What were the reasons for Bismarck’s aggressive and underhand behaviour? First, the ousting of the pro-Prussian Ministry in Bavaria in February 1870 and its replacement by a government of the ‘Patriot Party’, Catholic, anti-Prussian, and pro-French, threatened to derail the progress of unification. Bismarck feared this development could well be repeated in other south German states. Secondly, military reforms in France, though incomplete, meant that in the near future French military strength would be even more formidable than it already was. Thirdly, the French, currently on their own, might
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