... to determine whether we feel he becomes more conservative in the 1880's, something that I feel is a difficult question to answer, in that despite his use of the two conservative parties during the 1880's, we have seen that Bismarck has a tendency to revert to whoever will push his legislation through the Reichstag. A certain consistency of approach therefore is apparent throughout the 1870's and 1880's, even if he takes a different view to politics in his later years as premier. Between 1866-78 Bismarck adopted policies which were at undeniably liberal. From his unification of Germany, and his attacking of conservative European powers, through to his policies of industrialization, his refusal to put in place tariffs and his promotion of Kulturkampf, it seems that if one had to compartmentalize the Bismarckian then it would be easiest to call this his liberal period and the years between 1878 and his retirement ...

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