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The intermittent Germanisation of Prussia was a historical process that resulted in the region’s inclusion in various German states. Originating with the arrival of ethnically German groups in the Baltic region, it progressed sporadically with the development of the Teutonic Order and then much later under the Kingdom of Prussia, which continued to impact the region with germanising policies ...
The first half of the 19th century saw a prolonged struggle in Germany between liberals, who wanted a united, federal Germany under a democratic constitution, and conservatives, who wanted to maintain Germany as a patchwork of independent, monarchical states with Prussia and Austria competing for influence.
The establishment of the German Customs Union in 1834, which excluded Austria, increased Prussian influence over the member states. In the wake of the Revolutions of 1848, the Frankfurt Parliament in 1849 offered King Frederick William IV of Prussia the crown of a united Germany. Frederick William refused the offer on the grounds that ...
Through military victory, Prussia under Bismarck's influence had overcome Austria's active resistance to the idea of a unified Germany. The states south of the Main River (Baden, Württemberg, and Bavaria) signed separate treaties requiring them to pay indemnities and to form alliances bringing them into Prussia's sphere of influence. [88]
Pope Pius IX (c. 1878). The philosophic influences of The Enlightenment, Scientific realism, Positivism, Materialism, nationalism, secularism, and Liberalism impinged upon and ended the intellectual and political roles of religion and the Catholic Church, which then was the established church of Europe, excluding Scandinavia, Russia, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and, crucially, Prussia.
Prussia was prevented from forming a true representative national body, with considerable consequences on the internal development of Prussia and the German Confederation. Thus, while the states of the Confederation of the Rhine located in southern Germany became constitutional states, Prussia remained without a parliament until 1848. [60] [61]
Austria: The use of the French Emperor as an intermediary was to avoid ceding the province directly to the Kingdom of Italy, which Austria considered an inferior power, and at the same time to influence Napoleon III in favor of Austria in the crisis with Prussia. [39]
After 1866 (North German Confederation) and 1871, the new German nation state was dominated by Prussia. As Austria (or Austria-Hungary, since 1867) no longer struggled over the hegemony in Germany, the term Deutscher Dualismus became meaningless. Germany and Austria-Hungary soon became close allies, as proven by the Zweibund of 1879. Both ...