- Bismarck wanted to unite all German speaking states into one nation state.
- By 1870, all the German states which fought against Prussia were coerced and coaxed into mutually protective alliance, with Prussia.
- This new power, North German Confederation, destabilized the European balance of power established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 after the Napoleonic Wars.
- France demanded compensation in the form of territorial gains both in Belgium and also on the left bank of the Rhine with the purpose of securing France’s strategic position. But Bismarck flatly refused these demands.
- Prussia then turned towards the south of Germany with coveted interests where it sought to incorporate the southern German kingdoms, viz. Bavaria, Wurttemberg, Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt, into a unified Germany.
- France was strongly opposed to the moves of Prussia to annex the southern German states.
- This led to a war between France and Prussia in 1870 in which France suffered defeat at the hands of the strong Prussian army assisted by almost all German states.
- The French territories, viz. Alsace-Lorraine, were annexed by Prussia by the end of the war.
- On 18 January 1871, the formal unification of Germany into a politically and administratively integrated nation state occurred officially at the Versailles Palace’s Hall of Mirrors in France.
- On 10 May 1871, during the Treaty of Frankfurt signed between France and Germany at the end of the Franco-Prussian war, Prussia retained control of all the territories annexed from France.
- After the unification, Prussia emerged as a strong German Empire both militarily and economically.