North German Confederation
Federal state in Northern Germany, 1866–1871 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The North German Confederation (German: Norddeutscher Bundⓘ)[1] was initially a German military alliance established in August 1866 under the leadership of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was transformed in the subsequent year into a confederated state (a de facto federal state) that existed from July 1867 to December 1870. A milestone of the German Unification, it was the earliest continual legal predecessor of the modern German nation-state known today as the Federal Republic of Germany.[2]
North German Confederation | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1866–1871 | |||||||||||||||||
 The North German Confederation in 1870 | |||||||||||||||||
 The North German Confederation (red). The southern German states that joined in 1870 to form the German Empire are in orange. Alsace–Lorraine, the territory annexed following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, is in tan. The red territory in the south marks the original princedom of the House of Hohenzollern, rulers of the Kingdom of Prussia. | |||||||||||||||||
| Status | Federation | ||||||||||||||||
| Capital | Berlin | ||||||||||||||||
| Common languages | German, Low German, Danish, East Frisian, North Frisian, Polish, Kashubian, Slovincian, Silesian, Czech, Moravian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Polabian, Lithuanian, Kursenieki, Yiddish, Wymysorys, French, Dutch | ||||||||||||||||
| Religion | Majority: Protestantism (Lutheran, Calvinist, United churches) Minorities: | ||||||||||||||||
| Demonym(s) | North German | ||||||||||||||||
| Government | Confederal parliamentary semi-constitutional monarchy | ||||||||||||||||
| President | |||||||||||||||||
• 1867–1871 | Wilhelm I | ||||||||||||||||
| Chancellor | |||||||||||||||||
• 1867–1871 | Otto von Bismarck | ||||||||||||||||
| Legislature | Bicameral | ||||||||||||||||
| Bundesrat | |||||||||||||||||
| Reichstag | |||||||||||||||||
| Historical era | New Imperialism | ||||||||||||||||
| 20 August 1866 | |||||||||||||||||
| 18 August 1866 | |||||||||||||||||
| 16 April 1867 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 January 1871 | |||||||||||||||||
| 18 January 1871 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4 May 1871 | |||||||||||||||||
| Currency | Vereinsthaler | ||||||||||||||||
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The Confederation came into existence following the Prussian victory in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 over the lordship of two small Danish duchies (Schleswig-Holstein) resulting in the Peace of Prague, where Prussia pressured Austria and its allies into accepting the dissolution of the existing German Confederation (an association of German states under the leadership of the Austrian Empire), thus paving the way for the Lesser German version of German unification in the form of a federal state in Northern Germany. Construction of such state became a reality in August 1866, following the North German Confederation Treaty, initially as a military alliance only, while its first federal constitution establishing a constitutional monarchy with the Prussian king holding as the head of state the Bundespräsidium was adopted on 1 July 1867.[3] Laws could only be enabled with the consent of the Reichstag (a parliament based on universal male suffrage) and the Federal Council (Bundesrat, a representation of the states). During the initial three and a half years of the Confederation, a conservative-liberal cooperation undertook important steps to unify (Northern) Germany with regard to law and infrastructure. The designed political system and the political parties remained essentially the same also after 1870.
Shortly after its inception, tensions emerged between the North German Confederation and the Second French Empire, which was ruled by the French Emperor Napoleon III. In Summer 1870, a dispute over a new king for Spain escalated into the Franco-Prussian War. At the time, the original Confederation had nearly 30 million inhabitants of whom 80% lived in Prussia, thus making up roughly 75% of the population of the future German Empire. Under these circumstances, the South German states of Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Württemberg and Bavaria previously opposed to the Confederation ultimately decided to join it.[4] A new short-lived constitution subsequently entered into force on 1 January 1871 proclaiming in its preamble and article 11 the "German Empire" despite being titled as one of a new "German Confederation", but it lasted only four months. Following the victory in the war with France, the German princes and senior military commanders proclaimed Wilhelm "German Emperor" in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles.[5] Transition from the Confederation to the Empire was completed when the Constitution of the German Empire which prevailed until the demise of the monarchy entered into force on 4 May 1871, while France recognised the empire on 10 May 1871 in the Treaty of Frankfurt.[6][7]