ABSTRACT
In order to obtain the right point of view from which to judge the foreign policy of Germany under the third Emperor it is necessary to recall the ends which were constantly pursued by Prince Bismarck and the means by which he endeavoured to attain them. Bismarck, who later complained that by it "the most important part of his foreign policy" had been sacrificed and undone, waited six years before he disclosed the fact that the treaty of 1884 had existed at all. Meanwhile, the Emperor tried to make good the loss of Bismarck's influence in foreign affairs by feverish exertions of his own. Early in the 'nineties a phrase of ominous meaning, which is probably be searched for in vain in Bismarck's parliamentary speeches—until his retirement the only ones which he ever made—gained currency in German political life; it was the phrase Weltpolitik or world-politics.
