... that existed in the decades before the war and extract the key arguments for causes of Germany entering the conflict. From the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815 until the start of the first world 99 years later in 1914, much of Europe saw a level of peace it had not experienced for several centuries. This did not mean however there were not significant wars in this period. Perhaps the most significant of all these wars, especially in regards to Germany's entry into The Great War, was the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. This war, largely believed to be indirectly pushed for by the largest of the pre German unification states, Prussia. Otto Von Bismarck the Prussian chancellor planned to unite Germany by stirring up tensions between Prussia and France and then hopefully gaining the support of the independent southern German states against the French thus unifying a new Germany. As planned ...

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