As early as the time of Louis XIV's frequent invasions of the Rhine region, national antagonism had already emerged between the German and French peoples.

In the later Age of Enlightenment, the cosmopolitanism embraced by the intelligentsia, and affairs such as war were seen as affairs of the court and ministers, and public opinion in France could even applaud the victory of Prussia, which represented an Enlightenment ideal.

The real change took place during the Napoleonic Wars, a conflict that many believe changed the European perception of war, and that war elevated to a full-scale national war.

However, the German sense of national unity first appeared in the field of culture, which is why it is often said that Germany as a nation is first and foremost a product of culture and not of politics, which is a very important result of the Romantic era.

Later, the Germans also tried to achieve unification in a spontaneous, even somewhat revolutionary way, in the 1848 revolution, but the king of Prussia refused the crown given to him by the Frankfurt Parliament (the Reichstag of the German Confederation), laughing that it was an iron collar for slaves.

This democratic unification meant that the power of the German Kaiser was conferred by the representatives of the nation, thus negating the Prussian monarchist tradition.

Nineteenth-century Germany had very strong nationalist movements, but there were also strong democratic and liberal movements, the latter two of which threatened to overwhelm the traditional political structures of the German states.

The great gulf between dynastic politics and nationalist movements should therefore be clearly recognized.

The Emperor felt that if Bismarck later led the unification of Germany, the first condition was that Germany must accept the harsh system of Prussia, and Bismarck, during his tenure as Prussian representative to the German Confederation, always regarded Austria as the guarantor of the German order.

The defeat of the revolution of 1848 had a great impact on the nationalist movement in Germany, and Princess Katrina Kaaf even considered it to have a catastrophic impact on the development of German history, and from then on the nationalist movement pinned its hopes on the Prussian power. It can be said that Bismarck used the national mood of Germany in the service of Prussian dynastic politics.

The small German principalities, or German states, were in fact similar to the unification model of Britain and France, not at the level of the German Empire (before 1806), but at the level of states such as Prussia and Austria, which imitated Louis XIV's efforts to centralize power.

From a practical point of view, the German Empire could not achieve effective unity, because the estrangement caused by the Thirty Years' War was too deep, especially in terms of faith; Moreover, some members of the Empire, especially the Free Cities of the Empire, may not be willing to accept the domination of a powerful state.

In addition, a considerable part of the territories of Austria and Prussia, the two largest states of Germany, were not pure German, so a considerable part of their territory was outside the German Confederation formed after the Napoleonic Wars.

This complex political structure made it impossible for the empires and confederations of the past to survive as a valid political entity.

From the perspective of the Holy Roman Empire, the prototype of the German state, the origin of the HRE law comes from Charlemagne's Empire, which in turn originates from the Western Roman Empire, which can be traced back to the Roman Empire, which is considered to be the Roman Empire that ruled the known civilized world, at least from the perspective of Mediterranean civilization.

The first key reason why the HRE as a political being did not constitute a truly powerful political system was the opposition of the Holy See (Catholic Church) in Rome. The empire did not live up to its name, with loose electorates and a proliferation of free cities making it difficult for the emperor to gain real power and organize an army, while the Kingdom of France, which rose from a small Île-de-France (near Paris) to the west, gradually seized a nation and slowly established what would become the hexagonal state (Lorraine-Alsace, which later became known as the main cause of the Franco-German dispute, was the easternmost part of the hexagon that coincided with the Holy Roman Empire).

On the one hand, the unified, although it was a puppet of the Napoleonic Empire, the Rhine Confederation made the German states survive for the first time under a political name other than the "Holy Roman Empire", and made an attempt for the establishment of a German-speaking nation-state in the future; On the other hand, the great literati of the Enlightenment era, such as Goethe, also laid the groundwork for German nationalism among the statesmen of the court, especially in Prussia.

Finally, in the 19th century, when the historical conditions were more mature, the two most powerful princes of Germany could finally make a contest, and there was a reason why Prussia and Austria actually made their own different choices in the end - Austria had long become a barrier for European Christian civilization against the aggression and expansion of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, and had a deep traditional affection for the peoples of southeastern Europe from the Carpathians to the Adriatic Sea. It chose the cause of a "Vienna Plurinational Empire" rather than the cause of a "German Mononational Empire", the latter of which Prussia rightly chose for its destiny.

Why did Prussia unite Germany, and not the other principalities?

President Moe believed that medieval Germany could not become a centralized feudal kingdom; In modern times, religious strife caused internal divisions, and the powerful German leading states focused on expanding outside Germany; Therefore, the era of the possible reunification of Germany was only in the 19th century, when nationalism rose after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, so why was Prussia the great German state in the 19th century to unify?

The dominant faith in Germany was Protestantism, and the most powerful of the Protestant states was Prussia. Both economic and military. The key to the unification of Germany was the integration of North Germany.

Once North Germany is united and its strong economic potential is realized, it will be difficult for either Austria or France to prevent North Germany from uniting South Germany.

