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Chapter 25
Section 2:
The Unification of
Germany
Prussia as Leader
• Prussia became strong in the
1700s under the reigns of
Frederick William I and his
son Frederick the Great. But
when Napoleon defeated
Prussia in 1806, he limited
the size of the army and
forced Prussia to contribute
money and soldiers to
France.
• Prussian troops helped
defeat the French at Leipzig
in 1813 and fought at
Waterloo in 1815.
• Prussia became 1 of the 4
great powers at the
Congress of Vienna and
joined Quadruple Alliance.
• 1815, Congress of Vienna
created the German
Confederation.
• The Congress granted
Prussia territories in
Saxony and along lower
Rhine River.
The Zollverein
• German nationalism favored
Prussia more then Austria and
almost everyone in Prussia was
German.
• Tariffs made trading b/w states
costly and even goods moving
from one Prussian possession
to another.
• Junkers, a class of aristocratic
landowners, complained that
tariffs were hurting the sales of
farm products
• 1818 the Junkers talked the king
of Prussia to abolish tariffs w/in
his territories
• 1834 German states had agreed
to treaties that resulted in a
customs union call the
Zollverein  included most of
German states but not Austria &
the Z made prices lower & more
uniform
• German economy moved toward
unification
• Politically – each state in the
German Confederation con’t to
act independently
• Elections were held for a
representative National Assembly,
but liberal demands for a rep.
gov’t. were not met, so that the
German system remained
absolutist
Bismarck & Prussian Strength
• In 1861 William I became king
of Prussia
• 1862 he appointed Otto von
Bismarck to head the Prussian
cabinet
• Bismarck opposed democracy &
the idea of parliament; wanted to
expand Prussia; built the
Prussian army into a powerful
war machine
Wars of Unification
• To increase power & size of
Prussia, Bismarck 1st had to drive
Austria from leadership in the
German confederation & 2nd
Prussia had to overcome Austria’s
influence over the southern
German states
• He did this in 3 wars
The Danish War
• The war dealt w/ the duchies of
Schleswig & Holstein
• 1863 King Christian IX took the
Danish throne & made a new
constitution which he tried to annex
Schleswig & Holstein
• Both Prussia & Austria declared war
on Denmark & 1864 Denmark
surrendered
• The 2 duchies went to Prussia &
Austria but the two fought over it 
Schleswig=Prussia; Holstein=Austria
The Seven Weeks’ War
• Bismarck provoked Austria into
declaring war on Prussia over the 2
duchies
• Prussia took advantage of technology;
moving by train, communication by
telegraph, & using modern technology
• 1866 the Treaty of Prague dissolved
the German Confed.; Austria
surrendered Holstein & in 1867
several N. German states united w/
Prussia to form the North German
Confederation
The Franco-Prussian War
• 1870 Bismarck received a telegram
from William & Bismarck edited the
telegram to sound like the king
insulted the French ambassador
• France declared war on Prussia
• Bismarck expected the S. German
states to unify against France & the
Prussian army defeated France in
few months
• May 1871 the treaty said France lost
Alsace, part of Lorraine, & had to
pay a huge indemnity
Formation of the German Empire
• Jan. 1871 representatives of
the allied German states
declared the formation of the
German Empire, including all
German states except Austria
• Berlin became the empire’s
capital; King William I of
Prussia was made German
emperor; Bismarck was made
chancellor, or chief minister of
the empire
• Bismarck accepted a
constitution that united the 25
German states in a federal
form of gov’t
• The emperor, called the
kaiser, headed the gov’t
appointed the chancellor &
commanded the military in
times of war
• The legislative branch
consisted of 2 houses;
Bundesrat & Reichstag
–The Bundesrat, or upper house
was a federal council made up
of 58 appointed members
–The Reichstag or legislative
assembly, the lower house,
consisted of 400 members
elected by universal male
suffrage; it could approve
military budgets only once every
seven years & saw only those
bills that the Bundesrat had
already approved
• The German constitution
favored the Prussians
• The king of Prussia was also
kaiser of Germany
• Prussia had the most
representation in both
houses