BISMARCKIAN SYSTEMS: ANTECEDENTS, FIRST AND SECOND - HISTORY - 2025

The Bismarckian systems are the term used by historians to describe the European situation in the past you decades of the nineteenth century. The ideologue of these systems, and who gives it its name, was the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. He developed a series of alliances that sought to weaken his traditional enemy, France.

German unification and its victory against the French in the Franco-Prussian War placed the Germans in an unbeatable position to consolidate as a great continental power. For this, the first step was to leave France without support, for which Bismarck carried out a series of diplomatic movements with neighboring countries.

Chancellor Otto von Bismarck

This stage is traditionally divided into two parts. The first began in 1872, when the chancellor reached agreements with Russia and Austria. The second began after the Berlin Congress, when Italy joined the alliance.

The strategy worked for quite some time, right up until Bismarck was removed from his post. Even so, his diplomatic work, also known as Armed Peace, was able to maintain the stability of the continent until 1914, when the First World War broke out.

Background

The situation in Europe had been fairly stable since 1815, with the same powers controlling the continent. When the 1970s began, Great Britain, Russia, Germany (formerly Prussia), the Austro-Hungarian Empire and France were the absolute protagonists in continental politics.

Each of the countries had its own area of ​​control, although sometimes clashes occurred between them. Great Britain was the owner of the oceans, controlling the maritime trade routes. Russia was expanding eastward and into the Black Sea area.

For its part, Austria-Hungary had also set its sights on the Balkans, like Russia. Finally, unified Germany was strengthened by its victory against France in 1870.

This configuration - with each power watching over the others so that they did not take advantage in the Balkans, in the new territories that were discovered or in the sea routes - led to a race to modernize and expand their respective military forces.

France

France was the great concern of German foreign policy. While with Great Britain he could maintain a conciliatory position, the French were his strongest adversary for the role of dominator of continental Europe.

This was aggravated by the war between the two countries in 1870. In France the atmosphere was very anti-German and the loss of Alsace and Lorraine was an open wound in the country. In power circles there was talk of returning the blow suffered.

Bismarck

Otto von Bismarck was head of the Prussian government during the war with France. After reunification he was appointed chancellor by the emperor, and immediately began to design a diplomatic plan that would not allow France to recover.

The alliance systems created by the chancellor were called Bismarckian systems. These marked the relations in Europe until the beginning of the First World War. So important was his figure that, when he was dismissed, his alliance policy came to an end.

First Bismarckian system

Since Great Britain, apart from its historical rivalry with France, maintained a very isolationist policy at the time, Bismarck considered that the only possible allies the French could look for were Russia and Austria-Hungary. That is why it was to these countries that the foreign minister decided to address himself.

Although there was some tension between them due to the Balkans, the alliance began to be negotiated in 1872. The respective emperors, Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, Wilhelm I of Germany and Tsar Alexander II of Russia met to agree on the terms. The following year they signed what was called the Pact of the Three Emperors.

Through this agreement, the signatories promised to defend each other in the event of being attacked by a third party. Likewise, they would support any attack initiated by Germany on a non-member country of the pact.

Covenant issues

This first pact did not last long. In 1875 there were two crises that led to its dissolution. On the one hand, France increased its military strength significantly, alarming the Germans. On that occasion, the intermediation of Russia and England prevented war.

The second crisis was considerably more serious. Predictably, the cause was the situation in the Balkans. In Bosnia-Herzegovina and Bulgaria a series of riots broke out, quickly put down by the Turks. The instability was exploited by Russia and Austria, who secretly agreed to divide the area between them.

Another uprising in 1877, this time in Serbia and Montenegro, thwarted the plans. Russia immediately came to help its traditional Serbian ally, defeating the Turks and imposing the independence of the rebels. For this reason, the new country was very favorable to Russian policies.

Given the situation created, England and Austria-Hungary decided not to accept the independence agreement. Bismarck convened the Congress of Berlin in 1878 to negotiate the problem.

The result was very unfavorable for the Russians, as Germany supported Austria in its attempt to annex Bosnia-Herzegovina. Given this, Russia decided to abandon the Pact of the Three Emperors.

Second Bismarckian system

This first failure did not discourage Bismarck. He immediately returned to negotiate to reestablish the alliances achieved. As a first step, in 1879 he signed a new treaty with Austria-Hungary called the Duplicitous Alliance, and later he set out to convince the Austrians of the need to get closer to Russia again.

His insistence, aided by the change in the Russian throne when Alexander III was crowned, eventually succeeded. In 1881 the Pact of the Three Emperors was reissued between the three countries.

According to the clauses of the treaty, the alliance would last for three years, during which time the signatories agreed to remain neutral in the event of an attack by another nation.

Italy

This time Bismarck took the alliances further. Despite poor relations between Austria and Italy - faced by territorial issues in northern Italy - the chancellor showed his mastery of diplomacy.

Thus, he took advantage of the existing problems between France and the transalpine country due to the situation in the North African colonies to convince the Italians to join the agreement. In this way, in 1881 the so-called Triple Alliance was created with Germany, Italy and Austria.

Third Bismarckian system

The second system lasted until 1887, but there would still be a new reissue that many call the third system.

In that year, the Balkans again became a conflict zone in Europe. The Russians were trying to gain ground at the expense of the Ottoman Empire, which led England to enter the alliances of the second system.

It was the so-called Mediterranean Pact, which was born with the aim of maintaining the status quo throughout the Turkish area of ​​influence.

References

1. Notes of History. Bismarckian system. Obtained from apunteshistoria.info
2. Contemporary world. The Bismarck Systems. Recovered from mundocontemporaneo.es
3. History and Biographies. Bismarckian Systems: Objectives, the union of Three Emperors. Obtained from historiaybiografias.com
4. McDougall, Walter A. 20th-century international relations. Retrieved from britannica.com
5. Saskatoon Public School Division. Bismarck's System of Alliances. Retrieved from olc.spsd.sk.ca
6. EHNE. Bismarck and Europe. Obtained from ehne.fr
7. Bloy, Marjie. Bismarck's Foreign Policy 1871-1890. Retrieved from historyhome.co.uk
8. Chronicles. Bismarck's system of continental alliances. Retrieved from chroniclesmagazine.org