In 1967, as a high school sophomore, I took a class of “world history “. Two weeks before the year was over we had a paper due on any subject cover during the year. I wrote a Paper titled “the unification of the German states through the influence of Otto von Bismarck”. It was the only A+ I ever got. What surprise me was that the teacher made a copy. He asked my permission to use this as part of his teaching tools in the future and promised to remove my name. I said absolutely positively no problem. Eight years later, my brother took the same class from the same teacher. He came home one day and told me what they were studying and that it seemed like he knew something about this from the past but couldn’t put his finger on it. I dug out the original copy in my brother about poo poo his pants. From the time I wrote that first paper in 1967, I began to study German history and still do at the age of 72 whenever possible. Sometimes something hit you in the face and you know you can’t let it go. So it was for me.
He did have an outstanding look on global affairs too. He predicted some events that really happened in the 20th century - including the demise of his German Empire and Anglo-American world domination.
@@bjorten that was my introduction to Bismarck, as well. I know that line is a bit of a meme now, but it really does describe how he worked politically. He was so fascinating.
My heart aces when you say That Prussia was the dominant state in the German Speaking world...I am a Austrian...this brings flashes in my mind that Centuries Old Empire (Holy Roman Empire>Austrian Empire>Dual Monarchy)in the Centre of Europe dominated by Austria ruled by the Habsburg's, lost its influence and prestige during Napoleonic Wars...forced out of Germany by Prussia and losing the world war at last to end that glorious chapter in history for Austria and today reduced to a small state in the centre of Europe...I just feel as bad and sorrow in my heart how did it go so wrong that we lost it all...may our glory days return.Amen! This was the last thing my Grandfather told me before he past way...he was one of the young soldier in the Prague palace when the Czech National Council declared Independence from the Habsburg Empire...I still feel blessed my great grandfather father was a Count and he manage to bribe the recruitment officer from stoping my grandfather from being sent to the front where he most probably would have died ... fortunately enough he wasn't and at the age of 49 I can still feel my grandfather saying this story again to me when I was 17...he passed away 31 years ago
@Dan2314 Wonderluck Let's not forget another thing: Austrians were only about 1/3 of their empire's population. Whereas different Slavic nations made up 60% of the empire. Such a patchwork empire is bound to collapse sooner or later even without external help.
@Dan2314 Wonderluck The Hungarian part of the Dual Monarchy resisted from joining France... Austrian part wanted to ally with France... And you blame Austria for the war..I would say ..if we Austrians kill the President of your country would you ask for handing over the criminals or you would invade and punish that country?... Killing the head of state and then being polite with the convicted country is Dishonorable even by today's standard..how do you blame us for the war in 1914... when honour used to preferred over . Don't you know that ...the things you wrote in the comment seems to show you are a knowledgeable guy but you are surely lacking the point of view people had in to early 20th century ... Emperor Franz Josef was the only king in Europe who didn't discriminate about the people of his empire on the basis of them being German, Hungarian,Slavs ,Croats etc ..he loved them all equally and he was beloved to all the nationalities of the Empire..There is no wrong doing in his course of action he undertook... incompotent Career officer and generals like Osker Poteorik and Conrad von Hotzendorff led the Empire to ruin.
@@hebl47 How does then modern nations exist...in US there are sizable minorities of people from different countries and in Uk too...and Russia and India are such varied in every corner of the country different languages, culture etc still all live happily together ..if your statement hold's true no Country with minorities will exist. Fun note:You really think like Bismarck ...I agree with the other guy
I've just read (and can warmly recommend) Katja Hoyer's book "Blood and Iron - the rise and fall of the German Empire 1871 - 1918" if you find this topic interesting. It gives you an overview of the period and a basic understanding of the essential issues.
Kudos to Jesse and the team for making this series. Many quite rightly are fascinated by the World Wars without being aware of the conflicts 1848 to 1871 that laid the foundation for these wars. I am sure the wars of Italian unification will be factored in. It is also of note that this time period had great conflicts in both China and Japan.
Cool video, but you might want to know, there's a small mistake at 7:40 where you state Napoleon III wanted to expand "west towards the Rhine" instead of "east" Thanks for the content! :)
I think he is planning a flanking manoeuvre: go west untill you end in the east in their rear. With a brilliant leader like this, France cannot be defeated!
The situation around Slesvig-Holsten/Schleswig-Holstein, is a bit more complex than that. They were ruled by the Danish King in his role as duke there (the dukes were a branch of the royal house and when the others died out they were also kings of Denmark). However, Holstein was part of the German Empire and populated by Germans, while Slesvig was about 50/50, with Germans in the south (south of the old Danevirke rampart), and Danes in the north. And there is more, it was very complex indeed. An interesting aside, Molkte was from the dutchies and recieved his military training at the Danish court and Life Guard.
A note on the Dreyse needle gun, while it was decisive in the Seven Week War, that was largely because the Austrians were using the muzzle-loading Lorenz rifle, it was not a new weapon, having been introduced back in 1840's. While the needle gun was much faster than the Austrian muzzle-loaders, it was a bit of a dead-end, the delicate needle in the name punching though the paper cartridge to fire it. In the second half of the 1860's you were starting to see breechloading rifles with metallic cartridges come onto the scene, first conversion of muzzle-loading rifles, the Springfield Trapdoor, the Snider-Enfield, Tabatière, etc, and then weapons designed from the ground up for metallic cartridges. While it gave the Prussians a big advantage over the Danes and Austrians, the Prussians would suffer from "early adopter" problems, as we will see in the coming months...
As far as i remember Emperor F-J got to choose 2 outdated "things" to be modernized in the years before this happened as the available money would not allow for more improvements. The 3 "things" he could choose from were: Artillery guns, Infantery rifles, ships. And everyone now knows which one of these 3 fell through...
