Unification of Germany
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German unification was completed between 1866 and 1871, when Prussia under Otto von Bismarck defeated its rivals and fused the German states into a single empire. Bismarck's three wars were calculated: against Denmark in 1864, which brought Schleswig and Holstein into Prussian hands; against Austria in 1866, whose quick defeat at Koniggratz excluded Vienna from German affairs and dissolved the old Confederation; and against France in 1870, whose defeat convinced the southern states to join. The North German Federation, created in 1867, already linked the north under Prussian leadership, and the constitution of the new empire made the chancellor responsible only to the emperor. William I was proclaimed German emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles on 18 January 1871. The settlement left Germany a federation of kingdoms, grand duchies and free cities under Prussian dominance, with a powerful army, a fast-growing industry and a Reichstag elected by universal male suffrage. Unification redrew the map of Europe, made France the defeated neighbour, and created a great power whose size and position worried both sides until 1914. Historians still debate whether Bismarck planned the outcome or merely exploited every crisis as it came. Bismarck called the result blood and iron rather than speeches and majorities.