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Napoleon Raids German Lands
Napoleon annexed lands along the Rhine River for France, and dissolved the Holy Roman Empire by forcing the emperor of Austria to argree to just be king. Also, Napoleon made some German states into the Rhine Confederation. Napoleon was first viewed as a hero to the Germans because he encouraged the freeing of serfs, and got rid of laws against Jews. Other Germans did not like Napoleon and they fought and started to demand a unified German State. As a result, the German Confederation was made. -
Bismarck Unites Germany
Germany became uniting when Otto Von Bismarck became chancellor. He used his policy "blood and iron" to unite Germany under Prussia, Bismarck was big on using realpolitik and was loyal to the Hohenzollerns. He wanted to build up his military and used funds from other sources to do it. He fought in 3 wars to help unify Germany. -
Prussia declares War with Denmark and Austria
First, Bismarck make an alliance with Austria. Then Prussia and Austria went on to seize Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark, these two provinces were liberated and the spoils were divided Austria got Holstein and Prussia got Schleswig. In 1866 Bismarck got an excuse to attack Austria, this resulted in Prussia taking control of many more northern German states. Bismarck also got rid of the Austrian-led German Confederation and made a new confederation that was dominated by Prussia. -
France Declares War on Prussia
The Franco-Prussian War began in 1870 when Napoleon the III became angry.Germans thought about the invasions of Napoleon I and wanted to encourage German nationalism. Bismarck stirred up trouble by sending out a telegram to the press about King William I & the French Ambassador meeting. Napoleon declared war on Prussia but later surrendered because of the badly supplied at organzied French. France was humiliated. -
German Empire is Born
William I of Prussia was persuaded to take the title of kaiser by the North German Confederation and the princes from the southern German states. In January 1871 Germany had celebrated the birth of their second Reich, it was called that because they considered it the heir to the Holy Roman Empire. A constitution written by Bismarck that had a two-house legislature, this was the Bundesrat and the Reichstag. Even with this two-house legislature, the chancellor still had the real power in Germany.
