ㆍ At the beginning of the book

Chapter 1: Conflicts Surrounding German Unification
1.
Frankfurt National Assembly
2.
Greater Germanism and Lesser Germanism
3.
Erfurt Union Council
4.
Schwarzenberg's counterattack
5.
Olmütz humiliation

Chapter 2: Bismarck's Rise and the Danish War
1.
Bismarck's appearance
2.
Danish War
3.
Prussia's ambitions

Chapter 3: The Brothers' War
1.
The conflict between Prussia and Austria
2.
Bad Gastein Agreement
3.
Prussia-Italy secret military alliance
4.
Brothers' War
5.
The birth of the North German Confederation
6.
The emergence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

Chapter 4: The War with France
1.
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg issue
2.
France's response
3.
Spanish succession
4.
Telegram from Ems
5.
Franco-Prussian War

Chapter 5: The Birth of the German Empire
1.
Preparations for the German Empire
2.
The birth of the German Empire

ㆍ In conclusion
References
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Until 1871, when Wilhelm I of Prussia proclaimed an empire at the Palace of Versailles in France, Germany was not a single nation but a loose collection of dozens of states and cities, large and small.
However, after the French Revolution and the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire due to Napoleon's invasion, a desire for unification began to burn in the German-speaking world, and Austria and Prussia emerged as the states that had to carry out such a national task.
Since Austria advocated for Greater Germany in the form of a federal system, while Prussia advocated for Lesser Germany through the unification of the remaining countries excluding Austria, German unification was not easily achieved.


Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor who emerged as the real power in the military powerhouse Prussia, gave up on peaceful unification and drew a vision of German unification through war.
Professor Kim Jang-soo's (Professor Emeritus of History Education, Catholic Kwandong University) book, "The Birth of the German Empire," explores the process by which Prussia, led by Bismarck, defeated the interference of external powers such as Austria and France, unified Germany, and declared an empire.

From the preface

The Holy Roman Empire, which had maintained its national identity for about a thousand years since Otto the Great, disappeared into the back alleys of history after being defeated by Napoleon's army at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt on October 14, 1806.
The empire's territory was subsequently divided between the Confederation of the Rhine, which became Napoleon's protectorate, Hohenzollern Prussia, and Habsburg Austria.
The German Confederation, which emerged in 1815 as a result of the Congress of Vienna, was a loose political system consisting of 35 states and four free cities (Freistadt), contrary to the expectations of the German people, and this aroused the discontent of the German intellectual class and university students.

The July Revolution in France in 1830 brought the need for unification to the forefront of German concern, and after the March Revolution in 1848, demonstrations calling for unification broke out throughout Germany.
The main task of the National Assembly, which began its work on May 18, 1848, in the St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt, was to transform the German Confederation into a unified state.
However, creating a strong central power while leaving the historically formed individual federal states intact was not an easy task, and there was no consensus among the members on the unification plan.
The German unification plan presented by the National Assembly at the time was Greater Germany and Lesser Germany.

Greater Germanism is the idea that the countries that joined the German Confederation should be included in a unified Germany, while Lesser Germanism is the idea that German unification should be led by Prussia and Austria should be excluded from the process.
Greater Germanism, which was first proposed in terms of timing, was not adopted due to Austria's opposition, and Lesser Germanism was also not realized due to Austria's opposition and Prussia's passive attitude.

At the time, Austria preferred a federal system over unification, as it believed that all of its territory should be included in a unified Germany.
Ultimately, the plan for German unification proposed during the March Revolution was not realized due to opposition from the interested parties, Prussia and Austria.
This also demonstrated that achieving German unification through peaceful means was extremely difficult under the circumstances at the time.
Then, starting in the 1850s, some politicians, especially conservative politicians, began to discuss German unification again, and there was a strong opinion that unification should be achieved through force rather than peaceful means.
These arguments came mainly from Prussian politicians.

In 1861, Bismarck, who emerged as a powerful figure when Wilhelm I of Prussia clashed with the parliament over the issue of military buildup, began to push for German unification.
This book covers in detail the course, results, and aftereffects of the Danish War, which was the starting point of the struggle for unification, as well as the subsequent wars with external powers, particularly Austria and France, which emerged as obstacles to German unification.
I will also briefly mention the German Empire that emerged after the war of unification.