In Germany, there was not one state, but several. Austria and Prussia were the largest. Previously, they worked together in the Holy Roman Empire. It was not possible to agree in Vienna to recreate the old empire. For example, Prussia did not want the Emperor of Austria to become German Emperor again. Many Germans, however, no longer wanted a confederation of states: they did not believe that the German Confederation could really defend them well. The German Confederation helped states persecute people when they wanted more freedom. The German Confederation was an association of states, a confederation of states. It was founded in 1815. At that time, the Congress of Vienna took place. There they talked about how things should continue in Europe: the Frenchman Emperor Napoleon had conquered half of Europe and was now defeated. The nation-state was given the name “Confederation of North Germany”.
It is the same German state that exists today. But it was given a new constitution and a new name several times. In 1871, the German states of southern Germany joined. Since then, the state has been called the “German Reich”. Since 1949, the name has been “Federal Republic of Germany”. The German Confederation was an association of sovereign princes and free cities under international law, which was decided at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. It was a loose confederation of states in which each state was independent. The bourgeoisie was not satisfied with this solution. They demanded a nation-state, as well as in France or England. How the German Confederation came into being, how it was composed and how it affected people can be found in the following article. In 1815, at the Congress of Vienna, the princes decided on the German Confederation for Germany. It was a loose confederation of 35 princes and four cities.
The modern German nation-state known as the Federal Republic is the continuation of the North German Confederation of 1867. This Confederation of North Germany, a federal state, was a completely new creation: the law of the German Confederation ended and a new law was born. The German Confederation was, according to historian Kotulla, an association of states with certain elements of a federal state, and the Confederation of Northern Germany was a federal state with some elements of an association of states. [34] It was a loose confederation of 35 princes and four cities. Each State has made its own decisions. In case of war, they decided to act together. To this end, there was a war army of various troops from the Member States. The great powers, Prussia and Austria, belonged to the German Confederation.
However, they were represented with only part of their national territory in the German Confederation. In fact, territories that had not belonged to the German Reich were omitted. Kings of non-German origin, such as the King of England, the King of Denmark and the King of the Netherlands, were also represented in the members. On June 8, 1815, the princes signed the German federal law. As a loose confederation of states, the new German Confederation initially consisted of 34 states and four free cities. The sovereignty of the Member States has been preserved. There was no central government, only the Bundestag in Frankfurt. Political decisions were dominated by the great powers, Prussia and Austria. Above all, the German Confederation must serve as an instrument of restoration and ensure Europe`s internal and external security.
In the event of war, there was a federal army composed of various contingents from the member states.2 The German Confederation was not a federal state, as the creation of a nation-state was rejected by the princes. The states were bound together as a loose confederation of states, but made their own decisions. In addition, there was competition between the great powers Prussia and Austria for the supremacy of Germany, which was a major problem of the German Confederation. The German Confederation was founded at the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815. As a loose confederation of states, it was intended to ensure internal and external security in Europe. The liberal bourgeoisie in particular protested against this decision. He called for the creation of a German nation-state, fundamental rights and a constitution. There were rules for the armies of the German states: the states had to make sure that they had at least a certain number of soldiers.
These soldiers were together the federal army. If the German Confederation determined that there was war, the states had to leave their soldiers to the German Confederation. There was only one such war: from 1848, Germany fought Denmark for three years. Austria, however, did not want a nation-state. Many different peoples lived in Austria, for example the Czechs and Italians. Therefore, he resisted when Prussia tried to push him out of Germany. Medium-sized states were often on Austria`s side. They didn`t want Prussia to become their boss. Austria was much larger than Prussia and also had more inhabitants. That is why Austria considered itself more important.
Austria has always been mentioned first. In the Bundestag, the organ of the German Confederation, the representative of Austria was considered the president. Many Germans wanted a common German state, a nation-state. Prussia did not find the idea completely wrong. But he wanted to be the boss of the nation-state. This would only succeed if Austria were not part of it. News of the 1848 revolution in Paris quickly reached disgruntled bourgeois liberals, republicans, and more radical workers. The first revolutionary uprisings in Germany began in March 1848 in the Baden region.
Within days, there were revolutionary uprisings in other states, including Austria, and finally in Prussia. On March 15, 1848, the subjects of Frederick William IV of Prussia evacuated their long-suppressed political aspirations in violent riots in Berlin, while barricades were erected in the streets of Paris. King Louis-Philippe de France fled to Britain. Friedrich Wilhelm bowed to the anger of the people and promised a constitution, a parliament and support for German unification to ensure his own government and regime. [26] [27] The population of the German Confederation (excluding Austria) increased by 60% between 1815 and 1865, from 21,000,000 to 34,000,000. [14] Meanwhile, demographic changes have taken place in Germany. It was a transition from high birth rates and high death rates to low birth and death rates as the country moved from pre-industrial to modernized agriculture, supporting a rapidly growing industrialized urban economic system. In previous centuries, the lack of land meant that not everyone could get married, and marriages took place after the age of 25. The high birth rate was offset by a very high infant mortality rate, as well as periodic epidemics and crop failures. After 1815, increased agricultural productivity meant an increased food supply and a reduction in famines, epidemics, and malnutrition.
This allowed couples to marry earlier and have more children. Arranged marriages became unusual, as young people were now allowed to choose their own spouse, subject to parental veto. The upper and middle classes began to practice birth control, and a little later the peasants too. [15] The population in 1800 was heavily rural,[16] with only 8% of the population living in communities of 5,000 to 100,000 and another 2% in cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. The Zollverein also weakened Austrian supremacy over the Confederation, as economic unity strengthened the desire for political unity and nationalism. Gradually, Bismarck subdued the more restless elements of the middle class through a combination of threats and reforms, responding to the revolutionary sentiments expressed in 1848 by offering them the economic opportunities for which the urban middle sectors had fought. [29] The Zollverein was a step towards economic integration, modern industrial capitalism and the victory of centralism over localism, which quickly ended the era of guilds in the small German princely states. This led to the revolt of the Silesian weavers in 1844, who saw their livelihoods destroyed by the flooding of new factories. German Confederation, 1815-66, Union of German States envisaged at the Congress of Vienna to replace the former Holy Roman Empire, which had been destroyed during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.
It included a total of 39 states, 35 monarchies and 4 free cities. Its aim was to ensure Germany`s external and internal peace and the independence of the Member States. In the event of an attack, members pledged to help each other. However, some princes were exempt from this provision. He was the King of England, as King of Hanover; the King of the Netherlands as Duke of Luxembourg; and the King of Denmark, as Duke of Holstein and Lauenburg. In its composition, the Confederation was little more than a loose union for mutual defense. Its main body, a central parliament that met in Frankfurt under the Austrian presidency, functioned as a diplomatic conference. Most decisions required unanimity or a two-thirds majority, and delegates were bound by instructions from their respective governments. The diet was therefore ineffective.
The strong reactionary influence of the Austrian statesman Metternich, supported by Prussia, dominated the Confederation until 1848, when the liberal revolutions that swept through Germany led to the creation of the Frankfurt Parliament. The regime was resumed in 1850. The treaty concluded at Olmã1/4tz temporarily restored austrian leadership, but the Austro-Prussian War (1866) led to the dissolution of the Confederation and the foundation of the North German Confederation under the leadership of Prussia.