Germany, the position in Europe has always been very embarrassing, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire have always been inseparable, it is surprisingly fast, in Lin Hong's impression, the Germanic people, the predecessor of Germany, often went south to plunder the Roman Empire during the Roman Empire, and now these invaders have inherited the name of this holy spirit.

During the Holy Roman Empire, the empire consisted of more than 300 large and small states, and the overall affairs of the empire were controlled by Austria, the most powerful of the states, and King Franz of Austria was also the emperor of the empire, called Franz II. On August 9, 1805, Austria, Great Britain, Tsarist Russia, Naples and Sweden formed a third anti-French alliance and declared war on Napoleon, which ended in a major defeat. The defeat discredited Austria in the empire, and with the abdication of Franz II on August 6, 1806, the states were dissolved and the Holy Roman Empire came to an end.

The collapse of the empire caused constant legal, administrative, political, and diplomatic friction between the states, but the subsequent French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars stimulated the German-speaking population of the former empire, and the pursuit of the same language, the same culture, and the same legal foundation in the states was at an all-time high. At the same time, the emergence of liberal ideas, which challenged the dynastic and * institutions of the European socio-political ecology, provided the academic basis for the unification of Germany, and the promoters of unification emphasized the importance of a unified tradition, education, and language in the region. In terms of economy and trade, the German Customs Union (zollverein) initiated by Prussia in 1818 was gradually extended to other states in the German Confederation, eliminating the cumbersome, contradictory and vicious competition of interstate trade. This, combined with the continuous improvement of transportation, has made it easier to trade and travel within and between states, further accelerating communication and exchange between German-speaking populations in Central Europe, although sometimes with some friction.

On June 18, 1815, Napoleon led the French army to a crushing defeat at the Battle of Waterloo and announced his abdication. After Louis XVIII's reinstatement, on 20 November he re-established a peace treaty with the parties to the Sixth Anti-French Coalition, the Peace of Paris of 1815, which, together with the results of the Congress of Vienna, consolidated Austria's sphere of influence in Central Europe and established itself as president of the German Confederation. However, neither the peacemakers nor the conference could take into account the growing power of Prussia, let alone foresee that Prussia would soon challenge Austria's leadership. Both Prussia and Austria had ambitions to unify Germany, but they proposed two different proposals: Prussia's plan for Little Germany, Germany to the exclusion of Austria; Austria's Greater German Proposal, a Germany that included Austria.

Therefore, Prussia wanted to unify Germany, and the Austrian Empire (Austria-Hungary was formed after Austria was defeated by Prussia) was a hurdle that Prussia could not bypass.

Speaking of the reunification of Germany, it is impossible not to mention the promoter of the unification process, Otto von Bismarck, then Chancellor of the Kingdom of Prussia. Historians have debated Bismarck's true motives – some believe that Bismarck did have a grand plan to expand the North German Confederation of 1866 to annex the southern German states for unification; Others, on the other hand, held the opposite view, arguing that Bismarck had no plans for unification, and that he was simply seeking to expand the sphere of influence of the Kingdom of Prussia. But in any case, the realpolitik led by Bismarck, that is, taking national interests as the highest consideration in domestic and foreign affairs, and using political, economic, military and diplomatic strength as the yardstick for judging the strength of a country, coupled with the objective environment at that time (including the ups and downs of nationalism and nationalism), completely affected the direction of Prussia and Germany in the 19th century, and also happened to conform to the people's expectations for a unified Germany after being bullied by Denmark and France for a long time.

Due to the strong rise of Lin Hong and China, although the general trend did not change, but with the advanced weapons and various types of ordnance provided by China and the advanced tactics training of Chinese instructors, in 1864 in the Prussian-Danish War (historically the Prussian-Austrian coalition, but now Prussia has enough strength), at first, Denmark tried to rely on the ground fortifications built in the Viking Age, but these fortifications proved to be useless under skirmishers and covered shelling. Denmark was completely unable to resist the Prussian army, and at the same time could not count on any support from the Scandinavian countries (since Denmark was in clear violation of international treaties). The Prussian army was equipped with the first rifle with a rotary rear-pull manual bolt (the German version of the Reich Type 40) supplied by China. This allowed Prussian soldiers to shoot and reload while lying on their stomachs, and could reload five rounds at a time, compared to the Prussian army, the Danish soldiers still used old muskets, and when reloading bullets, one had to stand up, and the bullets were inserted through the muzzle after the barrel was straightened, and only one shot could be filled. The Prussian-Danish War ended in a Prussian victory, and in the Peace of Vienna signed on 30 October 1864, Schleswig and Holstein were placed under Prussian jurisdiction (historically, Schleswig was placed under Prussian jurisdiction and Austria was under Holstein).

