Primary reasons for German unification?

What were the primary causes and motives behind the unification of the German states in 1871, during the Franco-Prussian war?
 
What were the primary causes and motives behind the unification of the German states in 1871, during the Franco-Prussian war?

Several reasons, which i will briefly explain:

Nationalistic reasons (pan-German).

Security Reasons (from foreign powers).

Economical (the power of the German Empire once unified, it was one of the top powers).


The main reason was nationalistic, mind.
 
The driving force behind German unification was of course Bismark and the Austrian refusal to join the Prussian dominated Zollverein which was a trade union between the many german states :) this would kick start the process. Though I think the origins of German unification began decades possibly centuries before. The battle of Leipzig when the germans kicked the french out of germany was a widely celebrated event for many nationalist germans. :)
 
Germany was unified by Prussia for a number of reasons. In terms of purely Prussian politics there are at least five causes.

First and foremost and most glaringly, the issue of giving Prussia continuous, secure, solid, land borders. Prussia's issue here were a major motivator in all its wars up to the 19th Century.

Second, Prussia had been the state keeping up the most consistent rivalry within Germany with Austria, and Austria's disasters with France and in 1848-9 were major limits on Austria's ultimate abilities to counter Prussia with prestige.

Third, Prussia had already been gobbling up little Germanies for some time, what Bismarck did was an increase in scale, not in any kind of different concept.

Fourth, Prussia had the advantages relative to other German states of powerful friends in the UK and various Russian Tsars. Without Peter III and Alexander I, Prussia dies stillborn. Empire-building is always easier when your empire favors the interests of powers who expend strength from outside, enabling the empire-builders to conserve strength within.

Fifth, German nationalism had developed into a force in its own right, and reactionary Prussia wasn't going to see the democratic variant of the 1840s resurrect itself on Bismarck's watch.

The course of German unification, however, was partly planned, partially contingent. At no point would the Tsars of Russia have saved Prussia if they understood this would lead to aggressive, land-hungry Germany on their western borders.
 
One thing that we should not forget is that while the Unification of 1871 was a Prussian project under Bismarck's tutelage, it was not his idea or his plan. German unification of some kind would be attempted because there was an immensely strong groundswell of opinion in favour of it. I had been tried before, after all, and things like the Zollverein and the various attempts at federating all went in that direction, too. What Bismarck did here was not so much seize the moment to create it, mad-scientistlike, from the whole cloth as to get at the head of an extant movement and use it to further his own conservative, Prussian, agricultural and Protestant agenda.

Neither he not King/Emperor Wilhelm was ever entirely comfortable with the process, nbut they felt that in the end, they lacked other options. The German princes, and especially Prussia, could either ride the tiger and try to control the patriotic surge of support for this new Germany, or they copuld stand against the tide and try to counter German feeling with their particularist patriotisms. I don't think that would work well for all of them.
 
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