Ever since the Holy Roman Empire dissolved from Napoleon’s conquest, the German region in Europe had never been truly unified until 1871. In fact, even before Napoleon, the Holy Roman Empire had been a decentralized mess of states and princedoms ever since the end of the Thirty Years War in the 17th century. Nearby kingdoms such as Prussia and Austria expanded into this territory. The German region then was only loosely united through a confederation of guilds tied together economically: first the Hanseatic League, then the Zollverein.
In 1848, an assembly was called at Frankfurt. The players: Austria and Prussia. The question on the table: will a unified Germany ever exist, and who should rule over it, the Austrian Habsburgs, or the Prussian Hohenzollerns? Ultimately, the two sides failed to reach a compromise, and the assembly fell apart. The rest of Europe also disapproved, as a unified Germany would upset the European balance of power (we would see soon in 1914!). But the idea of a unified Germany still floated around.
Otto von Bismarck, prime minister of Prussia, was the mastermind behind the unification process. Bismarck used a realpolitik strategy, carrying out wars and provoking nations as a practical way of uniting the German region together. In 1866, Prussia went to war with Austria (for seven weeks only!) and emerged victorious, excluding Austria from the North German Federation, aka a partially unified Germany. Bismarck now had one war left to fight to complete his vision: a war with France.
In 1870, French emperor Napoleon III sent out a letter to the Prussian Kaiser, Wilhelm, declaring terms of peace from a previous conflict with Spain. Bismarck intercepted the letter and modified it to purposely enrage the French into declaring war against Prussia. Sure enough, Napoleon III did end up declaring war, following Bismarck’s plan to stir up German nationalism and stamp out any French hostility.
It was a short war. With Prussia victorious in 1871, Wilhelm was crowned at Versailles as Kaiser Wilhelm I, the first ruler of a unified Germany. France lost Alsace-Lorraine, a piece of land east of their empire. For the rest of the century, this war would be humiliating for France. As for Bismarck, he was forced to resign after the new Kaiser, Wilhelm II, who was more interested in territorial expansion than careful politics, rose to power. Wilhelm II’s nationalist fervor and the highly disputed territory of Alsace-Lorraine would eventually fuel the First World War.
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