@@prestons9305 For your information: The abbreviation i used you can find on officially gifted sabres (by his majesty) for example. So much for calling it lazy... Now extra for you let's for once use the full name and title: Franz Joseph I. von Gottes Gnaden Kaiser von Österreich, König von Ungarn und Böhmen, König der Lombardei und Venedigs, von Dalmatien, Croatien, Slawonien, Galicien, Lodomerien und Illyrien; König von Jerusalem, etc; Erzherzog zu Österreich; Großherzog von Toskana und Krakau; Herzog von Lothringen, von Salzburg, Steyer, Kärnthen, Krain und der Bukowina; Großfürst zu Siebenbürgen; Markgraf von Mähren; Herzog von Ober- und Niederschlesien, von Modena, Parma, Piacenza und Guastalla, von Auschwitz und Zator, von Teschen, Friaul, Ragusa und Zara; gefürsteter Graf von Habsburg und Tyrol, Kyburg, Görz und Gradiska, Fürst von Trient und Brixen; Markgraf von Ober- und Niederlausitz und in Istrien; Graf von Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg, etc., Herr von Triest, von Cattaro und auf der Windischen Mark, Großwojwode der Wojwodschaft Serbien etc. etc.
This seems like an easily-avoided error. The video is less than 13 mins - a quick review should have picked up something like this. Maybe lazy editing or scriptwriting? Not very professional.
Especially in the time of Louis XlV french troops often entered south western Germany and did in Palatinate and along the Rhine a lot of destruction. Also my village between Stuttgart and Ulm was attacked by french troops. Those french attacks and the way France got Alsace and Lorraine from Germany, had been ideal for Propaganda against France.
I've visited a place related to this conflict, the "citadelle de bitche", it was well done with a documentary you watched trought the visit. I'm glad youtube gave me a reccomandation to the channel
@realtimehistory I feel like you should have mentioned some of the earlier flashpoints that led up to the Austro-Prussian rivalry. One of the major ones was the Erfurt Union Crisis where the various German princes all met up over the issue of German unification. Though this conference failed after Austria diplomatically outmaneuvered the Prussians during the Punctuation of Olmutz. It really humiliated the Prussians and set the stage for the next conflict. As for the claim that Prussia was "authoritarian" for most of its history Prussia by contemporary standards was quite progressive. The government of King Wilhelm I was hardly as repressive or authoritarian as some of his other contemporaries such as Franz-Joseph's Austrian Empire which was under his Neo-Absolutism (Hungary was under martial law) or even the Russian Empire.
Vos cartes, avec un choix judicieux de tons de couleur pour clarifier la subtilité des relations entre territoires ou pour aider à comprendre leur évolution, m’ont aidé à avoir une idée plus claire de certains enjeux ou de certains prétextes géopolitiques. Je puise mes informations surtout de sources primaires (Ma Mission en Prusse de Benedetti étant ma référence préférée sur ce sujet) et à partir de vos cartes, justement, j’ai pu combler certains trous de compréhension. J’apprécie aussi le soin avec lequel vous choisissez les détails à connaître pour éviter d’avoir une idée trop simpliste sur les causes des évènements.
This series looks fantastic. I would like to nontheless repeat a comment I made under the previous video: On your maps only the northern part of the Großherzogzum Hessen/Grandduchy of Hesse (aka. Hessen-Darmstadt) is coloured. I know that only the northern part was technically part of the Norddeutscher Bund but through that the whole grandduchy would have been part of the military element of the treatys establishing it (as I understand it, please correct me if I´m wrong). Maybe you can look into making that visible. A very pedantic comment from a hessian. I´m looking forward to the next video.
@@piermariobarozzi are you saying that the Hessian's are those Germans who give all the rest of Germans the reputation of always needing everything to be so precise and efficient?
I really like the visual side of your videos. In particular, the (relatively) young Franz Josef on that colourized photo looks positively snazzy. :) The map has a perfect balance between being detailed and clear to read and a detail that I personally really love - the acknowledgement that a rump Polish state (in union with Russia) still existed east of the Prussian border in 1815-1830/31. Technically the Kingdom of Poland still existed beyond 1831, but (after a revolution and unsuccessful attempt to gain full independence - collectively known as the November Uprising) it had only a very limited autonomy within the Russian Empire and lost even that after yet another uprising in 1863/64.
Nice movie. I recently wrote a book on cavalry training in the 18th century, regular cavalry weapons, military fencing, and combat tactics: ua-cam.com/video/kndEF1IE_gI/v-deo.html
Russia always struck me as such a terrifyingly large block that it in-part explains why German psychology was so focused on unification and expansion. Having such a massive empire to the direct East and then the Western powers with colonial empires the world over and you're in between feeling insecure, non-unified and that something inevitable and foreboding is on the horizon
@Fabian Kirchgessner Most parts of Franconia were forced into the new kingdom of Bavaria during the wars of Napoleon. Also the region suffered during the 1866 war, as some major battles were fought in lower franconia. So there was little bavarian "patriotism".
Great series bois. Wish you would've taken a couple minutes or so to explain what needle guns are though. I'm even a firearms nut and while I think I've heard of them before, have no idea really what they are.
I read a fairly detailed biography of Bismarck. Fascinating and talented man. Also, it shows just how much you can accomplish if you REALLY REALLY want to get a boy's attention (the King, of course).
Prussia actually lost a battle (albeit small one) to the Kingdom of Hanover. The blind king of Hannover George V, led Hanoverian forces in Battle of Langensalza (1866) over Prussia. In my youth, I was an exchange student in Germany. I was given a tour where a huge painting of the battle was depicted in Marienburg Castle
The Hanoverians outnumbered the Prussians 2 to 1 in this battle. Despite this, Hanoverian casualties were greater if you don't count the captured Prussians, showing the advantage of the needle gun.
