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Bismarks Rise to Power
- William 1 bacame king of prssia and appointed otto van bismark to head prussian cabinet. Bismark made the army very strong and made it a war machine. He wanted to expand prussia. Bismark and William faced challenges with the parliament so bismark rose taxes.
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Danish War
Denmark and Germany are between two small states the duchies of Holstein and Schleswig. In 1863 King Christian IX took the Danish throne, he proclaimed a new constitution and tried to annex Schleswig from Germany. Prussia and Austria protested but he king didnt accept. They began fighting for their rights but nothing happened.Four months later Denmark surrerndered. -
Seven Weeks' war
Bismark tried to persuaded Napoleon to stay neutral, then formed an alliance with Italy. He then provoked Austria to declare war on Prussia in 1866 over the Schleswig and Holstein dispute. Prussian forces took advantage of new technology by using trains, communicating through telograms and using new weapons. They defeated Austria in seven weeks. Treaty of Prague ended the Seven Weeks war. The treaty made the German Confederation dissolve. -
Franco-Prussian War
Bismark recieved a telogram and edited it so it insulted the French ambassador. The Frenchdeclared war on on Prussia in 1870. As Bismark expected, German states fought against the French. No outside nation helped France so the war was short. Napoleon III surrendered and his government was under siege until January 1871. -
Formation of the German Empire
After the war on January 18, 1871 representitives of the allied german states met at the hall of mirrors. There they discussed and agreed to the following rules that each counrty should follow. Each german state would be seperated into their own states with their own laws. Every German state was in charge of paying their