as his subsequent relations with Papacy were good and in 1885 he even proposed the Pope as a mediator in Germany’s colonial...
To unify a number of things or people, you join or bring them together, they become a whole or they agree to work together for a particular purpose. I think that Bismarck was successful in bringing about the full unification of Germany, although some of his goals were not achieved until after 1878. For example, when Bismarck and von Bennigsen began the process of standardising law based on Prussian law codes, a national penal code was introduced in 1872, but the full codification of civil law was not completed until 1900.
Although Bismarck’s reasons for wanting to bring about the full unification of Germany are often debated, he did in many ways manage it, there were many new laws passed that unified Germany, for example, from 1876, the mark became the only legal tender, this meant that as there was only one currency through the Reich, the German people would feel more equal as they were all using the same currency and this will have been good for the economy.
Bismarck favoured Germanisation in the East; in 1872-3, German was made the only language to be used in schools in the polish speaking areas, and in 1876, it was made the sole language of commerce. This shows that Bismarck’s efforts were being realised as Germany became united in language, currency and culture. Although it appears that Bismarck successfully managed to unify most of the areas who had never wanted to be part of Germany, it seems he never succeeded in truly integrating the people of provinces such as Alsace-Lorraine with the rest of Germany as Alsace repeatedly elected deputies committed to the separation of the area from Germany.
The Kulturkampf is one event that did not appear to go as planned for Bismarck but ended up helping him to achieve full unification of Germany, as his subsequent relations with Papacy were good and in 1885 he even proposed the Pope as a mediator in Germany’s colonial...