Had Germany stopped her expansion at what Bismarck considered her cultural and historic limits, they and probably the world would have been a lot better off for it. You can't blame Bismarck for the fact that achieving his lifes ambition of unifying a fractured and impotent collection of Germanic principalities into a strong, advanced and united modern state worked SO well his boss' idiot son wanted to keep expanding forever. He made very clear that Germany should STOP where they were territorially, and the Kaiser he virtually created sent him packing. Perhaps if the FIRST Kaiser had lived a little longer a lot of grief (and, y'know, 30 million dead soldiers) could've been avoided, but that ain't how the cookie crumbled. Or the biscuit, if you prefer. Speaking of which...:

Most people consider it in bad taste to use Southern minstrel songs to defend patriotism (though I concede this is the first time I've seen a Brit do it. )