When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

Age of Bismarck #21: Making the Ems Despatch

Added 2025-07-10 05:30:02 +0000 UTC

[PATRONS]

For a fleeting moment, Bismarck's entire strategy seemed to have collapsed, thanks to his King's honest desire to avoid war with France. The French had demanded that no Hohenzollern sit on the Spanish throne, and Wilhelm had agreed. Bismarck contemplated resignation rather than let this stink of capitulation hang on him, but even in this pained atmosphere, all was not lost. The King gave Bismarck the permission to issue an official account of a conversation between himself and the French ambassador, where the latter had insisted that Wilhelm guarantee no Hohenzollern would ever seek the Spanish throne in the future.

Wilhelm could not go this far - who could say where the future would lead? The King was not rude, but when his account of the meeting reached Bismarck, it took only a few minutes to sense the opportunity. If he turned this official account into an insulting jab at France, then the French could be goaded into attacking, and Prussia would seize victory from the jaws of defeat. Because the French had pushed so far, they were now to receive a snub. It was, Bismarck understood, the best way to cut through the mess, and bring about the war he wanted.