The Capitulation at Sedan, painted by Anton von Werner

The Capitulation at Sedan, painted by Anton von Werner
Identifier: storyofnineteent01broo (find matches)
Title: The story of the nineteenth century of the Christian era
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Brooks, Elbridge Streeter, 1846-1902. (from old catalog)
Subjects: Nineteenth century. (from old catalog)
Publisher: Boston, Lothrop publishing company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation



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g hand of Germany, the typicalman of this age of union through strength, was instrumentalin thus arbitrating the disputes of England and America,while, at the same time, unifying and strengthening theEmpire by his process of national evolution. That processled in 1872 to a direct and open rupture with the RomanCatholic Church, a complicated struggle between the be-lievers in Bismarck and the followers of the Pope, knownnow in German history as the Culturkampf — the fightfor civilization. But in 1875 Bismarck won ; for in that year he declaredthat his armor was complete, and by a union of forceswith the liberals and the progressives he turned the tidehis way, and organized the new empire on the broad nationallines he had himself desired. Bismarcks Party, as hisopponents called the workers for real German unity,triumphed, and the foundations of empire were well andstrongly laid by the strongest man of his day — the mastermind of that Age of Unity — the decade between 1870and 1880.
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§1 Q I2 ^ < S Q .; CHAPTER XVII. THE LAST ONE-MAN POWER OF THE CENTURY.(From i8y^ to 1880.) OTTO VON BISMARCK, Chancellor and Prince ofthe Empire, —he had been made Prince Bismarck in1871, —fought and won in 1875 his struggle for civiliza-tion — the Culturkampf. He had firmly established theEmpire, over-riding sometimes the desires and wishes ofhis imperial master, William the Emperor. Thingsseemed to be going his way ; his statesmanship and powerwere recognized even by his opponents and enemies ; and hewas easily, as the third quarter of the Nineteenth Centuryopened, the foremost man in the world. In spite of a cen-tury of democratic progress, it seemed as if absolutism andthe one-man power had again fastened its firm grip on theworld, and that German unity and nationality seemed tohave been accomplished at the expense of German inde-pendence and manhood. There were, even in Germany, those who held this view;and those who desired equality and freedom quite as muchas German