In March 1890, the German stock market plummeted, and since then the stock price has been falling for more than two consecutive years. www.biquge.info From 1890 to 1891, there were about 15,000 bankruptcies, and the scale of railway construction was reduced by 60%.

At the same time, it also caused a worldwide economic crisis.

It is worth noting that this time the crisis broke out not first from Britain nor from the United States, but first from Germany, which in itself means that Germany has already stood on the commanding heights of world power.

Of course, the economic crisis is serious, and Zhu Jinglun also paid attention to it and instructed the government to introduce various protective measures as soon as possible. But he was more concerned about political changes, and in the shadow of the economic crisis, no one noticed that an old man quietly left the political arena, and German Chancellor Bismarck, who did not win the favor of the young Kaiser Wilhelm II, left his post in a bleak manner.

After the Franco-Prussian War, Germany was like a wild horse, and various undertakings were at the forefront of Europe, and at the same time, it became a star country in the world.

The rapid rise of national power has brought a strong national self-confidence, but at the same time, it has also made nationalism extremely inflated, and this kind of country without historical background is often prone to fall into a kind of predicament, that is, it is easy to be overly depressed in good times, and it is easy to be overly fanatical in good times, and lack a calm and peaceful bearing.

This is the case in Germany, and the same is true in Japan, there is no need to talk about German philosophy and Japanese culture, that country has no culture, and black Africans also have their own culture, and this accumulation does not lie in the soul thinking of some philosophers who are in distress, but in the humanistic feelings that have been continuous for hundreds or thousands of years.

It is precisely this kind of sentiment that Germany and Japan lack compared to France and China, so their sudden rise to strength is not necessarily a good thing for them, because their historical experience does not tell them how to be a strong person, and their historical experience is only the experience of surviving as a weak.

Therefore, after the Franco-Prussian War, Germany has never found the right path in the national spirit, and has been running wild in the wilderness, and finally fell into the abyss. After World War II, they re-emerged as weaklings, but instead learned how to get along with the world.

The Germans, who had become stronger, felt more and more that they should become greater, and became more and more impatient with the old Bismarck's lukewarm, slow-paced rule, and they became more and more eager for colonies, and the reasons for their desire for colonies were very ridiculous, and they simply believed that a strong country must have colonies, and that only with a large number of colonies could they be worthy of their status.

The German nationalist historian Treichke exclaimed: Germany without colonies was "destined to become a second-class power." The Equatorial African explorer Hugh Bèbe Schleiden emphasized the importance of colonial expansion from the perspective of spreading German culture: "The Germans made many inventions and discoveries over the decades, but in the eyes of many they became the product of the British and French, thus obliterating the prestige and culture of the Germans. ”

Obviously, the German people have no direction at all, they themselves do not know what they want, and the newly unified German nation is obviously not yet mature. The terrible thing is that this kind of immature nation has the power of a strong man, if it is a small country like North Korea, it doesn't matter if there are more outdated ideas, such as dreaming of unifying China and competing for the Central Plains, because the water guns in their hands can't kill people. But what this minor in Germany is holding in his hand is a real Krupp military industry.

Bismarck's promotion of German reunification, and then his long tenure as prime minister of this totalitarian country, on the one hand made German political policy less varied than that of its neighbor France, where chancellors change once a year or even twice a year, but also made German politics a little dull.

Bismarck was a dull man, he did not like to talk big, and he said that he pursued the most resolute policies with the softest voice, so that his policies, however effective, lacked a passion that no longer echoed the appetites of the young people of this growing country.

Bismarck's promotion of German unification was a model of moderation, and after the unification of Germany, the states were still states, and Bismarck claimed that he would not let any German monarch lose his crown.

It is true that the monarchs of these states did not lose their crowns, but the power in their hands was constantly cut away by Bismarck's soft knife in the next two decades, and the unified German Empire began to introduce various policies, unified constitutions, criminal laws, postal systems, railway networks, economic regulations, nominally to create a unified market, under the interests of this unity, the major states continued to make concessions, and handed over power to the imperial government.

As a result, by the time Bismarck left office, the armies of all states in the German Empire, except for the Kingdom of Bavaria, had been under the unified command of the Reich and adopted a unified military service system.

It can be said that the newly unified German Empire was a loose confederation, and Bismarck really turned it into an empire before he left office.

It was also a highly cohesive empire, and in this respect it was probably the greatest thing about Bismarck, who brought together people of different faiths within the empire, the Protestant people of the north, and the Catholic people of the south, united by a unified German nationalism, which in the past few realities had fought the most bitterly for their faith.

