Explanation: Germany, in the 19th century AD, was not a single country, but a massive collection of independent states which, over the course of the century, became increasingly closer as modern nationalism propelled the idea of a ‘German nation’. One of the key actors in bringing this disparate group of polities under a single umbrella was the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, whose power, de facto if not de jure, often exceeded that of the Prussian monarch.
He also orchestrated a little silliness with France in the Franco-Prussian War, both to gain Alsace-Lorraine and to give the German states a common enemy to get that good, wholesome nationalist feeling really going! The Germans won that war, so obviously it would have no repercussions down the line.
Alsace-Lorraine
Silly you. Are you perhaps talking about Elsaß-Lothringen?
Otto von Bismarck, whose power, de facto if not de jure, often exceeded that of the Prussian monarch.
well, he wasn’t able to stop Wilhelm from doing a litte fucky wucky in 1914
Well, Bismarck was a little dead by that point. But the headstrong Wilhelm II clashing with Bismarck was what led Bismarck to retire.
Bismarck predicted it, though - the next great European war, he said, would come of some damn foolish thing in the Balkans!
Napoleon III surrounds himself with yes-men before the Franco-Prussian War. Result: defeat.
Wilhelm II surrounds himself with yes-men before the Great War. Result: defeat.
Current US President surrounds himself with yes-men. [YOU ARE HERE].
Germany, in the 19th century AD, was not a single country, but a massive collection of independent states which, over the course of the century, became increasingly closer as modern nationalism propelled the idea of a ‘German nation’.
That sounds quite similar to how the European Nation wasn’t a single country back in the 21st century.