Prussia's geographical conditions are very favorable, located in the northeast of Germany, far away from France, so it was not too much restricted by France to expand, nor was it dismembered in the Napoleonic Wars, it is very convenient to integrate North Germany, there is an opportunity to participate in the partition of Poland near Poland to strengthen its strength, and it is easy to obtain access to the sea, even if there is no Prussia, there will be a strong Protestant state in Northeast Germany as a leader to integrate North Germany, as long as the mainstream faith in North Germany is still Protestant, as long as North Germany can be unified, and finally Germany will be unified, It's just that it might be a little later.

As far as the overall environment of Europe at that time is concerned, there is no European power that can really threaten the unity of Germany, and when Napoleon I was the emperor, it would be useless to try the unification of Germany, and it would be useless to have a hundred Bismarcks.

The Emperor believed that Bismarck's role was mainly reflected in the integration of other European countries, so that the unification of Germany was basically unaffected by other countries.

Britain, France, and Russia, the three major countries of Europe at that time, did not prevent the unification of the Germans.

Although Germany fought a Franco-Prussian War with France, Napoleon III was too far from his uncle Napoleon the Elder, and the backward staff and mobilization systems of France and France were far from being the opponents of the maturing Prussian officer corps and staff system.

The impact of the Franco-Prussian War was not only the creation of a unified Germany, but also the continuation of the national hatred between France and Germany, which had to be poured with the blood of the two world wars to awaken the politicians of the two countries, and cooperation was always better than war, of course, this can only be achieved in the Western system of thinking.

However, in this kind of thinking, Hua Huang believes that Westerners are more advanced than Easterners, and if they change to the East, the two superpowers are adjacent to each other, and it is difficult to cooperate.

Emperor Hua felt that Bismarck was just a politician, not a military strongman, Bismarck understood very well the eternal law that the military is in the service of politics, and the name of the iron-blooded prime minister is just a superficial phenomenon, otherwise it would not be possible to explain why Germany had such a strong war strength in World War I, but it did not achieve the final victory, the reunification of Germany should be Bismarck's political ability, plus the perfect combination of Germany's luck, both are indispensable.

After the establishment of the Second Reich, Germany did not establish a unified state, but a federal empire.

After 1871, there were still political entities of various sizes in Germany, such as the Kingdom of Prussia, the Kingdom of Bavaria, the Kingdom of Saxony, the Grand Duchy, the Duchy, the Princely States, the Free Cities, and so on.

The Kingdom of Bavaria retained its independent military, postal, telegraph and railway systems, and the flag of the Kingdom of Bavaria was always able to fly alongside the flag of the German Empire.

The Second German Reich did not even have a formal imperial government.

Bismarck was the Prime Minister of the Reich, and he was not accompanied by a cabinet member who was accountable to Parliament, only a private secretary who worked under him and was accountable to himself.

From the point of view of the modernization of government institutions, China has reached the level of the 21st century, while Germany is still stuck in the 19th century, and the difference between the two sides is more than a century.

From the perspective of the Huacui Party, Huaguo is far better than any political party in the whole world, because the Huacui Party has a clear political goal, a clear template and a concept, and Huahuang has drawn a clear blueprint for what Huaguo will develop into in the future, which no politician in this world can do.

Everyone else is just groping, but Huahuang is turning the blueprint into reality as soon as possible.

The system with Chinese characteristics, not to mention in the 19th century, is also invincible in the 21st century. Simply because by the middle of the 20th century, the pattern of the whole world had been formed, the borders had been stabilized, and the major powers had reached a point of equilibrium, especially after the two world wars, the great powers were generally weakened for a round, and they all expected peaceful development.

Now the emperor is a good time to catch up, because the whole world powers are in the crazy development, even so, the development speed of the country can still exceed all the powers several times, everyone is sharpening the knife at the same time, the emperor has actually drawn the knife in his hand, but this knife is not big enough, not sharp enough, the emperor in the will to fight, in the determination of war, in the idea of war, absolutely ahead of the ruling class of all the powers.

The official name of the famous German General Staff was the Prussian General Staff, and countries such as Bavaria had their own military institutions and remained independent to a considerable extent.

The Second German Reich is very different from the "great unification" in the Chinese context.

It was precisely because of this realization that the Emperor was willing to strengthen cooperation with Germany, not hostility, and in fact, in his heart he placed Germany in a more dangerous position than Britain, France, and the United States.

The only thing that worries the emperor is the giant of modern history, Mr. Bismarck, what will be his attitude towards the rise of China?

President Moe and Gege chatted for a while and then fell asleep.

Jiegege helped Emperor Hua cover the blanket and lay down beside His Majesty.

In this way, Huahuang spent two full days on the train.

"Your Majesty, Berlin has arrived." Wang Zhankui came over to inform Emperor Hua.

President Meng hurriedly looked out the window, there was still some way to the train station, but there was already a crowd of people holding black and red five-pointed star flags to greet them, including Germans and Chinese students in Berlin, half of each.

The total number of Chinese students in Berlin has exceeded 100,000, which is a very frightening number.