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Bismark's Rise to Power
In 1862, a year after William I became king of Prussia, William had placed Otto von Bismark to head the Prussia cabinet. Bismark wanted to expand Prussia and to do so he believed they had to use military force. Bismark was refused any money for his military so he just collected taxes which angered liberals. He hoped that foreign policies would calm the people down. -
The Danish War
In 1863 King Christian IX, the new Danish king, came up with a new constitution. The new constitution he wrote explained how he wanted to take control of Scleswig and Danemark. Prussia and Austria did not like the new constitution so they demanded that they get rid of it. When the Danish refused Austria and Prussia they declared war on Denmark. After three months of fighting and not recieving any help from Great Britain and France the Danish surrendered. -
The Seven Weeks War
When Prussia and Austria obtained Schleswig and Holstein they both had different ideas of what to do with them and who would control them. They came to the conclusion that the only thing to do was fight for it. So Prussia and Austria went to war for seven weeks. Prussia had come out on top. -
The Franco- Prussian War
Napoleon III sought to defeat Prussia for a while now. In 1870 Napoleon III and Bismark went at it. After gaining help from southern catholic germany, Prussia defeated the french and William I became emperor. -
Formation of The german Empire
During the war the Catholic states in southern germany came to help out the northern part of Germany, the Protestants. The cotholics had feared that making a unification would threaten their religious beliefs, but after the Franco-Prussian war they decided to join the rest of their country.
