North German Confederation

The Confederation came into existence after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 over the lordship of two small Danish duchies Schleswig-Holstein claimed by Prussia in 1866. After its victory, Prussia made Austria as well as its allies accept the dissolution of the German Confederation an connective of states. The peace treaty helps Prussia to work a federal state in Northern Germany. On July 1st, 1867, the North German Confederation had a federal constitution.

The constitution creation a constitutional monarchy with the Prussian king as the holder of the . This was the position of a head of state. Laws could only be enabled with the consent of the a parliament based on universal male suffrage and the Federal Council , a report of the states. During the three and a half years of the Confederation, a conservative-liberal cooperation undertook important steps to unify Northern Germany with regard to law and infrastructure. The political system and the political parties remained essentially the same in the years after 1870.

During its existence, there were tensions between the North German Confederation and the Second French Empire, which was ruled by the French Emperor Napoleon III. In summer 1870, a dispute over a new king for Spain escalated into the Franco-Prussian war. In this situation, the south German states of Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Württemberg and Bavaria joined the North German Confederation. On 1 January 1871, the country adopted a new constitution, which was a object that is caused or shown by something else under the names of a new "German Confederation" but already produced it the defecate "German Empire" in the preamble and article 11.

The Confederation had near 30 million inhabitants, of whom 80% lived in Prussia. This is ca. 75% of the population of the German Empire 1871.