BASIC BACKGROUND

• Since the 9th century, German states were bound together in a loose political Unity known as Holy Roman Empire. Germany was divided into three hundreds of independent states and cities under the Holy Empire.
• Although the people were Germanic, they had little sense of national identity.
• There were several different types of people located in Germany, all of them containing different views on how the Empire should be ruled.
• The division of Germany into a number of States had hampered the Economic Development of Germany. The Social and political System in these States was also very backward.
• Politics were not the only difference, their religion broke down nationalism as well. Catholics who lived in the Empire felt uncomfortable living in a Protestant dominated environment.
• After the fall of the Holy Empire in 1806 which was followed by Vienna Congress, the question of Unification of Germany started.
• Exploitation of German states by foreign states like France and Austria played a great unifying force. It hurt both nationalists and capitalists.
• Napoleon reorganized Germany into 39 larger states and also established a Confederation of the Rhine, a league of 16 German States.  It was really a collection of small states ruled by minor dukes, princes and kings, led by Austria and Prussia.
• Napoleon was defeated firstly at Leipzig in 1813 and then Waterloo in 1815
• After Napoleon’s defeat in 1815, many Germans wanted an independent Germany.
• At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the allied forces decided to dissolve the Confederation of the Rhine.
• The German States now formed the German Confederation, also known as the Bund. This was created in order to preserve the independence and sovereignty of the individual German State’.
• It aimed to protect its members and give them a stronger voice in Europe.
• Austria then created German Diet i.e. the Parliament of German states to handle the states but it did not achieve much as decisions had to be Unanimous.
• The Congress of Vienna (1815) caused Prussia to desire expansion into Germany. There was a great difference between the desire of the expansion of Prussia and the desire for the unification of the German people.
• Unification was also a cultural phenomenon but the expansion of Prussia to include the whole Germany was a militaristic one.
• Prussia introduced Zollverein in 1820 to strengthen the ground for German Unification. Zollverein was the Custom Union of German states and joined by most of the German states.
• This gave German people the confidence that political integration will lead to economic empowerment of German states.
• The union abolished tariff barriers and reduced the number of currencies from over thirty to two. Mobility was enhanced by a network of railways.
• The Concert of Europe, created after the Congress of Vienna, was a system designed by the conservative monarchies of Austria, Prussia and Russia to check the spread of democratic ideas in Europe.
• The Austrian Chancellor, Prince Metternich, the principal architect of this policy, actively suppressed democratic ideas and movements and challenges to royal authority in 1820 and 1830.
• The political unification of Germany was difficult to achieve in the 19th century since the conservative monarchs were hostile to the spread of liberal ideas.
• Very limited powers were granted to the representative institutions introduced after 1815 in the German states.
• Rulers of smaller states feared loss of power in a united Germany.
• Also, there were Economic differences between western Industrial States and Agricultural Eastern States.
• Revolutions in nearly every German State occurred. Rebels forced rulers to accept Constitutions, and allow elections to the German National Assembly in Frankfurt.
• In May 1848, delegates from all of the German states met at the Frankfurt Assembly with the purpose of preparing for the formation of a united and constitutional German nation-state. But it failed.
• After the failure of the Frankfurt Assembly, a disagreement between moderate and radical liberals started and the German Confederation was renewed in 1851.
• While after 1848 most German states introduced democratic reforms, in Prussia the pace of reforms was slower since electoral votes were allocated equally to three groups of income-tax payers, the divisions being made on the basis of income tax revenue payments.
• The King of Prussia, Kaiser William I, chose Bismarck as Prime Minister to unify Germany under the rule of Prussia, excluding Austria and France completely.
• The unification of Germany had a tremendous impact on European balance of powers for the rest of history.
• Intellectuals in Germany also played a leading role. Intellectuals like Horror, Fickle emphasized on ideological bonds of German race and through their writings glorified German concepts.
• Charismatic leaders like Bismarck played a significant role in the Unification of Germany.