German Unification Essay

On November 11th, 1918, the Second Reich of Germany formally surrendered to the Allied powers and officially ended World War 1. In its wake, millions were dead and many of the European economies in ruin. Germany, a unified nation since only 1871, was at the center of this conflict and blamed by most for the destruction of much of Europe. But how did this young nation go from a couple dozen states and city-states, to a European power, to lying in ruins in such a short period of time? Several factors, such as increased nationalism, shifts in cultural and sociopolitical factors, and an increase in military power all led to the quick rise and fall of the Second Reich of Germany. Germany, for a better part of its history, had been home to around 40 free cities and city-states controlling the area between France and Russia. Attempts at unifying these separate but connected states had been made quite often and often with the same results; failure. Those in control of these cities and states knew that a unified German empire would have no need of all these princes and kings and so many obstacles blocked the path to unification. Another issue facing unification was the split “ownership” of Germany between Prussia and Austria, two nations that had helped join the cities and states into a loose

After years of trying to unify as one nation and countless failures, the German people now believed that they themselves were among the superior races of the world and it was Germany’s destiny to become the greatest nation the world had ever seen. Under Bismarck’s rule the economy boomed. The German Industrial Complex, powered by its heavy war production, made many men and the nation itself very wealthy. This wealth and prosperity led to an intoxicating feeling among its people, a feeling that they were the next great world