History of Germany

Germany, a country rich in culture and heritage, yet plagued by the fallout of World War I and World War II, has progressed to become the centerpiece of the European Union and the world’s third richest economy. The first German Empire dates back to the Roman Empire starting in the 8th century AD. During the Middle Ages the German Empire fended off many attacks against their soil from the Hungarians and the Slavs. Fighting and power struggles continued until the 1400’s, when the modern world gradually came into existence with intellectual, economic and political changes.

During the late 1490’s and early 1500’s, Maximilian I put into motion his plan to reform the German Empire by creating an Imperial Supreme Court (Reichskammergericht), levying imperial taxes and increasing the power of the Imperial Diet (Reichstag) (Wikipedia). By the mid 1500’s Germany was a reforming nation with revolts, uprisings and a general division of the empire based on religious beliefs and resentment. This division of factions led to the Thirty Year’s War which ravaged Germany from 1618 to 1648. The war ended in 1648 with the signing of the Peace of Westphalia. As a result, German territory was lost to France and Sweden.

In the following years, imperial power declined as states gained more power. This power struggle led to a century of resistance against German rule and persecution. The French revolution sparked a new war between France and its Eastern neighbors. In 1803 Napoleon relaunched the war against the Roman Empire and abolished almost all the smaller secular states and most of the imperial free cities (Wikipedia).

The Roman Empire was formally dissolved on August 6, 1806 when the last Holy Roman Emperor Francis II resigned. At that time the Confederation of the Rhine was established under Napoleon’s protection and in 1815 Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo. Following Napoleon’s defeat, the territory of the former Roman Empire was broken into a loose union of 39 states with 35 ruling princes and 4 free cities.

Germany began to be industrialized in the 19th century. In 1825 the first steamship sailed on the Rhine and in 1833 the first telegraph was constructed. Railway lines were built in 1835 and in 1866 Siemens constructed the first dynamo (Wikipedia).

The industrialization led to modern warfare techniques and ultimately the nationalism, imperialist competition and mi...

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...est Berlin (Wikipedia).

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl outlined a plan for the unification of the two nations on November 28, 1989. A formal union of the two political systems occurred in October, 1990. In essence, East Germany was annexed by West Germany and took on its monetary and legal systems.

Currently, Germany is quite possibly the centerpiece of the European Union and a strong support of the enlargement of NATO and the EU. Germany’s military participate in multinational relief efforts and has backed the United States in Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. With annual exports of $900 billion, Germany is the World’s leading exporter, well ahead of the United States.

Even with its tarnished past and history of war and struggles, Germany is a country that has come a long way in the last two decades with respect to its government, industry and education.

Detwiler, Donald S. Germany: a Short History. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999.

“History of Germany.” Wickipedia. 4 Aug. 2005. 28 Jul 2005

“History of Germany since 1945.” Wickipedia. 24 Jul 2005. 28 Jul 2005

K., Joseph & G., Owen. A History O’Germany. 7 Feb 2001. 28 Jul 2005