German Unification

The unification of Germany was long in coming. In the beginning of the 1800's Germany did not exist as a country, but rather as a grouping of different states. Prussia, Austria, France, and Denmark all vied for control of this area during this period of time. The origins of German unification began with the Zollverein. This was an economic alliance between the Germanic states supported by Frederick List. The purpose of this alliance was to promote German industrial growth. Eventually the bonds formed by this economic alliance would turn into political ones.

Zollverein: Not Quite Wolverine

The man who would push for the unification of Germany with "blood and iron" was Otto van Bismarck, a Prussian. In 1864, along with the Austrians, he fought Denmark over the control of the provinces of Schleiswig and Holstein. After winning this war, he realized that he needed to remove Austrian influence from Germany. 

In The Seven Weeks' War, the Prussian forces pushed the Austrians out of German territory and limited their influence there. Prussia won because they had superior "iron" in the form of railroads and better guns. The German states and Prussia formed the North German Confederation, which did not include Austria. Poor Austria. 

SO MANY IRONS IN THE FIRE

Bismarck himself was the chancellor of Prussia. He could be described as "pragmatic" or "manipulative" depending on your opinion of him. He was  not particularly well liked by the Parliament there, because he had raised taxes without their permission to fund the war efforts. In Bismarck's eyes the king and military held the power. Additionally, he was wary of the republican liberals, the ones responsible for the revolts in 1848. Bismarck however, saw nationalism as a tool that could be used for the purposes of his regime. He was not a complete dictator though. In an attempt to compromise with Parliament, he passed the Indemnity Bill with their permission which approved of spending officially. He also allowed representatives of the lower Parliament (the Reichstag) to be elected through universal male suffrage. These concessions must be taken with a grain of salt however, as they did not significantly hinder the power of Bismarck, and if anything were mainly motivated by the desire to make friends among the middle class and the common people. 

The Orange Bits - Southern Germany

With these things accomplished, Bismarck began looking to join the southern German states to the growing country of Germany. These southern states were Catholic, while the northern ones, in which Luther had basically been born in, were Protestant. He would need a way to gain the support of the culturally different southern states if he wanted an unified Germany. But how??