If we compare the sectarian struggles in the Middle East in later generations, Bismarck's contribution can be better appreciated.

Bismarck not only eased the contradictions between different faith groups, but also eased the contradictions between different interest classes, he was disgusted with the workers' movement, but not through repression to increase the pressure, but through the construction of welfare, so that the workers were protected, and the way of counseling was used to resolve social contradictions.

Bismarck's most accomplished thing is his foreign policy, he isolated France through various alliance treaties and diplomatic treaties, and in a larger sense, he also maintained the balance of Europe, so that in the balance of power in Europe, there was no power imbalance after the sudden emergence of a strong Germany, which led to war, which was recognized by the later British, who said that if it were not for Bismarck, the First World War would never have dragged on until 1914. And if Bismarck had not died, perhaps the First World War could have been avoided.

During the Bismarck period, it was allied with Austria-Hungary, with Russia, with the Three Emperors, and with Italy, with the aim of isolating France, rather than really trying to seek allies, so even in the 1875 crisis, Russia and Britain put pressure on Germany, Bismarck still signed a reinsurance treaty with Russia. While allied with Italy, he also supported French expansion in Tunisia, telling France to do what it wanted and not to worry about Italy. By creating a contradiction between France and Italy, he made Italy even more dependent on Germany.

In order not to provoke Britain, he suppressed Germany's desire for expansion, tried not to expand overseas, and resolutely did not expand the size of the German navy, so as not to put pressure on Britain, and tried his best to maintain the traditional Anglo-German friendly relations.

But his policy did not win the approval of the people, who saw that Bismarck was methodically implementing his own policy step by step in accordance with his diplomatic outline, and did not care at all about the voice of the people, and the people saw that Russia's increase in tariffs had hit German exports, and that the economic circles were unwilling to lend money to Russia, so Bismarck used his finances to help the Russians build the railways in the East.

The people want overseas colonies, even if the benefits of the colonies cannot catch up with the investment at all, they want colonies, because only colonies can be worthy of Germany's international status and show Germany's glory under the sky, but Bismarck does not compete with Britain, and does not even dare to compete with France, and repeatedly expresses his friendship with France, but in the eyes of the people, Germany and France are friendly fart, and the French have killed the most Germans and bullied the Germans the most in history.

Because the people did not support it, the young Kaiser was reluctant to use Bismarck, perhaps because he enjoyed the feeling of introducing policies that the people liked, and then accepting the cheers of the people, or maybe he just didn't want to be under the light of Bismarck, as long as Bismarck was the prime minister, the world would not care who the Kaiser was, and even who the Kaiser was, the world would only know Bismarck, not that he would be Wilhelm II.

Bismarck's curtain call does not refer to his resignation, and the Shang Dynasty reform will not end because of Shang Marting, but before Bismarck died, his policy began to end.

After Bismarck's departure, the Kaiser appointed a new chancellor, Caprivivy.

The newly inaugurated Caprivi was different from Bismarck, he obeyed the Kaiser's words, and could not say that he had no ideas of his own at all, but when his own opinions were on the left with the emperor, he did not have the courage and character of Bismarck to dare to resist the imperial power.

Bismarck could even suppress the more prestigious Kaiser Wilhelm I, let alone care about the attitude of the young emperor, so his departure was probably doomed.

So the Caprivi government, under the instruction of Wilhelm II, raised the banner of a "new course" and began to change Bismarck's European security policy in foreign relations.

If they can establish a better security policy, if they don't have a better solution, they should not easily change Bismarck's established course, which will at least allow Europe to maintain the status quo.

But Caprivi just felt that Bismarck's alliance system was too complicated and had to be "cleaned up", so he began to make drastic changes, apparently without even understanding the essence of Bismarck's policy, and began to change it indiscriminately, like a child scribbling on a master's painting, ignorant but absolutely bold.

First of all, the new government readjusted its relations with Britain and Russia, changing from a policy of alliance with Russia during the Bismarck period to a pro-British policy of alienating Russia.

Germany, a strategic force in Central Europe, has changed its policy toward Britain, a world strategic power, and Russia, a strategic force in Eastern Europe, which is bound to bring a huge impact on the world's land politics, and this impact has also been implicated in the Ming Dynasty, because after the new government came to power, it stopped lending to Russia for the Trans-Siberian Railway.

And this geopolitical railway is the bane of relations between the Ming Dynasty and Russia.