All Hail, Großdeutschland!
The tears I have cried over Germany have dried. I have washed my face.- Marlene Dietrich
Prologue
The year is 1815 and Napoleon has been defeated after a 12 year conquering spree. Prussia gained many territories in the Congress of Vienna and became a major power player in the area and along with Austria, they formed the German Confederation which encompassed the entire Austrian Empire making it a major power in Europe. To cement the friendship between the two countries the House of Hohenzollern (Prussia) and Habsburg (Austria) intermarried forming a strong relationship. The Confederation seemed shaky for years and soon Prussia and Austria started to build their own areas of influence in the Confederation and it seemed conflict was inevitable. In response Austria and Prussia met in Frankfurt to discuss their imperial ambitions. The meeting was a success for both Prussia and Austria but a death wish for the smaller German states. Under the Frankfurt Charter Prussia was allowed to all but conquer Northern Germany and Austria was allowed to do the same to South. When this was announced it brought international outcry who feared a united Germany. Prussia and Austria payed no mind and puppeted their respective halves of Germany satisfying their ambitions.
The Federation coasted on auto-pilot until 1830 when German Revolutions began. The citizenry of the Confederation and taking down the autocratic governments, unifying Germany. They kicked off in March when crowds of protesters swarmed Berlin to "address the king". King Frederick William III stayed in his palace as the protesters milled about outside, waiting to bring down the government. Fredrick managed to get a message to Vienna and found they were having the same problem. The protests continued semi-peacefully for almost 2 weeks when the Army decided to fire two shots into the air, to disperse the crowd. When the shots were fired the crowd picked up anything heavy and began to throw it at the Army. According to accounts a brick hit a young private in the face and in a fit of rage/pain he opened fire on the crowd and sparked a Revolution. The others took it as a go ahead and also began to shoot at the crowd. They fired for a hour straight as the protesters tried to flee. In the end the attack left 100 people dead and around 50 injured. Before the protests could get anymore violent King Frederick appeared outside the Castle and reassured the people he would reform the government of both Prussia and the German Confederation. The crowd grudgingly dispersed but the Liberal Revolution was not over.
Down in Vienna the Austrians took a very different rout, Emperor Ferdinand crushed the protests with an iron fist and allowed the Army free reign on how to do it. The Austrian Generals treated it like a wargame and used tactics against a group on unarmed students. The protesters were surrounded and massacred in the city square. Austria seemed to have dealt with the Liberals but they were dangerously mistaken. Liberal revolutionaries stormed Budapest and threatened secession from the Empire if reforms were not made. Just as the troops were mobilized King Frederick of Prussia urged him to meet their demands and secure the integrity of Germany. The two rulers traded messages for days before Emperor Ferdinand grudgingly issued major reformations. The Prussians soon followed suit and gave the Confederation Congress more power. Ferdinand again met with Fredrick, this time in Berlin, and voiced his concerns that Austria would be annexed into a German state. He voiced his opinion that this was not in Austria's best interests and asked for Prussia's help in undoing the Confederation. Frederick told Ferdinand that that was their goal, to unify Germany into one nation. Ferdinand simply nodded and went back to Vienna. In August 1840 Austria tried to leave the Confederation and in response Prussia declared war to keep them in. The Austria-German War was a smashing success for Prussia as their Armies swept through North Germany, into South Germany and then finally into Austria itself.
The first major battle was the Battle for Prague and was only a Prussian victory because the Austrian artillery got confused in the chaos of battle and shelled Austrian lines, weakening them just enough for the Prussians to break through. After the Fall of Prague the Austrians evacuated Bohemia and left it for the Prussians who continued to attack them. The line defending Moravia was weakened as the line began to stretch and the Prussians attacked and broke the thin line and forced the line to stretch even more. Hungary, who was now directly threatened began to field more and more men and filled in the gaps, trapping the Prussians in Northern Austria. It was then that Frederick IV approached Great Britain and France for help in fighting Austria, France decided to stay out of the war out of fear for a united Germany would surpass them and so did Britian. The Prussians ,feeling as though they have been abandoned, launched a offensive in the Spring of 1843 into Upper and Lower Austria. The exsausted Prussian troops charged the Austrians once more and the line finally began to give way. In March, Vienna was put under siege, in April Linz was razed after a heated battle left a sour mood in the Prussian commanders, and in May Vienna fell and Emperor Ferdinand I was captured as he tried to flee the advancing and brought before the King. After a month in a Prussian prison Emperor Ferdinand agreed to surrender. Under the terms Austria-Hungary was bound to the Confederation that was increasingly more and more Prussian influenced. The German Confederation had been saved and in August of 1845 the German Confederation Congress voted to unify into one single nation called Großdeutschland. The non-German parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were allowed to succeed and they did, but were quickly consolidated by Hungary which formed the Hungarian Empire. With that the political landscape of Europe had dirastically changed and so had the world.
The Franco-German War