| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
For centuries, the Holy Roman Emperors in Austria had nominally ruled all of Germany, but the powerful nobles maintained de facto independence with the assistance of outside powers, particularly France. Prussia had become the most powerful of these states, and by the nineteenth century was considered one of the great powers of Europe. After the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815, French influence in Germany was weak and nationalist ideals spread across Europe. Many observers saw that conditions were developing for the unification of Germany, and two different ideas of unification developed. One was a Grossdeutschland that would include the multi-national empire of Austria, and the other (preferred by Prussia) was a Kleindeutschland that would exclude Austria and be dominated by Prussia.
Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck became chancellor of Prussia in 1862, and immediately began a policy focused on uniting Germany as a Kleindeutschland under Prussian rule. Having raised German national consciousness by convincing Austria to join him in the Second war of SchleswigSecond war of Schleswig also known as Danish war or Danish-Prussian war in 1864 was fought between Germany and Denmark. When the government in Copenhagen sought to make Schleswig an integral part of the Danish state in 1863, nationalist sentiment in centr, he then provoked a conflict over the administration of the conquered provinces of Schleswig-HolsteinFlag Statistics Capital: Kiel Area:ca 15,776 km² Inhabitants:2,777,000 1999 pop. density:176 inh. km² Homepage: ISO 3166-2:DE-SH Politics Minister-President: Heide Simonis ( SPD) Ruling party: SPD/ Green coalition Map Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmos. Austria declared war and called for the armies of the minor German states to join them
Most of the German states sided with Austria against Prussia, perceived as the aggressor. These included SaxonyState Service Flag Civil Flag Statistics Capital: Dresden Area:18,338 km² Inhabitants:4,600,000 2000 pop. density:251 inh. km² Homepage: ISO 3166-2:DE-SN Politics Minister-President: Georg Milbradt ( CDU) Ruling party: CDU/ SPD Map With an area of 18,400, BavariaWith an area of 70,553 km² and 11. 6 million inhabitants, the Free State of Bavaria ( German Bayern or Freistaat Bayern forms the southernmost of the 16 Bundeslander of Germany. Its capital is Munich. Geography Bavaria shares international borders with Au, BadenBaden was a territory in the southwest of what later became unified Germany. It came into existence in the 12th century as the Margravate of Baden and subsequently split into different lines, which were unified in 1771. It became the much-enlarged Grand D, WürttembergWurttemberg (often spelled Wurttemberg in English) refers to an area and a former state in Swabia, a region in south-western Germany. Its capital for the by far longest period was Stuttgart. For short periods of time, the seat of the government resp., HanoverAlternate meanings: Hanover (district), Hanover (region), Hanover (state), other uses Hanover (in German: Hannover [haˈnoːfɐ]), on the Leine river, is the capital of the state of Lower Saxony Niedersachsen in Germany. It is also the c, Hesse-KasselHesse-Kassel Hessen-Kassel was a German principality that came into existence when the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided in 1568 upon the death of Landgrave Philip of Hesse and his eldest son Wilhelm IV inherited the northern portion and established his c, and Nassau.
Some of the northern German states joined Prussia, in particular Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, and Braunschweig. Also, Italy joined with Prussia, because Austria still occupied the territory of Venetia which Italian irredentists wanted in order to complete Italian unification.
Notably, the other foreign powers abstained from this war. French Emperor Napoleon III, who expected an Austria victory, chose to remain out of the war to strengthen his negotiating position for territory along the Rhine, while Russia still bore a grudge against Austria from the Crimean War.