ABSTRACT
Before 1866 there is a loose confederation of German states, after 1870 there it was an Empire of the Germans. The transformation is the work of Bismarck and it accomplished by "blood and iron". Germany and for Europe there exists it is true, a barbarous Germany with greedy of battles and conquest, there exists a Germany pharisaic and iniquitous, the Germany of all the unintelligible pedants whose empty lucubration's and microscopic researches are so unduly vaunted. The spirit of Bismarck infects the whole public life of Germany and Europe. It gives a new lease to the political philosophy of Machiavelli and made of every budding statesman and historian a solemn or a cynical defender of the gospel of force. National pride and ambition grew with the growth of prosperity, force and sentiment as well as need impel German policy to claim a share of influence outside Europe in that greater world for the control of which the other nations struggling.
