When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

Age of Bismarck #12: Building the Bund

Added 2025-03-06 06:30:02 +0000 UTC

[PATRONS]

After covering himself in triumph, it remained for Bismarck to leverage this triumph into the complete transformation of Prussia, its role within Germany, and his role within all of it. Austria may have been vanquished on the battlefield, but Bismarck would conquer Germany through diplomacy, painstaking negotiations, and a great deal of patience.

But the effort was worth it. Within months, Bismarck had made peace with the Prussian Landtag, with a veiled apology for acting unconstitutionally, as the deputies fell over themselves to show their gratitude. Within the year, Bismarck had finalised a new constitution for the North German Confederation. Its tenets were simple - Bismarck's power depended on the King alone, and Bismarck would not have to share it with anybody.

There were new assemblies to imagine and elections to run, and Germans had been more tightly bound than ever before in their history - that is, if you lived North of the River Main. For those states excluded from this revolution, their time would come, as Bismarck kept his eye on the German prize, while always watching for signs of France.