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Prussia (/ ˈ p r ʌ ʃ ə /, German: Preußen [ˈpʁɔʏsn̩] ⓘ; Old Prussian: Prūsija, Prūsa [b]) was a German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order.
The Kingdom of Prussia [a] (German: Königreich Preußen, pronounced [ˈkøːnɪkʁaɪç ˈpʁɔʏsn̩] ⓘ) constituted the German state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. [5] It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1866 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. [5]
By the late 1840s through the 1860s, trade between both countries grew rapidly. In 1846, the United States, Prussia, and Bremen, then the main German harbor for the American trade, founded the Ocean Steam Navigation Company (OSNC), directed against British maritime supremacy in the North Atlantic. In part, the company was subsidized by Prussia.
The usurper kingdom had prevailed against the European great powers and would play a vital future role in the "Concert of Europe". [8] Austria and Prussia both would fight France in the Napoleonic Wars; after their conclusion, the German states were reorganized into a more unified 37 separate states of the German Confederation.
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict involving most of the European great powers, fought primarily in Europe and the Americas.One of the opposing alliances was led by Great Britain and Prussia.
In 1866, most mid-sized German states had opposed Prussia, but by 1870 these states had been coerced and coaxed into mutually protective alliances with Prussia. If a European state declared war on one of their members, then they all would come to the defense of the attacked state.
The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. "Treaty of Amity and Commerce," The Avalon Project at Yale Law School. Treaty of Amity and Commerce Between His Majesty the King of Prussia, and the United States of America; September 10, 1785. Accessed 10 September 2010.
The situation did not suit either France, which unexpectedly found itself next to the militarily powerful Prussian-led North German Confederation, or Prussia, whose foremost objective was to complete the process of uniting the German states under its control. Thus, war between the two powers since 1866 was only a matter of time.