Britain and the German Question

Book excerpt: Disraeli claimed that no country suffered more from the foundation of the German Reich than England. Bismarck's empire of 1871 did not, however, strike like a bolt from the blue. The question of German unity had been brewing for decades. Britain and the Germany Question reconstructs the way Victorians pictured the pre-history of the Reich from the July Revolution of 1830 until the eve of the 'Wars of German Unification'. It scrutinises how Britain's foreign political establishment - the diplomats, journalists and politicians who informed, determined and executed British foreign policy - analysed and responded to the Germans' search for a reformed, united and powerful nation state. It lays bare British interests, preconceptions and preoccupations and explains what kind of united Germany Britain would have welcomed. The book thus illuminates three themes crucial to our understanding of nineteenth-century Europe: the international repercussions of German nationalism; Britain's attitude to continental politics; and the interlocking of liberalism, nationalism revolution and reform.