Essay Example on Blood and Iron Speech

Introduction

"Blut und Eisen" in German, is the name given to the famous speech given by Otto Von Bismarck. It was on 30th September ion 1862, a period where Otto was the minister-president of Prussia (Parry 147). The famous speech was on the unification of all German territories for a stronger front. These words or phrase was somewhere at the end of the speech, which became a very famous quite due to the influence of that speech in those days. He gave the speech after being appointed by King Wilhelm I as the president and the minister for foreign affairs. He was trying to convince the House's Budget Committee on the need for a military preparedness which would be the answer to the German question.

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Less than two years later Bismarck managed to unite Prussia and Austria into fighting Denmark. It ended up Prussia and Austria winning and as a result, they extended their boundaries and territories (Parry 151). Later in 1866 he led a war against their ally Austria and gave them terms and conditions that made Austria get out of Northern Germany. In general, Bismarck was one hell of a diplomat, but the phrase "Blood and Iron" was the perfect phrase to describe how his foreign policy worked. He always resorted to war if he had to unify Germany and extended its continental powers. All this resulted to him being known as "the iron chancellor." The phrase had also been traced from a patriotic poem by Max Von during the Napoleonic Wars.

Napoleon III

Napoleon III is a man that will always be remembered in history. He was the first president of France (1848-1852). He seized power and became the emperor after realizing his term had come to an end, and he could not be reelected (1852-1870) (Pinkney 4). It was in the Franco-Prussian war that he lost his second Empire after his army was defeated and captured by Prussia and his allies. Although he was a lousy character, there was a good side of him that worked hard in modernizing the French economy, rebuilding of Paris, and expanding of the overseas empires. His army was also involved in the Crimean War and the unification of Italy war. He was exiled in England after his downfall where he died in 1973.

Some of his works were; modernizing the banking system in France then, expanding of the railway system in France, made the marine business the second biggest in the world. He ended famine in France by facilitating the construction of the Suez Canal establishing modern agriculture, making France an exporter of agricultural products (Pinkney 5). He is known and also recognized for the free trade agreement with Britain and other European nations that were France trading partners. He became famous among the workers after he gave them the rights to strike and as well as organize. Women were accepted as students and first admitted in Sorbonne under his rule, which led to the expansion of women's education in France.

His time in office led to the unification of Italy and annexed Savoy together with Nice (county) to the French. While at this time his military forces were protecting papal states from annexation by Italians. Another major achievement is that he doubled his empire in the French overseas empires which included in Africa, Asia and Pacific. However, as his military was trying to expand his empire in Mexico, they failed miserably. The French army was defeated in the at the Battle of Sedan where Napoleon was captured and exiled in England.

Crimean War

The war was between Russia and an alliance between Britain, Turkey, France, and Sardinia. The war began in 1853 October but later in 1854 is when Britain and France got involved. The war ended in1856. The war started after Russia tried to expand into a Turkey territory (Danube region). In 1853 the two countries went into war, as Britain and France joined in 1854 as they thought and feared Russia would continue expanding downwards and finally concurring India which was a British colony. Religious issues also played a huge role in the war as the Russians claimed that all the holiest cities in Christianity were in Turkey these included Bethlehem and Jerusalem ("Your 60-Second Guide To The Crimean War").

Crimean peninsula and the Black sea became the battleground for this war. The politics from Britain, France, and Austria, as well as the successful military action of Turkey, forced Russia to change from where the battle was supposed to be (Danubian Principalities). After this France and Britain had a new target which was the Russian naval base in Sevastopol to destroy them entirely in the black sea.

The battle of Alma, the battle of Balaclava and the attack on Russia at the Inkerman were the main battles involved with the war. The British, French and the Sardinian troops besieged the city after the battle of Alma. The siege went on until September 1855. More than 200,000 people died including the soldiers and the Russians.

Works Cited

"Your 60-Second Guide To The Crimean War." History Extra. N.p., 2019. Web. 28 Apr. 2019.

Parry, Jonathan Philip. "The impact of Napoleon III on British politics, 1851-1880." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 11 (2001): 147-175.

Pinkney, David H. Napoleon III and the Rebuilding of Paris. Vol. 5375. Princeton University Press, 2019.