Historical Nonfiction | I have to admit that I disagree with your assessment that the naval race led to WWI. If anyone is to blame for WWI, I think it should be Bismarck. He set the stage for a worldwide conflict with his aggressive actions to create a strong, unified Germany. He knew it would upset and even perhaps destroy the Concert of Europe as envisioned by the Congress of Vienna, but he still unified Germany. WWI had many complex, interlocking causes, but I still place most of the blame on Bismarck.

Anonymous asked: I have to admit that I disagree with your assessment that the naval race led to WWI. If anyone is to blame for WWI, I think it should be Bismarck. He set the stage for a worldwide conflict with his aggressive actions to create a strong, unified Germany. He knew it would upset and even perhaps destroy the Concert of Europe as envisioned by the Congress of Vienna, but he still unified Germany. WWI had many complex, interlocking causes, but I still place most of the blame on Bismarck.

Bismarck was not the sole creator of Europe as it was. Yes, he may have pushed an aggressive agenda. But he did not exist in a vacuum. He was working with an industrializing Germany with an inferiority complex, a Britain who saw itself as the policeman of Europe, a Russia who saw itself as the protector of all Slavic states and (secretly) their rightful ruler, a weakening Austro-Hungarian Empire, and a France with a chip on its shoulder the size of Alsace-Lorraine. Plus, everyone had collectively forgotten the horrors that continent-wide conflict had caused in the Napoleonic Wars. Bismarck was a factor, but he was just one man.