Paul W. answered • 12/01/19
Dedicated to Achieving Student Success in History, Government, Culture
The various peoples who considered themselves to be 'Germans' inhabited a variety of kingdoms in Central Europe. By the 18th century the two most important of these kingdoms were Austria in the south - ruled by the Hapsburg Dynasty - and Prussia in the north - ruled by the Hohenzollern Dynasty.
Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the settlement reached at the Congress of Vienna awarded additional territory to the Kingdom of Prussia. By contrast, during the Napoleonic Wars the 'Holy Roman Empire', which was dominated by Austria, was done away with. In other words, at the beginning of the 19th century, the Hohenzollern rulers of Prussia were growing stronger while the Hapsburg rulers of Austria were losing power.
Among the most influential concepts that shaped the history of the 19th century (and beyond) was the idea of modern 'Nationalism' that came out of the French Revolution. This notion was based on the idea that, instead of being the possession of a king or emperor, a country belonged to the people who lived in it and that the people who were the inhabitants of a country were bound together by a common culture. It was during the 19th century that the German speaking peoples living in the different kingdoms of Central Europe began to call for a single country that would be for them, a country that would be known as 'Germany'.
In order for such a country to be created, the various kingdoms of Central Europe inhabited by German speaking peoples would have to be united as a single nation-state. The great question concerning the possible unification of German speaking kingdoms in Central Europe was would this unification be brought about by the Hapsburg Dynasty of Austria or the Hohenzollern Dynasty of Prussia?
It was in the second half of the 19th century that this question was finally answered. The government of the kingdom of Prussia was something of a 'Constitutional Monarchy' in which the king shared power with elected political leaders, headed by a Minister President (the German equivalent of a British Prime Minister). It was a particularly talented Minister President of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck, who used a combination of diplomacy and war to bring about the unification of the German speaking kingdoms of Central Europe, with the exception of Austria. Bismarck's efforts were aided by the equally talented Chief-of-Staff of the Prussian Army, Helmuth von Moltke the Elder.
In 1864, at the same time that the United States was engaged in its civil war, Prussia defeated Denmark in a war that resulted in Prussia gaining territory at the expense of Denmark. Only two years later, in 1866, Prussia launched a war against Austria and all of the other German speaking kingdoms of Central Europe. The remarkable performance of the Prussian Army under the leadership of Moltke resulted in complete victory in a matter of weeks. The various German speaking kingdoms of Central Europe were forced to accept Prussian leadership in a coalition headed by the Hohenzollern Dynasty. Four years later, in 1870, the Prussian led coalition went to war with France, achieving complete victory by 1871. The Prussians declared a new German Empire, the Second Reich, and the Hohenzollern king of Prussia was proclaimed as the Kaiser of Germany (after the Roman title of 'Caesar').
By 1871 the Hohenzollern Dynasty of Prussia had united all of the German speaking kingdoms of Central Europe, except for Austria, into a new, powerful German nation-state. But the very size and strength of this new Germany would destabilize Europe, ending the balance of power established by the Congress of Vienna. In particular, when France was defeated in 1871, the new Germany took the French territory of Alsace-Lorraine, making it part of the new Germany. The French refused to accept this loss and planned to retrieve Alsace-Lorraine in a future war with Germany. The seeds for the outbreak of World War I had been planted...