To understand the Slesvig/Holstein issue a bit of history is needed.... going back to at least 1237 when Abel, son of Danish king Valdemar II and brother to the current king Erik IV and Duke of Slesvig married the daughter of the Count of the Germany area of Holstein. He thus tied the two areas together and at the same time started a tradition of his heirs demanding some level of independence of the Danish Crown. - Later in 1326 the Danish King was forced to codify that Slesvig was not to be put directly under the crown - and then in 1460 also that Slesvig and Holstein could not be separated. ... which led to the rather stupid dogma that the old (since at least the 10th century) and natural border between Denmark and Germany was not a legal solution.
All those mid-sized & small kingdoms and duchies were all thinking, "Uh, oh. The clock on our existence has started". Bavaria, Württemberg, Saxony, Baden, Hesse; once you're unified with Prussia time to start staring at the sand in the hourglass.
Hamburg , Bremen, Bayern, Sachsen are still Bundesländer/ states. Baden - Württemberg is former Baden and Württemberg and Thüringen is former Sachsen- Weimar- Eisenach, Sachsen- Meiningen, Sachsen- Altenburg, Schwarzburg- Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg- Sondershausen, and the two principslities Reuß combned.
The day before the Prussian King William was to be crowned German Emperor, he remarked with tears: "Today is the most unhappy day of my life, tomorrow we will bury the kingship in Prussia."
All of those kingdoms and duchies lasted intact until the Weimar Republic appeared. Some like Bavaria even maintained their own embassies abroad the whole time.
As a someone who's seriously interested on the subject I was pleasntly surprised to find there's such a project. Unfortunately my enthusiasm was calmed a lot
He was born in 1830 and became Emperor in 1848. The Emperor before him, Ferdinand, had strong mental problems and was not able, to do bis job realy well.
@@patricofritz4094 : Ferdinand l was the brother of Napoleon l second wife. Franz Josef was the son of Ferdinands younger bother and his first wife, but i have forgotten the name.
To the success of the needle rifles is important to point out that although Prussia was gradually adopting Dreyse's needle rifles since 1840s, technological advance is pretty much useless by itself. Generals have to come up with doctrines how to proper utilize that technology (and push them trough) and that didn't happen until Moltke became chief of staff (1857). To that point Prussia actually suffred from the same "overly conservative commanders (opposing Dreyse actually)" syndrome just as Austria and prussian soldiers were still trained to fight in close formations and fire-few-salvos-then-charge tactic, like the rest of the ("civilized") world, they just had a rifle that was able to reload somewhat faster (besides having poor range and maintanance). Noone in the world thought of it as significant advantage until they saw prussian loose formations and firepower focus in 1864/1866. Also worth noting during 1866 campaign Prussians themselves feared austrian cavalry and artillery - the latter was even better equipped and responsible for prussian near retreat at Königgrätz, as they were pinned down due to heavy bombardment (their own artillery unable to respond) and only arrival of the Crown Prince's Army turned the situation to their favor. But Austrian overall conduct of the 1866 northern campaign was heavily impacted by defeatism of its chief (Benedek) and rigidness of senior commanders who were not able to understand that Prussians invented whole new conduct of warfare and were literally sending wave after wave of their men in cramped oldfashioned formations against rapid firing prussian rifles...But the armies of the rest of the world didnt know much better than Austrians at that point really. Prussians were really far ahead...
So we need to ask...why were Germans not allowed to have their own country ? The French do the English do the Swedes do. And why would they WANT to have one ? There are myriad answers to that question but just one to think about is what happened to the German states when a certain ego-maniac from France decided he was going to walk in and take over...and he did because there wasn't a single unified army to oppose him it was easy to push aside the hundreds of disunified and often at odds with each other states and duchy's that made up the greater Germany. So having come to power via a coup and immediately acting like a tyrant Napoleon III made everyone in Germany a little nervous that maybe "here we go again". Time to unify.
Excellent as usual! BTW, the Austrian losses at Königgrätz-Sadowa were terrible: 22.143 dead and wounded, plus 22.170 prisoners against 8.175 dead and wounded of the Prussians. Considering that the Austrian army numbered nearly 220.000 men, its losses amounted to 20% against the Prussian's barely 4%
I know it's a bit late but could you guys describe what's with Hesse-Darmstadt? It's northern half is part of the North German Confederation but the southern part isn't. How did that work in practice?
The battle of Düppel was won by prussian troops, because the commander of prussian army music branch, Gottfried Piefke, concentrated three army bands and supported the assault by playing selfcomposed ,Düppeler Sturmmarsch'.
Country go to war on emotion issue.not hard reality.as a matter of fact war is just gambling.if you win you win big but if you lost you lost evetything.
I heard some of my ancestors (from western Germany, near Cologne) emigrated to the U.S. around 1865 because they didn't like what the Prussians were doing.
2:49 that is inaccurate... the loophole was not Bismarck just overruling the elected parliament and their veto of the reformed-budget, the actual loophole was the following: ...since there was no approved agreement for the reformation army budget, parliament thought that they could financially stonewall the crown to get what they want, but the representatives didn't realize that there was no restriction that said they crown couldn't keep taxing based on the previous budget agreement; so Bismarck was able to collect tax revenue for the army using the previous budget template, and after they collected the new funds using the old budget-template, they just "reinvested" the funds to enact their new reformation, then ... political maneuvering 101
Concerning Schleswig-Holstein, the feudal period simply worked differently from modern nation states. The King of England was also the Elector of Hanover and if he had remained so, the Prussians might have had more problems annexing Hanover in 1866. Unfortunately the rising of Victoria to the throne of England separated the two nations, since Hanover did not accept female succession. Clearly the problem of Schleswig was a clash between feudal rights and the new nationalistic world developing in the 19th century. Fortunately after the 2nd World War Denmark and Germany have found a peaceful solution by plebiscite and giving minority rights to people living on the "wrong" side of the border.
