German States

Toward the Unification of Germany, 1862-1871

In the early 1860s, there were as much as 39 independent states on German land. The prime minister of Prussia, which was the one of larger and stronger German states, Bismarck achieved German unity largely through three military successes: the Second war of Schleswig (1864), the Austro-Prussian War (1866), and the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71).