Abstract
As with Italy, the unification of Germany had not been achieved by a popular revolution but by the extension of the power of one of the states. The old social structure remained largely intact, and the constitutional system of the new Germany strongly reflected the old régime. The story of imperial Germany after 1871 was basically the failure to adapt its institutions to the newly developing economic and social conditions, a combination of material wealth and social tensions. Bismarck had orchestrated unification, but he and then William II could see no further than the maintenance of the existing power structure.
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Further reading
Balfour, M., The Kaiser and His Times (Penguin, 1975).
Berghahn, V.R., Germany and the Approach of War in 1914 (Macmillan, 1993).
Craig, G., Germany, 1866–1945 (Oxford, 1978).
Evans, R.J. (ed.), Society and Politics in Wilhelmine Germany (Croom Helm, 1978).
Kohut, T., Wilhelm II and the Germans (Oxford, 1991).
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© 1997 Stuart T. Miller
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Miller, S. (1997). Imperial Germany 1871–1914. In: Mastering Modern European History. Macmillan Master Series. Red Globe Press, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13789-3_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13789-3_18
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