If Hanover was still part of the British crown, the king/Queen would have sided with the Pussians or at least declared neutrality. Not to mention, that Queen Victoria's eldest daughter was married to the Prussian crown prince.
This is why we Americans tried to stay out of European politics and militarily conflicts as much as possible, although never worked out that way. With Pearl Harbor and Cold War, we have been in the middle of European affairs.
0:30 what do you mean the Kingdom of Prussia doesn't exist today!? The modern day Germany literally is Prussia. It's kind of like saying that America's thirteen colonies don't exist today... though they literally still do exist, just in another form - the whole of America grew out of them, and they still pretty much dominate the union.
Why should I defend people who fight me? I am totally pissed by this again and now democratically demanded zombie obedience! Did anyone understand Heinrich Mann, Robert Musil, Peter Weiss, Max Frisch etc. at all?
Watching Bismarck's politics with all its twists and turns is always fascinating. Sadly enough, he did not manage to lay a truly solid foundation for his successors to build upon.
Metternich was very charismatic, however I don't believe he would have been very useful against agressive and determined Bismarck. When Bismarck set on his quest to create German Empire there were only few people in Europe that had chance of stopping him. Trully ruthless man.
Bismarck is a difficult figure for me: I really dislike his lies and dishonesty. On the other hand with all his war mongering he still somewhat let the defeated "alive" unlike WW1. And then here's this rumored statement of him about national weatherforecasts which i find hilariously perfect fitting. (Es kann nicht sein, dass eine staatliche Behörde so oft falsch liegt!")
Not to be pedantic, but "...so France could acquire territory westward toward the Rhine"? Obviously just a mistake, lad, but people are seriously geographically challenged as it is these days...
In 1967, as a high school sophomore, I took a class of “world history “. Two weeks before the year was over we had a paper due on any subject cover during the year. I wrote a Paper titled “the unification of the German states through the influence of Otto von Bismarck”. It was the only A+ I ever got. What surprise me was that the teacher made a copy. He asked my permission to use this as part of his teaching tools in the future and promised to remove my name. I said absolutely positively no problem. Eight years later, my brother took the same class from the same teacher. He came home one day and told me what they were studying and that it seemed like he knew something about this from the past but couldn’t put his finger on it. I dug out the original copy in my brother about poo poo his pants. From the time I wrote that first paper in 1967, I began to study German history and still do at the age of 72 whenever possible. Sometimes something hit you in the face and you know you can’t let it go. So it was for me.
bro ur on to nothing
@@daniely5260 ong bro yapping
Bismarck is such a mesmerising character, I can’t get enough of this story ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Wait until you read about his university life.....
He did have an outstanding look on global affairs too. He predicted some events that really happened in the 20th century - including the demise of his German Empire and Anglo-American world domination.
Bismarck always has a plan
Lol
I take it you've also watched extra credits video on Bismarck.
@@bjorten that was my introduction to Bismarck, as well. I know that line is a bit of a meme now, but it really does describe how he worked politically. He was so fascinating.
Pog
“We don’t have a new budget; guess we have to collect taxes based on last year’s budget!” 🤑
0:45 "the most powerful German state.." Wait, you mean Ulm?
".. of the nineteenth century." Ah Prussia, that makes more sense for this series.
Ulm is always a secret powerhouse
@@realtimehistory so, when is Ulm special episode?
He means that all German states deserve freedom in EU like states of Yugoslavia
Ulm, the powerhouse of the cell... Umm, of Germany...
*EU4 player detected*
Thank you for this excellent series!
My heart aces when you say That Prussia was the dominant state in the German Speaking world...I am a Austrian...this brings flashes in my mind that Centuries Old Empire (Holy Roman Empire>Austrian Empire>Dual Monarchy)in the Centre of Europe dominated by Austria ruled by the Habsburg's, lost its influence and prestige during Napoleonic Wars...forced out of Germany by Prussia and losing the world war at last to end that glorious chapter in history for Austria and today reduced to a small state in the centre of Europe...I just feel as bad and sorrow in my heart how did it go so wrong that we lost it all...may our glory days return.Amen!
This was the last thing my Grandfather told me before he past way...he was one of the young soldier in the Prague palace when the Czech National Council declared Independence from the Habsburg Empire...I still feel blessed my great grandfather father was a Count and he manage to bribe the recruitment officer from stoping my grandfather from being sent to the front where he most probably would have died ... fortunately enough he wasn't and at the age of 49 I can still feel my grandfather saying this story again to me when I was 17...he passed away 31 years ago
@Dan2314 Wonderluck we have a Bismarck right here folks
@Dan2314 Wonderluck Let's not forget another thing: Austrians were only about 1/3 of their empire's population. Whereas different Slavic nations made up 60% of the empire. Such a patchwork empire is bound to collapse sooner or later even without external help.
@Dan2314 Wonderluck The Hungarian part of the Dual Monarchy resisted from joining France... Austrian part wanted to ally with France...
And you blame Austria for the war..I would say ..if we Austrians kill the President of your country would you ask for handing over the criminals or you would invade and punish that country?... Killing the head of state and then being polite with the convicted country is Dishonorable even by today's standard..how do you blame us for the war in 1914... when honour used to preferred over .
Don't you know that ...the things you wrote in the comment seems to show you are a knowledgeable guy but you are surely lacking the point of view people had in to early 20th century ... Emperor Franz Josef was the only king in Europe who didn't discriminate about the people of his empire on the basis of them being German, Hungarian,Slavs ,Croats etc ..he loved them all equally and he was beloved to all the nationalities of the Empire..There is no wrong doing in his course of action he undertook... incompotent Career officer and generals like Osker Poteorik and Conrad von Hotzendorff led the Empire to ruin.
