The People’s Empire: The German Empire

The People’s Empire

In an era riddled with unrest, massive expansion, technological advances and widespread migration of people, the German Empire remains the quintessence of it. An empire of unparalleled impact, even today we are discovering more and more information about this empire. The German Empire was officially created in 1871 after the defeat of the French in the Franco-Prussian War. The unification of the German people created an environment that allowed for the rapid development and rise on the global stage of the German Empire. The people under the rule of the German empire ultimately had their livelihoods increased because of it.

One way to measure the success of a nation is by its migration trends. During a time when much of Europe was emigrating to the United States, the German Empire actually had a decline in the number of people emigrating, and had the lowest emigration of any European country aside from France, which had a lower emigration rate but was experience a rise in emigration during the late 1800s (Wilcox, Ferenczi). There are a few reasons to explain the decline in people leave Germany for greener pastures in America. The rapid industrialization of the German Empire, the welfare programs established and the massive technological innovations in Germany all created reasons for people to stay.

The first and most likely the greatest reason people stayed and thrived in the German Empire was because of its rapid industrialization. Trailing the rest of the world in industry and technology it was not until the mid-1800s that Germany finally started to industrialize, but it was not until the creation German Empire that there was full-fledged industrialization (SJSU). Part of the reason that allowed Germany to in...

... middle of paper ...

...lfare State in England and Germany, 1850-1914: Social Policies Compared. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007. Print.

Langer, William L. "The Franco-Russian Alliance (1890-1894)." The Slavonic Review 3.9 (1925): 554-75. JSTOR. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. .

Lutz, Ralph Haswell. The German Revolution, 1918-1919. New York: AMS, 1968. Print.

Mitchell, Allan. The Great Train Race: Railways and the Franco-German Rivalry, 1815-1914. New York: Berghahn, 2000. Print.

Pounds, Norman John Greville. The Ruhr; a Study in Historical and Economic Geography. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1952. Print.

Taylor, A. J. P. Bismarck, the Man and the Statesman. New York: Knopf, 1955. Print.

Willcox, Walter Francis, and Imre Ferenczi. International Migrations. New York: Nat. Bureau of Economic Research, 1929. Print.