Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Factors for unification in germany
Factors for unification in germany
Factors for unification in germany
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Factors for unification in germany
The German Unification
Germany was disintegrated into as many as 300 separate states ever since the Investiture Struggle during the Middle Ages wrecked the power of the German emperors. During those following centuries, it had to suffer. Napoleon had recklessly done Germany two favors during the process of his rule. Diffusing a sense of nationalism to its people, he had to unify Germany into 38 states, which was a big step to unification. Ever since Napoleon was defeated in 1815 (in Waterloo), Austria and Prussia competed for leadership of Germany. At time the people would expect Austria to dominate, with its longer imperial tradition and larger territory. However it was Prussia that was destined to bring Germany together, with its better
…show more content…
He used the desires of various Germans for the unification. He did it to increase the power, the size and the influence of one of the German States, which was Prussia. Otto had misgivings (a feeling of doubt for the outcome of something), he had them for the German nationalism. Bismarck used it to create Germany that was in many respects a greater Prussia.
In 1866, he went to war against Austria, since he wanted to destroy German confederation established 1815. Bismarck made a speech about the German Unification called the blood and iron speech.
Austrians declared War on Prussia, cries of ‘’on the Berlin” filled streets of Paris. The cause of immediate confrontation between France and Prussia disputed over one vacant European throne. Spain was the country with one vacant throne. After the defeat of the French in 1815, the German Empire proclaimed in 1871, proclaimed at Versailles. The Unification helped Germany become an industrial giant and acquired the leading role in Europe. After the German Unification, the constitution drafted by Bismarck established two-house legislature.
The two-houses of legislature were the “Bundesrat”, the upper house of the parliament, the lower house “Reichstag”. Germany did indeed not become a democracy.
The chancellor and other ministers were not accountable to the Reichstag at that time, but they were towards the
In 1866 the Austro-Prussian War broke out between the two German states of Prussia and Austria. There had been conflicts between the two in previous decades, but Prussia, under the command of Otto von Bismarck, had sought a more lasting split. Under Bismarck’s control, conditions had been orchestrated to make war possible between the two and to ensure Prussia’s victory. Thus, when the opportunity was presented by the Duchies question, Bismarck took his chance and provoked a war. The war itself was over in seven weeks, with a Prussian victory, it was important as it symbolized the permanent separation of the two states. Though the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 had origins before Bismarck, Bismarck actively chose to prepare for and provoke a conflict with Austria in hopes of removing its influence from the German states.
...erman economy was down. This led to migrations to other countries. In his speech, Hitler just wanted to liberate nearly four million Germans, and return to their thousand-year-old Reich. For Hitler to united his Germans he had to remove different national and ethnic groups in Germany. Which clearly broke the treaty.
There were a number of events that occurred before eventually resulting in the reunification of Germany in 1871. The first steps towards the unification of Germany began in 1814 after the downfall of Napoleon’s ‘Rheinbund’ this began the period of restoration, where princes and knights etc. reclaimed their political control over their territory that they had under the old ‘Reich’ before 1789 (Mark Allinson, 2002).
First Germany lost lots of land bordering Poland, France, and Denmark. East Prussia was still a part of Germany, but was like an island, disconnected from the homeland. This weakened Germany very much, having land be stripped from her. In Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf he says, “No nation can remove the hand from it’s throat except by the sword” (Document A). Hitler is saying in order to stop the unfair treatment, war is inevitable. He said this to help him come to power. He inspired people to not get pushed around by other countries with the Versailles Treaty. Hitler promised redemption and glory if he was put to
The war was the result of a succession dispute over the Spanish crown. What was seemingly a Prussian-Spanish alliance made the French feel encircled. Bismarck was able to entice Napoleon III into quick, aggressive action through the manipulation of Ems Telegram. This prompt action from Napoleon III led to growing anti-French and pro-German sentiment and led to the southern German states aiding the Prussian cause. William Carr has argued that South Germany’s involvement in Prussia’s cause meant that they had to come to terms with the new political situation. Although numerous southern states were reluctant to join the German Confederation, Bismarck therefore had to make numerous concessions. None the less the German Empire was born on the 18th January 1871. Harry Hearder argues that the North German Confederation already signified a unified German State. The declaration of the German Empire in 1871 re-emphasized the creation of a unified Germany and included the southern states. This would suggest that the Seven Weeks War with Austria had more significance in the eventual unification of
Germany experienced a lot of economic changes after Germany was split into East Germany and West Germany. Initially, West Germany was established as a federal republic but was established as it’s own independent nation in 1955. Many events happened in West Germany from the 1950s to the 1980s before Germany became one nation again. There were events such as “oils price shocks, generous social programs, rising deficits and loss of control.” East Germany’s economy was strong due to the Soviet Union’s reliance on Eastern Germany’s production of machine tools, chemicals and electronics. It became appealing to reunite with West Germany when the value of East Germany’s currency became “worthless” outside of it’s country because Eastern Germany was relying on the Soviet Union’s demand (Marketline).
