The Unification of Germany

Germany, like Italy, was made up of separate states in the early 1800s. In 1815, after Napoleon’s defeat, 38 states joined together to form the German confederation. Austria and Prussia were the two most powerful states to join this group of nations.

From the start, Austria and Prussia competed against each other for leadership of the Confederation, and, in 1866, Prussia declared war on Austria. After Prussia won a battle at Sadowa on the Elbe river, Otto von Bismarck, the chief Prussian minister, set up a separate North German Confederation dominated by Prussia.

The French, threatened by the growing power of Prussia, declared war in 1870. Led by Napoleon III, the French army of 120,000 men was heavily defeated at the Battle of Sedan by a German force of more than 200,000 men. Napoleon III himself was taken prisoner. In response, the people of Paris rose up against him and the French Second Empire was overthrown. The Prussian army then besieged Paris.

When the Franco-Prussian War ended on 10 May, 1981, Germany took control of Alsace and Lorraine from the French, forcing them to pay five billion francs in reparations. The German Second Empire was declared, with William I, the king of Prussia, as emperor and Otto von Bismarck as the chancellor.