I *did* notice it was WWI and the British author was hating on the Prussian king. I mean, he has some fair points re the expansionism!
Yes, but he‘s also not the former PM of, say, Switzerland. If you‘ve risen to the top of the British Empire and you‘re described as a PM who „favoured strong national defence and imperialism abroad“, then you really are sitting in a glass house when talking about other nation‘s expansionism. Not to defend W2 (ever! Worst Hohenzollern of the lot as ruler!), but he got the imperialism bug from both sides of his heritage, I‘d say, not just the Prussian one.
In the - quite good - 1970s British tv series about David Llyod George, there‘s this scene where mid WWI, at the very point when Rosebery is publishing this, the Russian Revolution happens, which means imprisoned and soon dead Romanows and no more Russian allies for Britain. DLG‘s two secretaries are afraid how he‘ll take that, but he‘s actually perky about it, because, says he, now he can sell the Americans on this war and argue it‘s about OMG freedom. „Before, they were under the impression it was just a bunch of corrupt European dynasties duking it out.“ Considering Czarist Russia was THE most backward nation on the continent in terms of human rights, 1970s scriptwriter has a point. And while we‘re at it, WWI era Britain not only - like the rest of Europe - had no voting rights for women - but, unlike, say, Wilhelminian Germany, had the voting rights for men still restricted by financial standing. It wasn‘t until after WWI when all male British citizens could vote, and as for the female vote, that still got limitations inflicted on it - to married women and a certain income - until freaking 1926. Whereas all adult women got the right to vote in Germany in 1919. And just to round it off, because he was under a lot of pressure by the rise of the Social Democratic Party in Germany, Bismarck introduced legal health insurance in 1883. (I.e. from then on, employers were legally obliged to have their workers ensured, both for illnesses and accidents.) Great Britain didn‘t get around to something approaching this until 1911 - when it was David Llyod George as minister of the interior who pushed the relevant law through.
Meaning: the British self image of the beacon of progress vs some backward militaristic nation on the continent was, shall we say, not exactly corresponding to reality....
Tangentially...
Yes, but he‘s also not the former PM of, say, Switzerland. If you‘ve risen to the top of the British Empire and you‘re described as a PM who „favoured strong national defence and imperialism abroad“, then you really are sitting in a glass house when talking about other nation‘s expansionism. Not to defend W2 (ever! Worst Hohenzollern of the lot as ruler!), but he got the imperialism bug from both sides of his heritage, I‘d say, not just the Prussian one.
In the - quite good - 1970s British tv series about David Llyod George, there‘s this scene where mid WWI, at the very point when Rosebery is publishing this, the Russian Revolution happens, which means imprisoned and soon dead Romanows and no more Russian allies for Britain. DLG‘s two secretaries are afraid how he‘ll take that, but he‘s actually perky about it, because, says he, now he can sell the Americans on this war and argue it‘s about OMG freedom. „Before, they were under the impression it was just a bunch of corrupt European dynasties duking it out.“ Considering Czarist Russia was THE most backward nation on the continent in terms of human rights, 1970s scriptwriter has a point. And while we‘re at it, WWI era Britain not only - like the rest of Europe - had no voting rights for women - but, unlike, say, Wilhelminian Germany, had the voting rights for men still restricted by financial standing. It wasn‘t until after WWI when all male British citizens could vote, and as for the female vote, that still got limitations inflicted on it - to married women and a certain income - until freaking 1926. Whereas all adult women got the right to vote in Germany in 1919. And just to round it off, because he was under a lot of pressure by the rise of the Social Democratic Party in Germany, Bismarck introduced legal health insurance in 1883. (I.e. from then on, employers were legally obliged to have their workers ensured, both for illnesses and accidents.) Great Britain didn‘t get around to something approaching this until 1911 - when it was David Llyod George as minister of the interior who pushed the relevant law through.
Meaning: the British self image of the beacon of progress vs some backward militaristic nation on the continent was, shall we say, not exactly corresponding to reality....