Introduction
October 7, 1858 to power in Prussia came 60-year-old prince Wilhelm I, brother of the demented King Frederick William IV. After his death on January 2, 1861, Wilhelm became a Prussian king.
Under his leadership, military reform began, which restored the mandatory military service (3 years), which increased the number of the standing army to 400 thousand people. At the same time, there was no need to rely on the militia with its low combat capability. The maintenance of a large professional army was expensive, Landtag – the lower chamber of the Prussian parliament refused to approve the costs of this.
Wilhelm I dismissed the Landtag, but the repeat elections of 1862 brought together even more radical deputies. There was a constitutional crisis, for the solution of which the king approved on October 8, 1862, the head of the executive power of the Prussian ambassador in Paris, Otto von Bismarck. The new chancellor decided to rule Prussia without an approved budget, which was a direct violation of the constitution. Landtag, who expressed the interests of the national bourgeoisie first of all, was once again dissolved in 1863, the country began to worry.
Danish-Prussian War
Bismarck did not have a definite clear plan for unifying Germany. He saw the main goal and went to it consistently, using every opportunity. At the same time, Bismarck preferred to act by political methods, but did not avoid military decisions, if this brought him closer to the main goal. Historically, the Danish-Prussian War of 1864 was the first step towards the unification of Germany.
Although Austria and Prussia acted as allies against Denmark, in fact the conflict turned into a test of strength between them for the right to lead the integration process in Germany. Prussia’s success in such a risky business as a change in the balance of power in Europe in favor of the German Union strengthened Bismarck’s position and provided German society with support for his undertakings.
Causes
The Prussian-Danish conflict, because of the independence of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, under the rule of the Danish king, began in the revolutionary year of 1848. The intervention of the great powers compelled Prussia and Austria to recognize under the London Protocol the hereditary rights of the Danish crown to these principalities.
In addition to the sense of national unity demanding the annexation of lands with the German population to the German Union, Prussia had a strategic interest in Holstein territory. There were convenient harbors in the Baltic, and through its lands at the base of the Jutland peninsula it was possible to dig a canal that significantly shortened the sea route from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea.
The Danish King Frederick VII died on November 15, 1863, without leaving his son the throne, which gave the German Union a formal reason to challenge Denmark’s hereditary rights to the territory of the duchies. The new King of Denmark, Christian IX, signed on November 18, 1863, a constitution in which a multi-ethnic Schleswig, who for centuries was actually part of Denmark, to join Denmark. Holstein, part of the German Union, retained its state status under the rule of the Danish crown. Prussia and the German Union immediately saw in the accession of Schleswig alone a violation of the medieval standard and the London Protocol, which established Denmark’s commitment to maintain the political unity of Schleswig-Holstein. The occasion for the second war for Schleswig-Holstein was found.
War
Friedrich of Augustburg of the side branch of the Danish royal dynasty declared the right to the throne of the duchies, the German Sejm supported him as a man close in spirit to the German nation. On December 24, 1863 the troops of Saxony and Hanover, fulfilling the decision of the German Union, occupied the territory of Holstein.
Bismarck managed to present his secret plan for the expansion of Prussia as an internal German cause, as a struggle for the independence of the duchies in the framework of maintaining their former state status. He publicly did not support the Sejm resolution and did not recognize Friedrich’s rights, for which he was sharply criticized in Prussia. Putting off the vigilance of the great powers, Bismarck dragged Austria into an anti-Danish coalition. January 16, 1864 Prussia and Austria presented an ultimatum to Denmark: at 48 hours to abolish the constitution. The Danish government rejected the ultimatum, hoping for intervention by Britain and France. On February 1, 1864 , fighting began in Schleswig.
The Austro-Prussian coalition with the participation of other German states was too strong for England to decide to fight for Denmark alone. English Prime Minister Palmerston turned to France with a proposal to intervene in the Schleswig-Holstein question, but France refused. After the failure in Mexico, France did not want a new conflict, and in alliance with England, which did not risk anything. The French Emperor Napoleon III remembered the unsuccessful diplomatic performance together with England against Russia over the Polish uprising of 1863, when England resolutely pushed the ally to a war with Russia, but itself suddenly reversed. The irritation of Napoleon was also caused by the visit in April 1864 to England of the famous Italian revolutionary Garibaldi.
August 1, 1864 Denmark, making sure that real help does not have to wait, signed the preconditions of peace. The Danish king conceded all the rights to the disputed duchies of Holstein, Schleswig and Lauenburg in favor of the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Austria.
The Vienna Treaty of October 30, 1864 formally confirmed the reduction of Danish possessions in Europe by 40%. Bismarck managed to be removed from the power of Frederick of Augustenburg, in favor of which Germany was at first a united front and under the guise of which Bismarck planned the annexation of the conquered lands. August 14, 1865 on the Gastein Convention Austria and Prussia, while retaining the right of common ownership over the duchies, divided the administration over them: Schleswig entered the administration of Prussia, Holstein went to Austria. The smallest Lauenburg was granted ownership of Prussia for 2.5 million thalers paid by Austria. The Gastein Convention not so much solved the problem of the division of production between Austria and Prussia, but created a new occasion for war between them.
Source:
The process of German unification