World War I was a very complicated war. It goes back as far back as 1870. Of course the was didn’t last for that many years, but it had many casues. Not just one spark that started it off. The Franco-Prussian War was one of these casues. There were sevral Franco-Prussian Wars. The last Franco-Prussian War started in 1870. Prussia was in a confederation. A confederation is a group of states that are loosly joined together and have more power than the government of the whole country. Prussia was the biggest state. France and Prussia always fought over Alsace-Lorraince. It was land with very rich soil. It was on the border between France and Prussia. They kept fighting over the land. One time Prussia would win and would take the land. The the next time France would win and would take the land. This kept happening, but in the last war, which started in 1870, Germany finally won Alsace-Lorraine. They signed a treaty in Versailles, France. The Franco-Prussian War ended in 1871. After the Franco-Prussian War, Bismarck, who was Prussia’s leader made the unification of Germany. That meant that all the separate states joined together to be one counrty. After this, Bismarck became the leader of Germany.
In addition, having lost the war, the humiliated Germans were forced by the Allies to sign the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 that officially ended World War I. According to the harsh terms of the treaty, Germany had to hand over many of its richest industrial territories to the victors, and was made to pay reparations to the Allied countries it devastated during the war. Germany lost its pride, prestige, wealth, power, and the status of being one of Europe's greatest nations. (Resnick p. 15)
After the Treaty of Versailles was forced upon the Germans, there were several challenges the Germans had to deal with. Some examples of the cost of the war to Germany was the forfeiting or giving back of land, its coal mines productions were given to France for a 15 year span, and Germany had to limit its army to 100,000 men with its forces not allowed around the French border. In addition to all of this, Germany was forced to accept war guilt as having been solely responsible for World War I. This had a crippling effect on Germany as they did not believe they had really caused or had lost the war. The bitterness from humiliation as well as the poverty this treaty bestowed upon the people was too much for Germany. This would lead to World War II in later years. Adolf Hitler had a plan to handle these problems that the Germans faced as a result of the war. It is probably best described as National Socialism.
In an era riddled with unrest, massive expansion, technological advances and widespread migration of people, the German Empire remains the quintessence of it. An empire of unparalleled impact, even today we are discovering more and more information about this empire. The German Empire was officially created in 1871 after the defeat of the French in the Franco-Prussian War. The unification of the German people created an environment that allowed for the rapid development and rise on the global stage of the German Empire. The people under the rule of the German empire ultimately had their livelihoods increased because of it.
Destructive nationalism, or devoted loyalty that can lead people of a similar heritage to form their own nation, caused tension to rise tremendously within and among several lands. Nationalism in Germany was especially prominent. With powerful military forces and an industrial outlook, Germany was thriving. A sense of national unity was dispersed throughout the empire and gave Germany the assurance it needed to expand. Due to German development, several wars broke out with neighboring regions such as France. By gaining the territory of Alsace-Lorraine, German and French border tensions reached new heights. Due to this conflict along with several others, Germany claimed responsibility for the Great War, as exhibited in Document 4. By forcefully signing the Treaty of Versailles, Germany accepted defeat and accountability for World War I. On the contrary, in Document 5, a German nationalist opposed the idea that Germany alone was liable for outbreak of the war. He felt that several forces of opposing countries took part in fighting each battle and ultimately believed that global opposition caused the Great War. Similarly, in the Balkan Region, several ethnic minorities desired independence from Austria-Hungary. As shown in Document 3, The Austro-Hungarian government demanded that action was to be made regarding propaganda against Austria-Hungary. This ultimatum was a result of the assassination of
April of 1792, the newly elected Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria and Prussia, because it was believed that the French emigres were building counterrevolutionary alliances; it was also said to spread its revolutionary ideals across Europe through warfare.
Previously to 1815 in central Europe, Germany consisted of 39 independent states, belonging to the Holy Roman Empire, which shared the same culture and language. In 1806 there was a shift in power as Napoleon I destroyed the Holy Roman Empire and 17 states were placed under direct French control in the Confederation of the Rhine. However, Prussia was determined to regain its position as the leading German state and in an alliance with Russia and Austria, Napoleon was defeated in 1814. In 1815, after Napoleon’s defeat, the Austrian Empire replaced the French control that was previously in place leading to the formation of the German Confederation. In 1862, Otto von Bismarck was appointed Minister President of Prussia to strengthen Prussia’s position above Austria and to further strengthen their position within Europe. During Bismarck’s politically active years, 1862-1890, he devised a plan to unify the German states and it is argued that the wars in Germany within the years 1860 and 1871 were the main cause of German unification. Nevertheless, it can also be argued that Otto von Bismarck’s personality, diplomacy and aims, the economy, the revolutions of 1848, the role of others and the emergence of Liberalism also played a role in the unifying the German states.
The unification of Germany threw all of Europe off its axis. With the formation of this new power there were now five major powers instead of four. This would work to unsettle age-old alliances and confuse the entire European continent for more than twenty years. Not least among the nations swept of their proverbial feet was France. France was a rival with the German alliance long before it merged into one state, but the new stability of a unified Germany made it a much more powerful entity. France scrambled to try and establish a sense of security, immediately demanding compensation in the form of the Rhine’s west bank and Belgium, which Bismarck quickly denied (Howard 40). It became quickly obvious that these two nations would be forced to a flashpoint and soon.
Bismarck oversaw this transformation and established a very conservative centralized government. While colonial societies did form, there was no outward attempt to building an overseas empire by Bismarck or any other major government official in the years after unification. Bismarck was preoccupied with maintaining and growing Germany’s position in Europe, realizing any overseas activity put Germany at risk of inciting significant geopolitical tensions in Europe.