After the French defeat at Sedan and the abdication of Napoleon III, a united Germany stretching from France to Russia and from the Baltic to the Alps had emerged as the first power in Europe. Disraeli recognized the earthshaking importance of the unification of the German states under a Prussian king. The war represents the German revolution, a greater political event than the French revolution of the last century.… There is not a diplomatic tradition, which has not been swept away. You have a new world.… The balance of power has been entirely destroyed.
