We review one of the most important historical processes in the history of the 19th century, the integration of the different German states into a single and powerful state: the unification of germany.
The rise of nation states
The first meaning of the word nation was linked to the idea of origin or descent. In other words, it referred to a person’s place of birth, whose limits were imprecise and could be linked not only to the entirety of a territory that shared a common arrangement, but also to different territorial considerations, such as a specific kingdom or a principality. determined within an even larger territorial conglomerate.
However, throughout the 18th and, above all, the 19th centuries, a new concept of nation was imposed, which was created at the same time that the different political processes led to the construction of sovereign national states.
in these new territorial conceptionsthe country had a well-defined territory where everyone shared, to a greater or lesser extent, political institutions, laws and a unitary jurisdiction.
The people who lived in those countries, therefore, were united by a language, a culture, a history, some customs and, although they felt attached to their respective birthplaces, they were aware of belonging to a larger unit. However, this process was long and was not exempt from problems.
Many countries that we know today had been fragmented for centuries into different political units that had evolved in different ways, causing their inhabitants to have a very different socio-political and intellectual conception of themselves. This meant that a forced union of territories for political-geographical issues or for other issues equally exogenous to the characteristics of their population would cause problems, as happened in Italy or Germany.
Especially during the 19th century, after the disappearance of the distinctive characteristics that differentiated various areas of the same territorial conglomerate, administrative, institutional, cultural and educational systems one of their objectives was to consolidate a single state authority and generate a common national identity with specific characteristics.
This idea of building a powerful national identity was also strongly linked to the interests of the most prominent social classes in each territory, especially the growing bourgeoisie, who hoped that a strong state would benefit them politically, economically and commercially.
The unification of Germany
During the Middle and Modern Ages, the territory that we know today as Germany it was fragmented into a large number of different states that had their own government, their own laws, and their own customs, each acting independently of the others.
Part of these territories reached a certain degree of consensus and established certain lines of common action in the context of the Holy Roman German Empire and under the direction of an emperor elected by the votes of the so-called Imperial College, formed by the imperial princes.
However, the emperor had no real authority over the imperial princes and the various territories remained independent, with the imperial authority forced to negotiate with each of them separately when he needed their help or collaboration, which he could refuse to give. Therefore, although the idea of Empire could lead us to think that Germany had a certain unity before the 19th century, in practice it was far from being the case.
Characteristics of German unification
However, the different German states did share certain aspects cultural, historical and political-social that made them conceive that they belonged to an ethnic group, if not the same, then similar and that differentiated them from other political conglomerates, such as nearby France.
This caused a certain awareness of a common identity despite their independence from each other, which facilitated their political-economic collaboration in different instances and their idea of common defense in their frequent wars against France or against the powerful Ottoman Empire.
During the Modern Age, like other European princes, different holders of the German states wanted to increase their territorial power through the annexation, by conquest, agreement or inheritance, of different nearby territories. Thus, for example, electoral principalities such as Bavaria, the Palatinate or Brandenburg (which would later become the kingdom of Prussia), gradually increased their importance in the Central European context. However, during the Modern Age, there came to be in the area that today is identified with Germany until 300 different states of greater or lesser importance, with an outstanding independence in the government of their territories.
Otto Von Bismarck
Finally, the great builder of the german unification it was Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), prime minister and chancellor of the Prussian government from 1862.
Bismarckknown as the Iron Chancellor, sought to achieve unity of germany under the hegemony of Prussia and establish a centralized policy in the diplomatic and military aspects. Despite having some background of a cultural nature that defended an identity shared by all the German states, practically no political steps were taken towards unity until Napoleon came to power in France at the dawn of the 19th century.
Napoleon attacked different German areas, allied himself with others and even managed to subdue the emperor for a short time, giving the French emperor his own daughter, the archduchess, as his second wife. Maria Louise of Austria.
In 1806 the Holy Roman Empire as it had been conceived during the Middle and Modern ages was dissolved. After Napoleon’s defeat, during the famous congress of vienna 1815it was decided the future that the german states after the fall of the French Empire. Finally, the creation of a Confederation made up of 36 independent German states in which Prussia and Austria also participated, under the presidency of the Habsburg house, was agreed upon. However, each state remained independent and the Confederacy had little practical decision-making power over its component territories.
Periods of German unification
It is considered that the unification process formally began with the decision of the powerful kingdom of Prussia to organize a customs union that received the name of Zollverein. This union abolished the existing economic tariffs and borders between the German states, with the aim of improving trade and the circulation of goods at a time when the Industrial Revolution was beginning to leave its mark on the area.
The Zollverein was made up of eighteen central and southern German states and affected more than 23 million inhabitants. Prussia obtained important economic advantages that increased its already outstanding ascendancy in the German zone. These beginnings of economic and trade union, which left out Austria, the other major political bloc in Central Europe, constituted the clearest precedent towards a unification of a political nature under the baton of the powerful Prussia.
The consequences of the French revolts of 1848, where nationalism already had a very clear weight, gave the unification process the push it needed to begin its political journey. The consequences of the 1848 revolution spread to the German area, where riots and problems of different considerations were provoked, with petitions linked to the creation of a Parliament, the holding of elections or the institution of freedoms such as the press or expression. Frederick William IVthe King of Prussia, promised to work for a united Germany.
An assembly met in Frankfurt to discuss the composition of the new unified state but, lacking any real practical power, the assembly dissolved without any real consequence.
Finally, the great builder of German unification was Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), prime minister and chancellor of the Prussian government from 1862. Bismarckknown by the nickname of “the iron chancellor”, sought to achieve the unity of Germany under the hegemony of Prussia and establish a centralized policy in the diplomatic and military aspects.
German unification, commanded in this way by Prussia, was imposed through force, since none of the German states at the time could really oppose the great power political-military which the kingdom of Prussia displayed at that time. Therefore, German unification it was not a national revolution that was imposed from the different social layers of the German states, but that it was a conception imposed from power and despite the opposition of different social classes and territories that participated in it. In this way, military confrontations of some relevance took place between Prussia and those German states that did not want unification, generally helped by Austria, the great enemy state of Prussia.
war against denmark
The War against Denmark took place in 1864, known as the War of the Duchies which pitted Prussia and Austria against Denmark. The objective of this military conflict was the control of the Duchies of Holstein and Schleswig which were under Danish power but which, for the most part, had a German population.
The result of this contention was that Holstein came under the administration of Austria and Schlweswig of Prussia, in what is known as the agreement in the Gastein Convention in 1865. Bismarck used the Zollverein to impose Prussia on the duchies, so Austria Holstein had to give in to the impossibility of defending it.
War against Austria
The most prominent of these clashes occurred in 1866 and is known as the austro-prussian waras it confronted these two states with the help of their respective allies, siding with Austria those who did not want unification and, with Prussia, those who had already been annexed or who were inclined towards that option.
Prussia won that war with little delay and directly annexed some of the states that had collaborated with Austria, as well as some of its territories. In 1867, Bismarck created what is known as the North German Confederationmade up of powerful states such as Baden and Bavaria, which briefly retained their independence, although this Confederation was under Prussian control.
war against france
Just a few years later, when the franco-prussian warBismarck got the North German Confederation and Prussia itself to join the West German states.
After the German victory, in 1871 the so-called Second German Empire was established and King Wilhelm I of Prussia was proclaimed kaiser, with an internal and, above all, foreign policy, centralized from Berlin. The new German empire underwent an enormous development…