When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

Want to skip the queue and access all episodes of BismarckRise right NOW? OF COURSE YOU DO! Click here for moreUnsure of what's going on? Read this blog post for more information on BismarckRise.When we last left Bismarck, he had established himself in Frankfurt, and prepared to meet the challenges which Prussia faced, following several years of bungled, humiliating foreign policy. The constraints upon Bismarck seemed obvious, the greatest restriction by far being the Austrian domination of the German Confederation. This domination, an established fact since 1815, was to Bismarck the greatest flaw in Prussian diplomacy – made worse by the fact that few in Berlin, if any, seemed willing to contest this domination. Should we just let Austria have all the benefits of this Confederation, even if it was to Prussia’s detriment? Yet how could Austria even be combated? Bismarck had an idea, spending the next few years making his name as Vienna’s primary opponent in Frankfurt. ‘When Austria hitches a horse in front’,