In 1884 Bismarck inaugurated the career of Germany as a colonizing power, a new depart ure which brought him into sharp but temporary conflict with the England of Gladstone. For the rest, his foreign policy mainly aimed at isolating France and rendering her incapable of forming anti-German alliances. On the other hand, he gradually combined the central powers of Europe into a peace league, aiming at counter acting the aggressiveness of Russia and France, separately or combined, on the Danube or the Rhine. The nucleus of this peace league was formed in 1879 by the Austro-German Treaty of Alliance (published in February 1888) which Italy formally joined in 1886, and which entitles Bismarck to be called the °peacemaker') and the peacekeeper of Europe, a character he first publicly acquired when, as °honest broker') between Austria and Russia, he presided over the Berlin Congress in 1878. The phrase, °man of blood and iron,'" is based on the Iron Chan cellor's own use of the words in a speech in 1862, a much misrepresented remark, as Bis marck afterward explained in his 'Auto biography.' Bismarck's life was often threatened, and twice actually attempted — once at Berlin in 1866, just before the Bohemian campaign, by Ferdinand Cohen (or Blind), a crazy youth who aimed at making himself the instrument of popular dissatisfaction with Bismarck, as the champion of absolutism and the fancied apostle of a fratricidal war; and again in 1874 at Kis singen, by a Roman Catholic tinsmith named Kullmann, who was a product of Ultramontane fury engendered by the May laws.
Emperor William died 9 March 1888. The
short reign of Emperor Frederick followed and then William II ascended the throne. Resultant friction led to Bismarck's resignation on 18 March 1890. Many explanations have been given — that Bismarck objected to the labor rescripts, that he opposed the abolition of the laws against socialists, that he would not tol erate the Emperor's direct consultation with the other ministers or the parliamentary leaders. After the war with Denmark, King William had made Bismarck a count. After the con quest of France, Emperor William had named him prince. Emperor William II gave him the title of Duke of Lauenburg. When Bis marck's 81st birthday was celebrated in 1896, a reconciliation took place between the prince and his sovereign, and the Emperor visited Bismarck at Friedrichsruhe, where the states man died two years later.
Bibliography.— Bismarck, 'Autobiography' or 'Bismarck the Man and the Statesman: being the reflections and reminiscences of Otto Prince von Bismarck, written and dictated by himself after his retirement from office) (2 vols., trans. by Butler, New York) ; Ashley, 'Social Policy of Bismarck' (New York 1913) ; Busch, 'Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History' (2 vols., New York 1899) ; Dawson, 'Bismarck and State Socialism) (London 1890); Lowe, 'Prince Bismarck) (London 1885) ; Matter, 'Bismarck et son temps' (Paris 1908) ; Mareks, 'Bismarck, eine Biographiel (Stuttgert 1909); Munroe-Smith, 'Bismarck and German Unity) (New York Sybel, (The Founding of the German Empire) (7 New York 1898); Whitman, Reminiscences of Prince (New York 1903).