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It's a war fought for the unification of Germany, both to shore up support for a Prussia dominated unification of Germany by drumming up nationalistic sentiment and to forestall an almost inevitable attempt by France to mess with Germany's unification process. Austria wanted to ally with France to revenge its defeat at Prussia's hand and to keep itself the position of one of the main arbiters of European affairs by denying Prussia the chance to build arguably the most powerful nation in Europe, but because of successful diplomacy by Bismarck, Russia agreed to intervene if Austria mobilized its troops. Prussia supported Russia in the Polish problem, Austria, on the other hand, supported the Poles. The Tsar was also very very pissed by, in his view, light sentence handed down by France to an assassin who sought to assassinate the Tsar during his visit to France, France was also ambivalent or even supportive of the Poles, as a result, Russia essentially stood on Prussia's side and served as a deterrent against other powers. Italian public was bitterly against France because French still kept garrison in Rome to protect the Pope, turning itself into a hurdle in front of Italy's own aspiration for a unified nation. As for Britain, France secretly proposed to Prussia that it would acceded to Prussian acquisition of northern German states if Prussia allowed France to annex Belgium and Luxembourg in exchange, it's a direct violation of the Treaty of London which both France and Britain were signatories, as you could see lately, Britain took the guarantee of independence and neutrality of Belgium very very seriously. Bismarck leaked the French proposal to British press, which of course soured British view of France's image and intention.
Thanks, I think this is the most concise answer yet
And as you mentioned, Britain, by the guarantee of Belgium neutrality, set an important factor for the Great War. France Prussia Germany War 1870-1871
Until the rise of Prussia, Germany was a collection of weak states frequently subject to the interference of several great powers on its periphery like France, Sweden and Austria. Most of Germany was in the Holy Roman Empire which decended from the time of Charlemagne and Otto the Great. It has fallen under Austrian (Habsburg) control before being eliminated by Napoleon who organized a German confederation under French domination. Bismarck in wanting to unify Germany under German control (i.e. Prussian control) needed to break the bonds that tied a lot of German states like Saxony, Bavaria or the Rheinland to Austria or France. A brief crushing war in 1866 ended Austria's influence. The Franco-Prussian war of 1871 got the French out of Germany and eliminated the threat of Napoleon III.
Blame the entire war on Otto Von Bismark and his plan to turn Germany from a loosely related confederation of Germanic states into a unified nation-state.
What better way to foster stronger ties among the populace than to use a foreign threat?
Also, Germany got the Alsace-Lorraine territory, including the city of Strausburg; this area was a perennial bone of contention between France and Germany.
Too; once Bavaria et al were 'roped in'............it was much easier for Bismarck to keep the former in Imperial Germany.
Side note here: there was no legal entity as a 'German' till shortly after WW I----------the inhabitants of Germany were listed as Prussians, Hessians, Saxons, etc. Go figure.
Side note here: there was no legal entity as a 'German' till shortly after WW I----------the inhabitants of Germany were listed as Prussians, Hessians, Saxons, etc. Go figure.
As early as 1872, there was a postal administration that issued stamps calling the country by its modern name of Germany, "Deutsche Reichs Post". That would be the German Empire, or Second Reich.
As early as 1872, there was a postal administration that issued stamps calling the country by its modern name of Germany, "Deutsche Reichs Post". That would be the German Empire, or Second Reich.
Some of the structure of this earlier Germany is reflected today in that Germany's version of states called Lander which have complete control over education, social welfare and judicial functions. These are not Federal functions. The Lander largely conform to the larger states that were brough into Bismarcks Reich. For example, Brandenburg, Saxony, Bavaria, Hesse and Hanover.
Some of the structure of this earlier Germany is reflected today in that Germany's version of states called Lander which have complete control over education, social welfare and judicial functions. These are not Federal functions. The Lander largely conform to the larger states that were brough into Bismarcks Reich. For example, Brandenburg, Saxony, Bavaria, Hesse and Hanover.
One interesting oddity is that, during the existence of the DDR, West Berlin was an almost completely sovereign country. Laws, acts and regulations passed by the Bundestag iin Bonn were not effective in West Berlin until they were also passed and enacted by the parliament of West Berlin. In practice, this was rubber-stamped, but in theory, West Berlin was a completely separate country, not formally beholden to the West German republic.
One interesting oddity is that, during the existence of the DDR, West Berlin was an almost completely sovereign country. Laws, acts and regulations passed by the Bundestag iin Bonn were not effective in West Berlin until they were also passed and enacted by the parliament of West Berlin. In practice, this was rubber-stamped, but in theory, West Berlin was a completely separate country, not formally beholden to the West German republic.
The status of Berlin had a lot to do over the choices made by the occupying powers Russia, the United States, Britain and France. From 1945-9 Germany ceased to exist as a sovereign nation and was unter administrative control of the Allied powers who had responsiblity foe their occupation zones. The US zone was in southern and central Germany, France controled the Rheinland, Britain North Germany and Russia got Germany east of the Elbe river including what was Prussia. The Soviets wanted the 1/3 of Polish territory they got from the Molotov-von Ribbentrop Pacr so they kept that territory and annexed it to the USSR.
To compensate the Poles, the Russians gave Poland all German territory east of the Oder River and the Poles kicked over 5 million Germans out of these lands so Prussia is now Polish along with Pommerania and Sileasia.
The Allies didn't want to see Berlin entirely under Russian control since it was the former seat of German government and would make Russia the first among equals amongst the Occupying powers. So Berlin was carved out of the Russian zone and divided up 4 ways.
Bismark hated Catholics in general and in particular the Bavarians for not being not warlike enough.
He wanted all Germany to be like Prussia where it was the Army that had a country not the converse.
To this day the average Berliner is strongly anti-catholic.
It's a war fought for the unification of Germany, both to shore up support for a Prussia dominated unification of Germany by drumming up nationalistic sentiment and to forestall an almost inevitable attempt by France to mess with Germany's unification process. .
Well, if it was so much to Bismarck's advantage, was't it rather dopey of the French to start it?
I think there was two reasons. First, to create the basis for reunification of Germany particularly in the south where Prussian influence was least. France served as a common enemy to unite them around. Second, to weaken the French, the one state that appeared to rival Germany in continental Europe at the time (Bismark paid limited attention to Russia for whatever reason and Austria had already been humiliated and excluded from central europe).
While its true that Bismark did hate catholics, his efforts in the so called Kulturekamp was more pragmatic. He sought to weaken any group that threatened state power or looked outside Germany and the Catholic church appeared to do both.
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