@@hebl47 How does then modern nations exist...in US there are sizable minorities of people from different countries and in Uk too...and Russia and India are such varied in every corner of the country different languages, culture etc still all live happily together ..if your statement hold's true no Country with minorities will exist.
Fun note:You really think like Bismarck ...I agree with the other guy
@@hebl47 The Slavs weren't the problem, but the Kingdom of Hungary that constantly oppressed them and refused to give them autonomy was.
The German Civil War (1866). The Prussians and Austrians were rivals because neither could agree on who would at first unite and lead all of Germany.
Thank you for making these videos, I can't wait for the weekly coverage!
excellent historical video with clearly explaining of historical events
I've just read (and can warmly recommend) Katja Hoyer's book
"Blood and Iron - the rise and fall of the German Empire 1871 - 1918"
if you find this topic interesting.
It gives you an overview of the period and a basic understanding of the essential issues.
Thank you for the recommendation!
It’s nice to learn German history that’s not World War 1, World War 2 or the Cold War.
Indeed it is
However, it is still warfare. The common thread in German history until 1945.
@@adameckard4591 well to be fair, most prominent history that gets wider attention is that of war and politics.
Kudos to Jesse and the team for making this series. Many quite rightly are fascinated by the World Wars without being aware of the conflicts 1848 to 1871 that laid the foundation for these wars. I am sure the wars of Italian unification will be factored in. It is also of note that this time period had great conflicts in both China and Japan.
Cool video, but you might want to know, there's a small mistake at 7:40 where you state Napoleon III wanted to expand "west towards the Rhine" instead of "east"
Thanks for the content! :)
Jesse could have been correct, Nappy III often makes the wrong choices.
What if Napoleon 3 is facing south direction that's why he said West 😤😬
I think he is planning a flanking manoeuvre: go west untill you end in the east in their rear. With a brilliant leader like this, France cannot be defeated!
West of Germany?
Thank you for bringing some clarity to the messy German history
Love this, even as an austrian...
The situation around Slesvig-Holsten/Schleswig-Holstein, is a bit more complex than that. They were ruled by the Danish King in his role as duke there (the dukes were a branch of the royal house and when the others died out they were also kings of Denmark). However, Holstein was part of the German Empire and populated by Germans, while Slesvig was about 50/50, with Germans in the south (south of the old Danevirke rampart), and Danes in the north.
And there is more, it was very complex indeed.
An interesting aside, Molkte was from the dutchies and recieved his military training at the Danish court and Life Guard.
A note on the Dreyse needle gun, while it was decisive in the Seven Week War, that was largely because the Austrians were using the muzzle-loading Lorenz rifle, it was not a new weapon, having been introduced back in 1840's. While the needle gun was much faster than the Austrian muzzle-loaders, it was a bit of a dead-end, the delicate needle in the name punching though the paper cartridge to fire it.
In the second half of the 1860's you were starting to see breechloading rifles with metallic cartridges come onto the scene, first conversion of muzzle-loading rifles, the Springfield Trapdoor, the Snider-Enfield, Tabatière, etc, and then weapons designed from the ground up for metallic cartridges. While it gave the Prussians a big advantage over the Danes and Austrians, the Prussians would suffer from "early adopter" problems, as we will see in the coming months...
Krupp guns to the rescue!
These were the people that invented the modern buzzsaw...
As far as i remember Emperor F-J got to choose 2 outdated "things" to be modernized in the years before this happened as the available money would not allow for more improvements. The 3 "things" he could choose from were: Artillery guns, Infantery rifles, ships. And everyone now knows which one of these 3 fell through...
@@nirfz pls don't abbreviate names. It's very lazy.
@@prestons9305 For your information: The abbreviation i used you can find on officially gifted sabres (by his majesty) for example. So much for calling it lazy...
Now extra for you let's for once use the full name and title: Franz Joseph I. von Gottes Gnaden Kaiser von Österreich, König von Ungarn und Böhmen, König der Lombardei und Venedigs, von Dalmatien, Croatien, Slawonien, Galicien, Lodomerien und Illyrien; König von Jerusalem, etc; Erzherzog zu Österreich; Großherzog von Toskana und Krakau; Herzog von Lothringen, von Salzburg, Steyer, Kärnthen, Krain und der Bukowina; Großfürst zu Siebenbürgen; Markgraf von Mähren; Herzog von Ober- und Niederschlesien, von Modena, Parma, Piacenza und Guastalla, von Auschwitz und Zator, von Teschen, Friaul, Ragusa und Zara; gefürsteter Graf von Habsburg und Tyrol, Kyburg, Görz und Gradiska, Fürst von Trient und Brixen; Markgraf von Ober- und Niederlausitz und in Istrien; Graf von Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg, etc., Herr von Triest, von Cattaro und auf der Windischen Mark, Großwojwode der Wojwodschaft Serbien etc. etc.
"France could expand westward toward the Rhein..." at 7:45 should be "eastward"
This seems like an easily-avoided error. The video is less than 13 mins - a quick review should have picked up something like this. Maybe lazy editing or scriptwriting? Not very professional.
France did this in 17/18th century, the people in south west Germany had to suffer in those days.
@@brittakriep2938 What are you talking about? How is it relevant to a narration mistake regarding the cardinal points?
Especially in the time of Louis XlV french troops often entered south western Germany and did in Palatinate and along the Rhine a lot of destruction. Also my village between Stuttgart and Ulm was attacked by french troops. Those french attacks and the way France got Alsace and Lorraine from Germany, had been ideal for Propaganda against France.
Anticipating the annexation of Veneto in October 1866, perhaps?
