Finding William and Other Stories

Apparently William II had a bad finn arm just like Nemo!

Once upon a time their was a clownfish emperor named William II. William II thought he could touch the butt run Germany on his own so he fired his the iron of chancellor of Germany, Bismarck, so he could have more power. However, this did not work out well for him. He could not control the rising socialist party in Germany and soon the Socialists had control of the German  parliament. *Side note because Mr. Yarnall said we had to be aware of this the German parliament is made up of two parts...the lower house called the Reichbeg and the upper house called the Bunedsrats (have fun pronouncing that).

Previous to being fired, Bismarck had been trying to keep the Socialists under control. He had little success by trying to control their meeting and publications but had great success with his Social Security system. it established pensions and retirement benefits and most importunely made people rely on the government deterring them from socialist thinking. Bismarck was so successful because even though he didn't always listen to Parliement, he still maintained one in order to make the people feel in control. (any good dictator can say that people are more cooperative when they think they're in control.) Howvere despite his hard work, Bismarck was still fired and his termination was remembered in the politic cartoon  "Dropping the Pile of Bismarck." 

When William fired Bismarck, I think everyone could relate to Troy in this moment. "What are you doing, William? Bismarck is the OVP of Germany"

While this was occurring in Germany, France was having its own problems (because when isn't it). To begin with, was the Dreyfus affair. Dreyfus was a Jewish captain accused of treason in the French army. This case divided France in two. One side, the army, had evidence against Dreyfus. The army was also joined by anti-semites. The other side who supported Dreyfus consisted of civil libertines and radical republicans. Dreyfus was eventually declared innocent but the conflict divided France.

The conflict also lead to France's other issue: the church. After Dreyfus, the republicans has a revived hatred for the church. This lead to France ending all its ties with the church. The government did no t pay priest;s salaries, catholic schools fiancee themselves, and state schools were instituted. However, for once this did not erupt into a full-blown revolution because eventually even Catholics came around to the new third estate, patriotic France.

The last issue happening in France was the convict between Leon Gambetta and Marshall MacMahon. Gambetta wanted parliament supremacy and MacMahon favored an autocratic president. Eventually Gambetta won and MacMahon was fired.

Finally, there was England and Ireland. England had been doing well so far. Their second and third reform bills increased the number of people voting and Disreali and Gladstone, two politicians, though from opposing political parties, helped lead Britain in to what it is today. Where England was having trouble though was with Ireland. As we know from Paddy's Lament the British were terrible to the Irish. They had attempted to colonize Ireland and tried to make it just a land for their cattle. Eventually, the question of Ireland and a possibility of home rule was put up to Parliament. However, not everyone supported it. Even some Irish known as the Ulsterities who were Irish protestant from the north, wanted to be British. The bill failed and Irish home rule failed as well.