Unification and a German Nation

A German nation was not established in the late 1600's, however the thought of a German fatherland began to rise in the minds of the German speaking people across the territories. The American Revolution had sparked the fire of nationalism in German speaking lands and led to revolutions and fighting across the land. Minor setbacks over the years from power dynamics within German territories resulted in the failure of unifying and becoming a nation. Ironically, during the French Revolution, in which German states and territories were seized, Germany took it's first steps to becoming unified by taking control of smaller and less powerful territories. Because of this the German territories went from 340 to 30. This drop in territories made the German speaking lands more unified then ever before.

However, in the 1800's a bigger step was taken to free the grip on the German speaking lands. Napolean Bonaparte was largely a part of this step towards a German nation. He began to convince the representatives of Germany to abolish their connection to the empire and eventually led them to war. This war ultimately destroyed the Holy Roman Empire giving Germany a sense of nationalism and freedom. Goals were set and plans were made to create and unify. However, a German nation was still far away.

Right: Napolean Bonaparte.

The tides turned against Napolean and eventually the German people were happy to see him thrown out of power. With him out of the way German speaking lands were one step closer to creating a German nation. Constitutions were set and plans were laid out but disagreements and revolts setback the growth of the nation. Nationalism was forgotten until the after 1840.

Fighting began to break out and outcries for a central government could be heard across the German lands. Politicians finally caught on to this urgency and began convening to discuss what could be done about building a German nation. Again, disagreements and parties formed making it hard for the assemblies to come to any sort of agreement. Besides this, greater powers were keeping them from moving forward with their plans.

Fairly close to this time, industry was beginning to boom in German territories. The first railway was opened in Germany, resulting in an extremely successful economy. The railway in turn led to the growth in the iron industries. This created jobs all over Germany. The economy was extremely successful and should have been helpful to fight for a German nation. A strong economy was a huge step towards unifying and strengthening what was to become the German nation.

Left: A memorial to the Ludwig Rail Line.

Ironically, this did quite the opposite. Because the industry was booming and labor was cheap, people began to flock to the new factories for jobs and steady money. People were immigrating from all over. The amount of immigrants and uprooted people killed nationalism for a very long time. Because people were not rooted in Germany they felt no connection or nationalism to the area. This was a major setback in the birth of the nation.

Eventually, the nationalism was sparked again by one final war which resulted in the birth of the German nation. Bismarck, although disliked by many eventually took the right steps towards finally loosening the grip of the French. Bismarck tricked the French into war, causing the already weak French government to finally hand over the reigns to a growing German nation. Finally Germany was unified and taking it's first steps to creating a strong government and national pride.

Right: King William I. First Emperor of the Germany.