I've visited a place related to this conflict, the "citadelle de bitche", it was well done with a documentary you watched trought the visit. I'm glad youtube gave me a reccomandation to the channel
I love your channel keep up the great stuff!
@realtimehistory
I feel like you should have mentioned some of the earlier flashpoints that led up to the Austro-Prussian rivalry. One of the major ones was the Erfurt Union Crisis where the various German princes all met up over the issue of German unification. Though this conference failed after Austria diplomatically outmaneuvered the Prussians during the Punctuation of Olmutz. It really humiliated the Prussians and set the stage for the next conflict.
As for the claim that Prussia was "authoritarian" for most of its history Prussia by contemporary standards was quite progressive. The government of King Wilhelm I was hardly as repressive or authoritarian as some of his other contemporaries such as Franz-Joseph's Austrian Empire which was under his Neo-Absolutism (Hungary was under martial law) or even the Russian Empire.
Today it is easier to describe Prussia as this evil identity.
@@23GreyFox
Well that’s pretty dumb since it’s not really true.
@@justinpachi3707 I know, but the small part in the video describes the accepted history books pretty well.
Vos cartes, avec un choix judicieux de tons de couleur pour clarifier la subtilité des relations entre territoires ou pour aider à comprendre leur évolution, m’ont aidé à avoir une idée plus claire de certains enjeux ou de certains prétextes géopolitiques. Je puise mes informations surtout de sources primaires (Ma Mission en Prusse de Benedetti étant ma référence préférée sur ce sujet) et à partir de vos cartes, justement, j’ai pu combler certains trous de compréhension. J’apprécie aussi le soin avec lequel vous choisissez les détails à connaître pour éviter d’avoir une idée trop simpliste sur les causes des évènements.
Merci beaucoup pour ce gentil commentaire!
This series looks fantastic. I would like to nontheless repeat a comment I made under the previous video: On your maps only the northern part of the Großherzogzum Hessen/Grandduchy of Hesse (aka. Hessen-Darmstadt) is coloured. I know that only the northern part was technically part of the Norddeutscher Bund but through that the whole grandduchy would have been part of the military element of the treatys establishing it (as I understand it, please correct me if I´m wrong). Maybe you can look into making that visible. A very pedantic comment from a hessian. I´m looking forward to the next video.
That is an important point, since the Grand Dutchess/ Consort of Hesse-Darmstat was the daughter of Queen Victoria.
I love it, you can't get a more Hessian comment as this one, and you are correct
@@piermariobarozzi are you saying that the Hessian's are those Germans who give all the rest of Germans the reputation of always needing everything to be so precise and efficient?
I really like the visual side of your videos. In particular, the (relatively) young Franz Josef on that colourized photo looks positively snazzy. :)
The map has a perfect balance between being detailed and clear to read and a detail that I personally really love - the acknowledgement that a rump Polish state (in union with Russia) still existed east of the Prussian border in 1815-1830/31.
Technically the Kingdom of Poland still existed beyond 1831, but (after a revolution and unsuccessful attempt to gain full independence - collectively known as the November Uprising) it had only a very limited autonomy within the Russian Empire and lost even that after yet another uprising in 1863/64.
Nice movie. I recently wrote a book on cavalry training in the 18th century, regular cavalry weapons, military fencing, and combat tactics: ua-cam.com/video/kndEF1IE_gI/v-deo.html
Russia always struck me as such a terrifyingly large block that it in-part explains why German psychology was so focused on unification and expansion. Having such a massive empire to the direct East and then the Western powers with colonial empires the world over and you're in between feeling insecure, non-unified and that something inevitable and foreboding is on the horizon
awesome history video
Somehow only found out you fellas have this channel, excellent work and thanks for the procrastination material 💪
What’s fantastic video! There’s a few simplifications but Ive learned myself how it’s necessary if you want to fit so much into a short video.
maybe we'll explore these events in greater detail later on again 🙃
Excellent for its clarity.
In Franconia (nothern part of Bavaria) many hoped to become part of the Nordeutscher Bund. The franconians disliked the Bavarian rule, and still do.
@Fabian Kirchgessner Gibt auch eine Frankenpartei in der Region, die mehr Autonomie von Bayern selbst möchte
@Fabian Kirchgessner Most parts of Franconia were forced into the new kingdom of Bavaria during the wars of Napoleon. Also the region suffered during the 1866 war, as some major battles were fought in lower franconia. So there was little bavarian "patriotism".
The Palmerston line is one of my all-time favourites 5:47
I've heard a lot about the German Wars of Unification. They are a very interesting read.
You sir have just earned a subscribtion.
Everything Bismarck warned came true later on in history.
"I will not live to see the Great War, but YOU will see it, and it will start in the East."
@@FOXHOUNDProductions91 Is that true? Did he live to see the Great War?
@@tigertank06 No, but it did start in the East like he said, with the death of Franz Ferdinand.
@@FOXHOUNDProductions91 hm isn't Serbia rather in the Southern Europe?
@@kristo7184 True. Still an awesome quote though.
Excellent video!
I NEEEEEED MORE IN THIS SERIES
Fantastic series. I like these short episodes.
Funny that those old kings look like the guy trying to wash your windows at a red light.
Will you guys make a series on the Russo Japanese war of 1904-05?
So ist continues, keep up the Great work 😊
Great series bois.
Wish you would've taken a couple minutes or so to explain what needle guns are though. I'm even a firearms nut and while I think I've heard of them before, have no idea really what they are.
I read a fairly detailed biography of Bismarck. Fascinating and talented man.
Also, it shows just how much you can accomplish if you REALLY REALLY want to get a boy's attention (the King, of course).
