introduction:
The unification of Germany is accomplished by the enlargement of Prussia, and an enlarged version of Prussia is the true meaning of Germany.
In this enlarged version of the empire, the King of Prussia was the Emperor of Germany, and the Prime Minister of Prussia was also the Prime Minister of Germany for a long time.
The root cause of all this can be found in the history of the thousand-year-long strife between the hegemons of Central Europe.
(Bismarck)
One: The weakening of Germany behind the strife.
The prototype of Germany stemmed from the division of the Frankish kingdom.
Divided into three empires, the three major European states were laid, France, Italy, and Germany.
Compared with the earliest rise of France and becoming a European power, Italy fell into a long-term clerical and secular struggle after the Middle Ages, and then became fragmented, and later in the Renaissance era, Italy entered the era of city-states, and the infighting of the four major city-states and the intervention of France made Italy a power projection area of the European hegemony France from beginning to end.
Compared with the City-States of Italy, the german region suffered better.
Although the Holy Roman Empire has always existed, the religious power and secular disputes have kept the huge empire in a state of disintegration.
As a result of the decline of imperial power, it was difficult to give birth to centralization, and there were countless states.
(Fragmented Shinra)
All this is also evidenced by data.
After the agony of the Thirty Years' War, there were as many as 314 German states specified in the Westphalian Treaty, the earliest modern contract in Europe.
A country that is not very large today actually has 314 political entities, and this state is the level of county seats.
The more counties and towns, the more dispersed the power, making the country a weak chicken in Europe, and encountering the oppression of the big powers on all sides.
Coupled with the strange seven-election emperor system, it is even more difficult to centralize the power of the empire.
The Habsburgs, who had long controlled the elector, although they were strong in the state, still lacked power in the European struggle for hegemony.
The root cause of this power is the annexation of the territory, which has no religion or class, and has made the territory of many ethnic groups and foreign peoples everywhere. (80% of the territory belongs to foreign settlements)
Prussia, on the other hand, is much purer, and although there are Poles and Slavs in the territory, the proportion is only about 20%.
Although the political forms of these two powerful states were different, their rise also gave the loose Germany hope of reunification.
Countless Germans have found the main bone.
So why did the loose Germans demand unity?
(Prussia and Austria)
Second: From loose to unified, the trend of the times.
After the Renaissance, especially the light of technology, Europe, which once adhered to feudalism, ushered in the era of the rise of secular monarchy because of the decline of papal authority.
Once France, in hundreds of years, managed to get the earliest centralization of power in Europe, and then took advantage of the population and area to become a hegemon of Europe, and the rising star Russia, with the way of annexation and centralization, also became a powerful country in Europe.
The United Kingdom, which was isolated overseas, was trapped in the three islands, and the time for centralization was also very early.
These three centralized states, together with Spain in the Age of Discovery, became the first and most powerful contenders in Europe.
On the other hand, the former overlord Shen Luo, but because of the dispersion of national power, he fell behind in the competition.
Although the economy continued to develop, the political lag made the Germans unhappy.
Why are we, such an arrogant people, repeatedly bullied?
Driven by reluctance, after the smoke of the Napoleonic Wars, and after the awakening of national consciousness, the demands of the Germans had a clear goal, that is, reunification.
Therefore, the two powerful states, taking advantage of this surging public opinion, separately put forward their own unification plans.
These were the famous three major schemes of German unification.
(The inevitability of unity)
Three: Three major plans, which is better or worse?
These three major plans, I will explain them separately!
First of all: look at the schemes belonging to the small German states!
According to the meaning of the small German states, it is to prepare to establish a nation-state composed of purely German nations, in which there are no foreigners, only Germans!
From this point of view, we can see the demands of all the small states at that time.
What we need is a strong nation-state, not a federated state that is united in countless other peoples.
All the representatives of the small states wanted to establish a purely, German nation-state.
If such a state were to be established, the centripetal force would be unquestionable, but it would have been repudiated by Austria, the largest state.
As for the reason for denial, it is also very simple, ethnic only.
(Appeal of the small states: The German state)
Second: look at the Austrian proposal.
Austria was very disappointed when it saw the purely German proposal proposed by the small states!
The reason is that the Austrian territory is full of foreigners.
If this plan were to be followed, Austria would have to give up almost 80 percent of its territory and go from a powerful state to a small state.
This is almost self-destructive, and the Austrians certainly don't want to do it!
Austria then drew up its own unified plan: the Greater Austria Plan.
The plan was simple to say, to consolidate all the German states on the basis of the Kingdom of Austria and create a multi-ethnic state.
