Germany relations with it's neighbors

Brian Madsen

There was no Germany in the 18^th century there was a country that occupied the area where Germany would now be and that country was known as Prussia. Over the course of its history Prussia did not have many conflicts as the country was more of “an army with a state rather than a state with an army”.  Prussia did have a little involvement in the Great Northern War, but mostly to have some control over the Baltic as Sweden was dominating all the power before the war.

In 1740 Prussian troops invaded Silesia which was the richest province in Austria and that started the Silesian wars which lasted from 1740-1763 and ended with Prussia as the victor. Afterwards Prussia did take some lead parts in the French Revolution, but then remained quiet for around a decade because of the Peace of Basil in 1795. Tensions begin to rise against France as certain negotiations failed and Prussia soon suffered a devastating defeat against Napoleon in the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt. Afterwards Prussia had to pay some large dues and give up one-third of their land and allow French troops to be garrisoned throughout the land which made the kingdom a French satellite.

After Napoleon lost to Russia Prussia jumped on the British band wagon to fight against Napoleon and was rewarded with the return of its lost land and some extra land for their help at the Battle of Waterloo.  Prussia soon withdrew from Poland to allow the creation of Congress Poland under Russian Sovereignty. Soon after Prussia joined the German confederation and Germany became a patchwork of independent, monarchical states with Prussia and Austria competing for influence. There was much conflict between the three countries as they all tried to gain influence, but eventually war broke out leading into the Schleswig war in which Prussia was trying to stop Denmark from spreading their influence, the Austro-Prussian war  which was a struggle of supremacy between Austria and Prussia for Germany, and the Franco-Prussian war which was France being a douche bag because they thought the German states were going to go into a civil war and tried to take advantage of the situation. After the wars of unification parts of Prussia slowly melded into the German republic until it was all gone.

The formal unification of Germany occurred on January, 18 1871 at the Versailles palace in France. Germany then took the remnants of Nobles from Prussia and other various people and assigned important duties as the new nobles of Germany. Germany afterward had very few tensions with its neighbors as the defeat of Napoleon left Europe with the desire for peace and was left that way until The Great started up in the twentieth century.

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_of_Germany