How The Small Kingdom of Prussia Unified Germany Pt I.
David rising to become Goliath
For more than a millennia, Germany, just like Italy, was nothing but a geographic expression.
Although most of the German states were nominally united inside the Holy Roman Empire, in reality, the Empire was a confederation of squabbling and quarreling states rather than a unified entity.
From the Middle Ages to the Early Modern period, many Emperors tried to rebuild the German empire. But despite their best efforts, by 1648, the German states were as divided as ever, by this time not just by politics but by religion also. Half of Germany was Protestant and half Roman Catholic.
The Peace of Westphalia confirmed the political and religious status quo that followed the deadly Thirty Year’s War.
Following the war, it was the Habsburg Emperor, ruling the Austrian hereditary lands, Bohemia, and parts of Hungary, who was the strongest player in the Empire.
Following the Ottoman defeat at the siege of Vienna in 1683, the Emperor’s forces, assisted by the German princes and the King of Poland-Lithuania, counterattacked and overran the rest of the former Kingdom of Hungary, substantially increasing the influence and power of the Habsburg dynasty. The Peace of Karlowitz, signed in 1699, confirmed the…
