Bismarckian diplomacy and the problem of peace

Bismarckian diplomacy was a policy introduced by German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck in the second half of the 19th century. On the one hand Bismarck's policy aimed to reposition and consolidate the vast German Empire proclaimed at the end of the war with Napoleonic France in 1871 and on the other to establish peace in a Europe at a crossroads due to the expansionist ambitions of the major European powers. To achieve this he set up a series of alliances between European nations a kind of trap to avoid potential conflict at a time when expansionist rivalries between them were escalating both within and outside Europe. These efforts made Berlin the diplomatic capital of the world. However the fall of Bismarck in 1890 brought the entire political architecture developed by the old chancellor into question and led to the exacerbation of political rivalries in Europe. This led to the outbreak of the First World War.