Rodney Ohebsion

Otto von Bismarck's Treaty with Austria

In 1865, the Prussian leader Otto von Bismarck wanted to get Austria to sign an unfair treaty. He had to deal with Austria'a negotiator, a man by the name of Count Blome. Bismarck had some information on Blume that he used to his advantage, He knew that Blume was very fond of the card game qunze. He also knew Blume was in the habit of stating that he could judge a man's character based on the way that man played quinze. That being the case, when Bismarck received Blume, he suggested that they play a game of quinze prior to the start of the treaty negotiations. Blume accepted. Bismarck then proceeded to play in a completely impetuous and ridiculous manner, and even made his conversational style match his playing style. He lost a large sum of money in the game---but in the process, he manipulated Blome into developing a certain conception of Bismarck--one of steretypically over-agressive Prussian, and someone who acts without using any intelligent thought. THe following day, when Bismarck handed Blume a document detailing the terms of the Prussian-Austrian treaty, Blume barely even bothered reading the thing, assuming that a man like Bismarck would not even have the acumen to try and pull one over on Austria. He almost immediately signed the treaty--a treaty that heavily favored Prussia.