This is a brief discription of the German Unification

Essay by gambit_boy1High School, 11th grade December 2002

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German Unification

The unification of Germany was quicker and more valid than that of Italy's. Most of Europe did not like Germany for the fact that they did not want a large power of German's in the middle of Europe. Before unification there had been 300+ German states. During the 30 years war tens of thousands of Germans died, resulting in a new generation of German's with war in their bloodstream. This of course will help Germany in its quest to become unified. Germany had problems though, France did not want the Germans to unify, Austria (a German state) wanted things to stay the same, and the northern states were Protestant and looked up to Prussia while the southern states were Catholic and looked up to Austria. In 1861 William I took the throne in Prussia, he then appointed Otto von Bismark as the Chancellor. Bismark was a man who believed in a strong monarchy, and all his life he wanted to see a unified Germany. As Chancellor he was determined to unify Germany no matter what. He knew the only way it could be done was by war and bloodshed. He raised taxes, collected them, increased the size of the army, and bought new weapons. In 1864 Christian the ninth claimed Holstein and Schleswig and annexed the Germans. Bismark did not approve of the annexation and declared war on Denmark, and crushed them. Bismark had the strategy of making countries declare war on him so he didn't look like the bad guy. By doing this he prevented all of Europe from joining together and fighting Prussia. In 1866 Bismark sent troops into Austria to protect his people, Austria disapproved of this and declared war on Prussia. As a part of Bismark's plan he crushed the Austrians in 7...