Prussia actually lost a battle (albeit small one) to the Kingdom of Hanover. The blind king of Hannover George V, led Hanoverian forces in Battle of Langensalza (1866) over Prussia. In my youth, I was an exchange student in Germany. I was given a tour where a huge painting of the battle was depicted in Marienburg Castle
The Hanoverians outnumbered the Prussians 2 to 1 in this battle. Despite this, Hanoverian casualties were greater if you don't count the captured Prussians, showing the advantage of the needle gun.
Two of my g-g-grandfathers fought there for the Kingdom of Hanover. (Photos show them wearing medals of honor for their participation.)
@@thkempe Wow! Please share the pics! That is amazing. I was an exchange student in Celle. By Hanover.
Awesome
So was either war officially declared?
This is stellar stuff.
To understand the Slesvig/Holstein issue a bit of history is needed.... going back to at least 1237 when Abel, son of Danish king Valdemar II and brother to the current king Erik IV and Duke of Slesvig married the daughter of the Count of the Germany area of Holstein.
He thus tied the two areas together and at the same time started a tradition of his heirs demanding some level of independence of the Danish Crown. - Later in 1326 the Danish King was forced to codify that Slesvig was not to be put directly under the crown - and then in 1460 also that Slesvig and Holstein could not be separated.
... which led to the rather stupid dogma that the old (since at least the 10th century) and natural border between Denmark and Germany was not a legal solution.
Prussia, my favorite civilization all the time
Prussians: accusing their enemies for re-armaments without any prove
Americans :keep notes! Keep notes!
Bismarck always has a plan.... One failure later: Bismarck always has a backup plan (Extra credits)
Bismarck has a plan. Bismarck ALWAYS has a plan.
Unless it's Walpole!
All those mid-sized & small kingdoms and duchies were all thinking, "Uh, oh. The clock on our existence has started". Bavaria, Württemberg, Saxony, Baden, Hesse; once you're unified with Prussia time to start staring at the sand in the hourglass.
Nowadays there is no Prussia but those kingdoms/princedoms are lands (like american states) of german federal republic
Hamburg , Bremen, Bayern, Sachsen are still Bundesländer/ states. Baden - Württemberg is former Baden and Württemberg and Thüringen is former Sachsen- Weimar- Eisenach, Sachsen- Meiningen, Sachsen- Altenburg, Schwarzburg- Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg- Sondershausen, and the two principslities Reuß combned.
The day before the Prussian King William was to be crowned German Emperor, he remarked with tears: "Today is the most unhappy day of my life, tomorrow we will bury the kingship in Prussia."
All of those kingdoms and duchies lasted intact until the Weimar Republic appeared. Some like Bavaria even maintained their own embassies abroad the whole time.
I can't wait to see what happens next week!
As a someone who's seriously interested on the subject I was pleasntly surprised to find there's such a project. Unfortunately my enthusiasm was calmed a lot
Franz Joseph looks so young!
He was born in 1830 and became Emperor in 1848. The Emperor before him, Ferdinand, had strong mental problems and was not able, to do bis job realy well.
@@brittakriep2938 is he the son of Sophia of Bavaria the friend of Napoleon II ?
@@patricofritz4094 : Ferdinand l was the brother of Napoleon l second wife. Franz Josef was the son of Ferdinands younger bother and his first wife, but i have forgotten the name.
@@brittakriep2938 you know who I mean right .I mean Napoleon's son who was kept in Austria and Sophie of Bavaria I believe
To the success of the needle rifles is important to point out that although Prussia was gradually adopting Dreyse's needle rifles since 1840s, technological advance is pretty much useless by itself. Generals have to come up with doctrines how to proper utilize that technology (and push them trough) and that didn't happen until Moltke became chief of staff (1857). To that point Prussia actually suffred from the same "overly conservative commanders (opposing Dreyse actually)" syndrome just as Austria and prussian soldiers were still trained to fight in close formations and fire-few-salvos-then-charge tactic, like the rest of the ("civilized") world, they just had a rifle that was able to reload somewhat faster (besides having poor range and maintanance). Noone in the world thought of it as significant advantage until they saw prussian loose formations and firepower focus in 1864/1866.
Also worth noting during 1866 campaign Prussians themselves feared austrian cavalry and artillery - the latter was even better equipped and responsible for prussian near retreat at Königgrätz, as they were pinned down due to heavy bombardment (their own artillery unable to respond) and only arrival of the Crown Prince's Army turned the situation to their favor.
But Austrian overall conduct of the 1866 northern campaign was heavily impacted by defeatism of its chief (Benedek) and rigidness of senior commanders who were not able to understand that Prussians invented whole new conduct of warfare and were literally sending wave after wave of their men in cramped oldfashioned formations against rapid firing prussian rifles...But the armies of the rest of the world didnt know much better than Austrians at that point really. Prussians were really far ahead...
For the algorithm and the history.
Am I the only one who thinks of The A-Team at the intro music?
So we need to ask...why were Germans not allowed to have their own country ? The French do the English do the Swedes do. And why would they WANT to have one ? There are myriad answers to that question but just one to think about is what happened to the German states when a certain ego-maniac from France decided he was going to walk in and take over...and he did because there wasn't a single unified army to oppose him it was easy to push aside the hundreds of disunified and often at odds with each other states and duchy's that made up the greater Germany. So having come to power via a coup and immediately acting like a tyrant Napoleon III made everyone in Germany a little nervous that maybe "here we go again". Time to unify.
Cause of racism
@@ShubhamMishrabro At that time there was no more racism on German soil than in Russia, France or Britain.
@@ShubhamMishrabroracism against germans?
7:44 Shouldn't it be eastwards towards the Rhine?
7:37 France could not expand to the "Westwards toward the Rhein", as all of France is west of the Rhein!
7:38 wait how can France who is West of the Rhine expand ''westward'' toward it??
Love how every step in german unification is accompanied by a scare music sting.