Of course, it was this war that caused Austria's dissatisfaction, and Prussia's actions against Denmark on behalf of Austria brought Prussia-Austria relations to a freezing point. A war is inevitable, of course, China's friendship behind this cannot be ignored, since the beginning of the Prussian-Danish War, Chinese capital in the Chinese financial market has been absorbing Prussia's German unification bonds, Prussia now basically does not have to worry about the war funds.

Prussia made elaborate preparations for the war: it reorganized its army and equipped it with the most advanced weapons, entered into a military alliance with Italy, and secured the neutrality of Russia and France. The Prussian army practiced universal conscription and was superior to the Austrian army in terms of combat training. Economically, Prussia was also superior to Austria: industry was well developed, and railway lines spread all over the country. The strategic plan drawn up by the chief of staff, General Moltke (who later directly commanded the operation), was to fight a quick decisive battle. The plan was to cut off Austria from its allies, send three corps to quickly invade the enemy's interior, and then crush the enemy in a decisive battle. Prutuneng sent 630,000 troops. Austria, weakened by successive defeats in the war, hoped to win the war with the help of its allies such as Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, and Hesse. The Austrians were ready to slow down the course of the war with passive defense, accumulate strength, and then unite with the Allies to crush the Prussian army. To realize this plan, the Austrian army had about 300,000 troops (about 585,000 including the Allied forces). The Austrians were divided into two corps: the Southern Army (about 80,000 men, against Italy) and the Northern Army (later reinforced by one Saxon corps). a total of 261,000 against Prussia). The Austrian Army of the North, under the command of General Benedek, was mainly responsible for covering the outskirts of Vienna. Prussia always took advantage of the well-developed railway network and telegraph for the mobilization and strategic development of the corps, and thus was always ahead of Austria. On the 250-kilometer-wide front of Bohemia (from Brig on the Oder to Torgau on the Elbe) in a very short time about 280,000 men and 800 artillery pieces were assembled.

It is worth noting that no other country intervened in this war: because of the defeat in the Crimean War, Russia's relations with Austria were not good, and Russia lost all the land east of the Ural River in the Ural Mountains. Napoleon III of France believed that the Austrians would be victorious and wanted to get the territory near the Rhine. The two countries also did not intervene.

Needless to say, on June 16, the Prussian army began to occupy Hanover, Saxony and Hesse. The Prussian Main ** Army (about 50,000 men) easily defeated the weakened armies of Hanover and Hesse. The remnants of the Saxon army retreated and merged into the Austrian Army North. Bavaria failed to fulfill its obligation to send 100,000 troops and did not provide substantial assistance to Austria. On June 17, Austria declared war on Prussia. On the 20th, Italy fulfilled the terms of the Italian-Prussian military alliance and declared war on Austria. Italy had always wanted to retake Venice and was therefore more helpful, so that until the time of the active military campaign, Austria was practically not supported by the Allies and had to fight on both Prussia and Italy on both fronts.

With security on its strategic flanks and rear, the Prussian army launched a three-pronged offensive in Bohemia, and between 27 and 30 June 1867 the Prussian army engaged several battles near Nakhod and Münchengretz, forcing the Austrians to retreat. On 3 July, the largest engagement of the entire war took place between the two sides in the area of Knigretz in Sadova (see Sadua). Once again, Benedek missed the various planes that annihilated the Prussian troops that had arrived one after another and had been engaged in the battle. As a result, the Austrians suffered a crushing defeat, with about 18,000 killed and 24,000 captured. It was only due to a mistake in the command of the Prussian army (the pursuit of the Austrians began on 7 July) that the Austrians were saved from total annihilation. A disagreement arose between Moltke and Bismarck over the attack on Vienna. Moltke advocated a storming of Vienna. Bismarck, on the other hand, believed that such a move would make Prussia's European policy difficult in the future. He insisted on turning to Hungary. As a result, it is executed. Faced with the real danger of losing Hungary, Austria had to cease its military operations and sign an armistice on 22 July. On 23 August, Prussia and Austria signed a peace treaty in Prague.

In order to avoid French or Russian intervention in the war, Bismarck advised Wilhelm I to quickly negotiate peace with Austria and not rush to achieve it. The Austrians accepted the mediation of the French Emperor Napoleon III and signed the Treaty of Prague with Prussia on 23 August. By treaty, the German Confederation was formally dissolved; Prussia annexed Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, Nassau and Frankfurt; Austria must never interfere in all German affairs. As a result, Prussia was able to form the North German Confederation in 1867 and move towards the goal of a unified Germany. Prussia did not demand reparations from Austria so that she could ally with Austria in the future, a force that Austria feared, but the irredentism of the Italians and Slavs. After the war, Prussia dominated German affairs.

At this point, a unified Germany was gradually formed, and of course it was the all-important Franco-Prussian War that really united and gave birth to Germany