Bismarck have five major aims or objectives in his foreign policy between 1871 and 1890 which he was determined to achieve.

            The following policy objectives were as follows

To isolate France and prevent a war of revenge

            This was the most important goal of Bismarck’s foreign policy. One of the main objective of Bismarck foreign policy was to isolate France and prevent her from thinking of ever getting back Alsace and Loraine .This made Bismarck to keep a large aim and to form an anti-French Alliance. After the Franco-prussian war of 1870-1871 Bismarck saw France as the main threat to Germany to  and decided to isolate her in Europe in order to prevent France from waging a war of revenge in a bid to recover Alsace and Lorraine which was seized from her by Germany at the treaty of franckfut.

            Bismarck set out to isolate France from potential allies so as to avoid a war of revenge.

Prevention of European Peace

Bismarck also wanted peace in Europe where Germany would be the supreme power dominating all the events around her following German unification, Germany needed peace in Europe so as to consolidate the gain of unification. As a result, he wanted the preservation of European peace which he considered a prerequisite for the maintainance of the status quo. He was determine to ensure that the rivality between Australia and Russia in the Balkans should not result in a war in which Germany was to be forced to make a choice as to which power to support. Thus it was in the interest of Germany for peace to reign in Europe.

Preservation of anti-German coalition

            Realising that France was inlikely to start a war against Germany without an ally, Bismarck sought to keep Germany in good terms with other European powers. To achieve this, he improved relations with Austria, Russia and Britain. This was to prevent the isolation of Germany in the event of war. To realize this, he tried to enter into alliances with countries like Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia and Britain. These countries were the only other great powers in Europe that could come to the aid of France. So to keep France completely eclipsed; Bismarck decided to move closer to Austria and Russia to win their friendship. That was why in 1872, the three countries signed the Dreikaiseband.

Concentration on European Issues

            In addition Bismarck had no interest on the colonial struggle that was giving on in Africa. He wanted to consolidate German hegemony in Europe this made him to concentrate on European issues ratherthan on fighting for colonies. He did not want to join the race for colonies which might bring Germany into conflicts with other great powers such as Britain and France, Bismarck believed that it was in the best interest of Germany not to get involved in matters outside Europe.

            He believed that Germany best interest was in Europe. Consequently, he did not want to be involved in the colonial race but this ideology was change in 1888 when he joined the colonial race and organized the berlin west Africa conference of 1884-1885 which instituted peace in the acquisition of Africa Territories inorder to concentrate in European issues, he organized the Berlin congress of 1878 to resolve problems resulting from the Balkan crisis such as the creation of Big Bulgaria in 1877. During the congress he acted as the honest broker but favored Austria by supporting her occupation of Bosnia Herzegovina.

Divertion of other major powers attention to non-european affairs

            Another objective Bismarck had in his foreign policy was to divert the attention of other European powers and to make them interested in isssues out of Europe. By this, Bismark was hopping to buy time to consolidate Germany unity and to prevent the European powers from challenging Germany over European matters Bismarck believed in this policy because he wanted to prevent other powers from taking an active interest in the rhine and also encouraged britian involvement in Egypte and it in Libya.

Manifestation of Bismarck’s foreign policy

In order to achieve his foreign policy objectives in the period between 1870 and 1890, Bismarck adopted three main method which in diplomacy the methods were as follows.

Diverting other major powers to non-europe affairs

One of the methods ised by Bismarck to achieves was that of misleading and diverting the Attention of other powers to non-european affairs. By this method,Bismarck hoped to put France in permanent conflict with other nation so that she would not have time and courage to revenge on Germany. Bismarck in 1881 encouraged France in North Africa to occupy Tunis which Italy equally had the ambition of annexing.The action of France threw Italy into the armpit of Germany in 1882.Again in 1882, when Britain established her protectorate over egypte,Bismarck secretly encouraged France to ask for compensation from Britain use where in Africa. This affected negatively, the anglo-french relations to the delight of Bismarck also encouraged of Italian imperialism designs in Libya.  

The careful handing of sensitive Issues

            Isues that were likely to provoke conflicts among European nations and so disturbed the peace of European were carefully handled by Bismarck inorder to achieve his foreign objectives.

            Issues such as colonial aqcuisitions and the naval race possessions were not on Bismark’s agenda. But when they finally arose, he handled them with care in order not to annex Britain. For instance when pressurized to seek colonies in Africa such as Cameroon, Togoland and Tangayika, Bismark saw the need to arrive at a colonial understanding between Germany and Britian especially, hence he summoned the Berlin colonial conference, he no longer embarked on the colonial empire inorder to avoid problems with Britain

The Formation Alliances

            Bismarck also embarked on the formation od several allainces inorder to be in good terms with all nations except France. He thus formed the following alliances Bismarck used his diplomatic man oeuvres and skills to achieve his aim through the formation of alliances(alliance system) and the organization of congresses. The first alliance that was formed was the Oreikaiser bund.