Age of Bismarck #2: Fighting Over Spoils (Patreon)

[PATRONS]

Before Bismarck could make Austria's nightmare a reality, he would have to wait. The key problem for Prussia was one of money. The Landtag would not give it without concessions, and this would surely alert the Austrians, so Bismarck needed an alternative. He found it in his personal banker, Gerson Bleichröder, who leveraged the government's stocks in a lucrative railway company to raise the necessary cash.

At the same time, the entirely predictable thing occurred. Prussia annexed Schleswig, filling its administration with its own officials, and ending for good the possibility that the Duchies would become another middle German state. The outrage was great among German liberals and German nationalists, but also within Europe. Fortunately, Bismarck had a plan. He brought Austria into this illicit bargain with him.

Already, Europe was debating when the two robbers would fall out, but thanks to this act, Bismarck could be sure that when the axe did fall, few would cry for Vienna, and fewer still would wish to interfere in this fight over their ill-gotten gains. He had set the trap, and Austria now possessed Holstein, a duchy far from Austria itself, and holding few benefits for a beleaguered, bankrupt Austrian administration. Austria was miserable as 1865, but to Bismarck, this simply meant that everything was going according to plan...