In the mid 1800s, Bismarck did what widely considered to be completely impossible: he unified Germany
Ok so in the 1800s prior to Bismarck Germany as we know it was a bunch of Germanic states. Most were independent but some were territories of other countries. There were 2 big powerhouses in these states, Prussia and Austria-Hungary. From a geopolitical standpoint it was thought incredibly hard to unify these states. Bismarck stood to unify these. Like Giorno Giovanna and MLK, he had a dream, and he was gonna go through with it.
Flash forward to 1866 and Bismarck was making moves. There were 2 states, Schleswig and Homestein, held by AH. Bismarck, a native Prussian, knew that if he were to unify Germany he would need to 1) make Prussia the dominant GS, and 2) cop any foreign GSs. Why not do both and steal Schleswig and Holstein while making Austria-Hungary Prussia’s bitch? So he did. He convinced the Kaiser to start war with AH, and then he and the boys (Bismarck, Kaiser Wilhelm 1, and general Helmuth Von Moltke) destroyed AH in a war, and taking Schleswig Holstein for themselves. This lead to the formation of the Northern German Confederation, but Bismarck wanted more.
Moving on, 1870 was a great year for Bismarck. When Spain had a revolution and decided they wanted a German prince on the throne, Bismarck decided he could knock out like 8 birds with one stone. Spain was west of France, and the NGC was to the west. The French also held Alsace-Lorraine, German states. If the Spain plan worked, Bismarck would have more territory, which he could use to double take the French, which would not only get them more German territory it would solidify Germany as an absolute powerhouse. After all, but just anyone can just destroy the French. This could’ve lead to problems internationally of countries trying to crush them to keep power balanced, but if Germany stretched from Spain to Prussia they coulda taken all of Europe.
What did happen though is arguably even better for Germany. The French saw the German prince on his way to Spain, and they were like “What the fuck Willy? What is this shit? That’s it, someone needs to put you and Germany in your place, and we’re gonna do that. We’re at war.” Bismarck consoled the King (King Wilhelm, hence Willy) and told he had a plan, which he definitely did.
Bismarck knew that if Germany alone beat the French it would be respected and feared a lot more than a German-Spanish alliance. He also knew that if Spain was a German ally then Germany wouldn’t be a cool-kid/German-states-only club. Bismarck just had to wait for the French to mobilize first, then Germany could play the victim card and make France seem like a bully, which would help on international relations, all while going fucking sicko mode on them. In typical bismarckian fashion, he did just that. He waited for the French to move first, then Bismarck had Moltke mobilize more troops faster than the French did. Needless to say, the Germans won.
They arguably won too hard, bc Bismarck had to beg the Kaiser to stop before they hit Paris, which was in his plan. The Germans won so hard that all they took the German emperor fucking captive. Do you know what that does to negotiations? The French scrambled to make a de facto governing body to negotiate with Bismarck over the ransom of the French king, but they couldn’t do shit. They just had to listen to Bismarck’s demands and accept that this group held no real power since they weren’t democratically elected. France was Bismarck’s bitch, and they couldn’t help anything. See example 1 if you wanna know how bad the French had it.
Anyway, when all the smoke settled Germany, which was now actually Germany, decided to salt the wound by having Willy’s coronation in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles in France. It was in this hall that King Wilhelm 1 of Prussia became Kaiser Wilhelm 1 of Germany. Bismarck was made Chancellor. Bismarck had done the impossible and unified Germany, and he was rewarded with one of the most powerful positions in the world at the time. Germany was the most powerful nation in the world, and every country that wasn’t allied with them feared them. It didn’t hurt either that Germany had a holy trinity of leadership: Kaiser Wilhelm 1, Chancellor Otto “Eisner Kanzler” Von Bismarck, and Field Marshall Helmuth “The Elder” Von Moltke.