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Otto von Bismarck can best be described as conniving, secretive, manipulative, controlling, and willing to use trickery to achieve his goals. Not exactly quality characteristics, but you have to admire his ambition, desire, and willingness to do whatever it took to achieve his goals. Personally, I think he was a clever and masterful strategist. He studied other leaders, learning from their mistakes. Bismarck would take his time and plan things out. And, it may have taken him three wars to unify Germany, but in the end he did achieve his goal. Long considered an outsider, who knew Bismarck would be the one to answer many Germans’ dreams by creating the German empire, even if his original intent was just to strengthen Prussia. So, Germany owes a lot of gratitude to Bismarck. Whether his actions were illegal, manipulative, or anything else doesn’t matter. Bismarck was the architect of the German empire. The movement to unify Germany might’ve happened eventually, but without Bismarck it wouldn’t have happened when it did. Plans for unification had started long before Bismarck entered the picture. They had tried before in 1848 and 1849, but failed miserably. The King of Prussia, Wilhelm, a soldier by upbringing, was well a