page_title: Unification of Germany
section_title: Brief timeline
hierarchical_section_title: Unification of Germany / Brief timeline
context_page_description: The Unification of Germany into the German Empire, a Prussia-dominated state with federal features, was officially proclaimed on 18 January 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles in France. The new state replaced the German Confederation, a loose association of sovereign states, and the highly decentralized Holy Roman Empire. Princes of the German states, excluding Austria-Hungary and its House of Habsburg-Lorraine, gathered at the ceremony to proclaim William I of Prussia and the House of Hohenzollern as German Emperor, following the French capitulation in the Franco-Prussian War.
  A confederated realm of German princedoms had been in existence for over a thousand years, dating to the Treaty of Verdun in 843. However, there was no German national identity in development as late as 1800, mainly due to the autonomous nature of the princely states; most inhabitants of Holy Roman Empire territories, outside of those ruled by the emperor directly, identified themselves mainly with their prince, and not with the emperor or the German realm as a whole.
context_section_description: 1797: The French First Republic annexed the Left Bank of the Rhine as a result of the War of the First Coalition.
  1802: Previous annexations by France confirmed following its victory in the War of the Second Coalition.
  1804: Francis I of Austria declared the new Austrian Empire as a reaction to Napoleon Bonaparte's proclamation of the First French Empire in 1804.
  1806: As a result of the War of the Third Coalition, Napoleon I annexed some territories East of the Rhine, replaced the Holy Roman Empire with the Confederation of the Rhine as a French client-state.
  1807: Prussia lost half of its territory following the War of the Fourth Coalition.
  1815: After the defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna reinstated the German states into the German Confederation under the leadership of the Austrian Empire.
  1819: The Carlsbad Decrees suppressed any form of pan-German activities to avoid the creation of a 'German state'; the Kingdom of Prussia, however, initiated a customs union with other Confederation states.
  1834: The Prussian-led custom union evolved into the Zollverein that included almost all Confederation states except the Austrian Empire.
  1848: Revolts across the German Confederation, such as in Berlin, Dresden and Frankfurt, forced King Frederick William IV of Prussia to grant a constitution to the Confederation. In the meantime, the Frankfurt Parliament was set up in 1848 and attempted to proclaim a united Germany, but this was refused by William IV. The question of a united Germany under the Kleindeutsch solution (to exclude Austria) or the so-called Großdeutsch (to include Austria) began to surface.
  1850: The Erfurt Union was a short-lived attempt at a union of German states under a federation, proposed by the Kingdom of Prussia. The Erfurt Union Parliament (Erfurter Union Parliament), lasting from March 20 to April 29, 1850, was opened at the former Augustinian monastery at Erfurt. The union never came into effect, and was completely undermined by the Punctuation of Olmütz, a treaty between Prussia and Austria, signed 29 November 1850, by which Prussia abandoned the Erfurt Union and accepted the revival of the German Confederation under Austrian leadership.
  1861–62: King Wilhelm I became King of Prussia and he appointed Otto von Bismarck on 23 September 1862, Minister President and Foreign Minister, who favoured a 'blood-and-iron' policy to create a united Germany under the leadership of Prussia.
  1864: The Danish-Prussian War started as Prussia protested against Danish incorporation of Schleswig into the Kingdom of Denmark. The Austrian Empire was deliberately drawn into this war by Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Prussia. The Austro-Prussian victory led to Schleswig, the northern part, being governed by Prussia and Holstein, the southern part, being governed by Austria, as per the Treaty of Vienna (1864).
  1866: Bismarck accused the Austrian Empire of stirring up troubles in Prussian-held Schleswig. Prussian troops drove into Austrian-held Holstein and took control of the entire state of Schleswig-Holstein. Austria declared war on Prussia and, after fighting the Austro-Prussian War (Seven Weeks' War), was swiftly defeated. The Treaty of Prague (1866) formally dissolved the German Confederation and Prussia created the North German Confederation to include all German states except the pro-French, southern kingdoms of Bavaria, Baden and Württemberg.
  1870: When the French emperor, Napoleon III, demanded territories of the Rhineland in return for his neutrality amid the Austro-Prussian War, Bismarck used the Spanish Succession Question (1868) and Ems Telegram (1870) as an opportunity to incorporate the southern kingdoms. Napoleon III declared war against Prussia.
  1871: The Franco-Prussian War ended with Prussian troops capturing Paris, the capital of the Second French Empire. Bavaria, Baden, and Württemberg were incorporated into the North German Confederation in the Treaty of Frankfurt (1871). Bismarck then proclaimed King Wilhelm I, now Kaiser Wilhelm I, as leader of the new, united Germany (German Reich), excluding
caption: Germania, a personification of the German nation, appears in Philipp Veit's fresco (1834–36). She is holding a shield with the coat of arms of the German Confederation. The shields on which she stands are the arms of the seven traditional Electors of the Holy Roman Empire.
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