If Austria's plan is followed, Germany will become a powerful empire that crosses the area of Central and Eastern Europe by a lot more than France, with a population of more than 70 million, and Austria will not only not lose any territory, but also become the most powerful country in Europe.
However, this plan has encountered the hostility of countless small states.
For no other reason than the pure German Empire was a cover, they did not need a new Empire to become an enlarged version of Austria.
Seeing the constant resistance, the agitated Austrian King Franz Joseph I was irritated, unwilling to talk about him any more, and declared:
All the territories in the Kingdom of Austria are inseparable, and Austria will never give up any German national settlement.
This declared that the stone was earth-shattering, and made countless small states indignant, and just when the two sides were at a stalemate, the wise Prussia came out.
in Franz Josef
Finally: the Prussian scheme, a compromise.
After Austria and the small states turned their faces, Prussia proposed its own "Little German Solution".
This plan was much friendlier, and if Austria was not willing to sacrifice for the sake of the extended family, then it would not take him to play, and in any case there were 20% German settlements on his territory. You can't just team up with me.
We in Prussia do not have so many foreign nationalities, most of them are Germans, and a small number of Poles and Slavs do not affect the main ethnic group. Countless small states, after weighing themselves, decided that unification was necessary, and since Austria was not immune, it was better to support prussia's plan.
Thus, the King of Prussia, elected by the small states, hoped to accomplish the nominal unification of the country by making King Wilhelm IV of Prussia the Emperor of Germany.
But William IV knew very well that the nominal king must not be a good one, for Austria was still a great trouble, and this relative devoted to the territory was never an easy lord to deal with, and could not be sent by the confederation of states.
Therefore, William IV, who was well versed in the way of advance and retreat, refused the kindness of the small state, and the unworthy German crown began to cultivate obscurity.
Four: Fists and Truth.
From 1851 to 1861 AD, Prussia was an era of obscurity in order to unify Germany.
During these ten years, Prussia has been doing one thing, that is, to rearmament and prepare for battle, and the purpose is to subdue Austria and eliminate the resistance to unification.
Soon after, King William I of Prussia succeeded to the throne as the new king.
The new King, William I, appointed Bismarck, who was experienced in diplomacy, as Prime Minister of the Empire.
Bismarck, who knew the way of advance and retreat, did not contain Austria at the earliest step after taking office, but united with Austria, and formed the German Federal Army to attack Denmark under the pretext of retaking the German national territory.
Seeing that the will of the nation comes first, and that Austria cannot be instigated by the present, it will join forces with Prussia to attack Denmark.
The two great powers are jointly attacking, and if the European powers want to intervene, they must also think about it, so they will endure!
Subsequently, the war was a complete victory, and Prussia, which formed a coalition army, gained the favor of the small states, and its prestige grew!
(Prussia War)
After the completion of this battle, Bismarck immediately drew Italy to launch a "German War" against Austria, hoping to determine his leadership position in the subsequent unification of Germany.
The Prussians then defeated the large Austrian army and won the war.
After winning the war, Bismarck saw that it was good, and before the European powers were ready to intervene, he reached an agreement with Austria and fulfilled his strategic demands.
Prussia disintegrated Austria's Greater German plan by dissolving the German Confederation, and formed the North German Confederation by annexing the Shihe regions, Hanover, Hesse, Nassau, and Frankfurt.
After a word difference, the Federation no longer had the shadow of Austria, and Austria withdrew from the competition to unify Germany.
After withdrawing from the competition, Austria merged with the Kingdom of Hungary to form the Austro-Hungarian Empire and continued on its way to a multi-ethnic state.
Prussia continued to practice the Little German plan, defeating France shortly thereafter, dealing a heavy blow to the last obstacle to German unification.
From this point of view, Prussia would not have been able to win austria without the help of the small German states, because the union of all the small states was not something that Prussia could resist.
As for why Prussia did not annex Austria.
The lack of power is one, the real annexation of small states is the second, and the third is the envy and interference of the big powers.
It was precisely after a full analysis of the pros and cons that Bismarck's wise stopping and swift peace talks were made.
End:
The unification of Germany is inevitable under the voice of the German nation, and it is also the trend of the modern nation-state after it has gradually taken shape.
Compared with Austria's multi-ethnic nature, Prussia, which had a more pure ethnic composition, gained the favor of the small German states, and with their help, it reaped success.
However, this success is actually relative.
In order to appease the interests of small states, the new German Empire, although technological development and economic development, still difficult to hide many remnants of the feudal era.
It's just that this is an afterthought.