Excellent as usual! BTW, the Austrian losses at Königgrätz-Sadowa were terrible: 22.143 dead and wounded, plus 22.170 prisoners against 8.175 dead and wounded of the Prussians. Considering that the Austrian army numbered nearly 220.000 men, its losses amounted to 20% against the Prussian's barely 4%
This high casualties was due muzzle loading musket rifle and cannon used by austria.
7:40 EASTWARD toward the Rhine, not westward.
I know it's a bit late but could you guys describe what's with Hesse-Darmstadt? It's northern half is part of the North German Confederation but the southern part isn't. How did that work in practice?
The battle of Düppel was won by prussian troops, because the commander of prussian army music branch, Gottfried Piefke, concentrated three army bands and supported the assault by playing selfcomposed ,Düppeler Sturmmarsch'.
0:13 I take it he did not...prepare for unforeseen consequences
Them sideburns of Wilhelm and Franz-Joseph...
Your German pronounciation is on point👍
Thanks!
F for Hannover
you are awsome :)
Honestly Napoleon III was really asking to be crushed with his idiotic foreign policies
Country go to war on emotion issue.not hard reality.as a matter of fact war is just gambling.if you win you win big but if you lost you lost evetything.
I heard some of my ancestors (from western Germany, near Cologne) emigrated to the U.S. around 1865 because they didn't like what the Prussians were doing.
Prussia is such a story, from a province to duchy to kingdom to the strongest empire. something out of eu4
curious, how was that map made? 3:58
Bayern is the currently the biggest german state but Prussia absolutely dwarfed it back then.
Did not stopped the Bavarian grown NSDAP from taking over Germany and dissolvong Prussia
@7:41-46 "France expand westward?"
2:49 that is inaccurate... the loophole was not Bismarck just overruling the elected parliament and their veto of the reformed-budget, the actual loophole was the following: ...since there was no approved agreement for the reformation army budget, parliament thought that they could financially stonewall the crown to get what they want, but the representatives didn't realize that there was no restriction that said they crown couldn't keep taxing based on the previous budget agreement; so Bismarck was able to collect tax revenue for the army using the previous budget template, and after they collected the new funds using the old budget-template, they just "reinvested" the funds to enact their new reformation, then ... political maneuvering 101
and to call the kingdom of Prussia during that time "authoritarian" is disingenuous/misleading...
In your opinion is Phillip III of Macedon similar with Bismarck?
Concerning Schleswig-Holstein, the feudal period simply worked differently from modern nation states. The King of England was also the Elector of Hanover and if he had remained so, the Prussians might have had more problems annexing Hanover in 1866. Unfortunately the rising of Victoria to the throne of England separated the two nations, since Hanover did not accept female succession.
Clearly the problem of Schleswig was a clash between feudal rights and the new nationalistic world developing in the 19th century. Fortunately after the 2nd World War Denmark and Germany have found a peaceful solution by plebiscite and giving minority rights to people living on the "wrong" side of the border.
If Hanover was still part of the British crown, the king/Queen would have sided with the Pussians or at least declared neutrality. Not to mention, that Queen Victoria's eldest daughter was married to the Prussian crown prince.
Yeah cool thanky’all
This is why we Americans tried to stay out of European politics and militarily conflicts as much as possible, although never worked out that way. With Pearl Harbor and Cold War, we have been in the middle of European affairs.
You love making the world "safe for democracy"!
Otto von Bismarck is one smart general!!!
Never estimated the power of Otto Von Bismarck in 1871!!!
0:30 what do you mean the Kingdom of Prussia doesn't exist today!?
The modern day Germany literally is Prussia. It's kind of like saying that America's thirteen colonies don't exist today... though they literally still do exist, just in another form - the whole of America grew out of them, and they still pretty much dominate the union.
Ohne Bismarck waren die genialen deutschen Monarchen verloren.
The war begins today
Why should I defend people who fight me? I am totally pissed by this again and now democratically demanded zombie obedience! Did anyone understand Heinrich Mann, Robert Musil, Peter Weiss, Max Frisch etc. at all?
UA-cam places me Aldi ads during this video. So Prussia is Aldi Nord and Austria is Aldi Sud? Who is Lidl then?
Bismark just before his dead.warn kaiser that the next war.germany will not be so lucky.
Watching Bismarck's politics with all its twists and turns is always fascinating.
Sadly enough, he did not manage to lay a truly solid foundation for his successors to build upon.
It was not Bismarck's choice. It was a stupide Prussian King who made this mistake.
Those Germans... they're going crazy for blut!
periculum in mora. depechez vous. L’oncle de Maurice,
HENNING”
This time period the whole world going aggressive to each other
If only Austria had a second Metternich
France could also use one of him during this period
Metternich was very charismatic, however I don't believe he would have been very useful against agressive and determined Bismarck. When Bismarck set on his quest to create German Empire there were only few people in Europe that had chance of stopping him. Trully ruthless man.
If only Germany didn't have Willhelm II.
Bismarck is a difficult figure for me: I really dislike his lies and dishonesty.
On the other hand with all his war mongering he still somewhat let the defeated "alive" unlike WW1. And then here's this rumored statement of him about national weatherforecasts which i find hilariously perfect fitting. (Es kann nicht sein, dass eine staatliche Behörde so oft falsch liegt!")
So austria went its own way, but when did it start gobbling up neighbors? Or were they left overs from the hre days?
Bismark unlike Napolean knew how to manage AE
Preußen 1866 sieht aus wie ein um 90grad gekipptes Deutschland
Not to be pedantic, but "...so France could acquire territory westward toward the Rhine"? Obviously just a mistake, lad, but people are seriously geographically challenged as it is these days...
So that France might expand EAST wards towards the Rhein. 😊
7:44 yes it seems that eastward is a lot more correct!
Yay. More history. 🇩🇰👌👍