<P> Napoleon III had tried to secure territorial concessions from both sides before and after the Austro - Prussian War, but despite his role as mediator during the peace negotiations, he ended up with nothing . He then hoped that Austria would join in a war of revenge and that its former allies--particularly the southern German states of Baden, Württemberg, and Bavaria--would join in the cause . This hope would prove futile since the 1866 treaty came into effect and united all German states militarily--if not happily--to fight against France . Instead of a war of revenge against Prussia, supported by various German allies, France engaged in a war against all of the German states without any allies of its own . The reorganization of the military by von Roon and the operational strategy of Moltke combined against France to great effect . The speed of Prussian mobilization astonished the French, and the Prussian ability to concentrate power at specific points--reminiscent of Napoleon I's strategies seventy years earlier--overwhelmed French mobilization . Utilizing their efficiently laid rail grid, Prussian troops were delivered to battle areas rested and prepared to fight, whereas French troops had to march for considerable distances to reach combat zones . After a number of battles, notably Spicheren, Wörth, Mars la Tour, and Gravelotte, the Prussians defeated the main French armies and advanced on the primary city of Metz and the French capital of Paris . They captured Napoleon III and took an entire army as prisoners at Sedan on 1 September 1870 . </P> <P> The humiliating capture of the French emperor and the loss of the French army itself, which marched into captivity at a makeshift camp in the Saarland ("Camp Misery"), threw the French government into turmoil; Napoleon's energetic opponents overthrew his government and proclaimed the Third Republic . The German High Command expected an overture of peace from the French, but the new republic refused to surrender . The Prussian army invested Paris and held it under siege until mid-January, with the city being "ineffectually bombarded". On 18 January 1871, the German princes and senior military commanders proclaimed Wilhelm "German Emperor" in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles . Under the subsequent Treaty of Frankfurt, France relinquished most of its traditionally German regions (Alsace and the German - speaking part of Lorraine); paid an indemnity, calculated (on the basis of population) as the precise equivalent of the indemnity that Napoleon Bonaparte imposed on Prussia in 1807; and accepted German administration of Paris and most of northern France, with "German troops to be withdrawn stage by stage with each installment of the indemnity payment". </P> <P> Victory in the Franco - Prussian War proved the capstone of the nationalist issue . In the first half of the 1860s, Austria and Prussia both contended to speak for the German states; both maintained they could support German interests abroad and protect German interests at home . In responding to the Schleswig - Holstein Question, they both proved equally diligent in doing so . After the victory over Austria in 1866, Prussia began internally asserting its authority to speak for the German states and defend German interests, while Austria began directing more and more of its attention to possessions in the Balkans . The victory over France in 1871 expanded Prussian hegemony in the German states (aside from Austria) to the international level . With the proclamation of Wilhelm as Kaiser, Prussia assumed the leadership of the new empire . The southern states became officially incorporated into a unified Germany at the Treaty of Versailles of 1871 (signed 26 February 1871; later ratified in the Treaty of Frankfurt of 10 May 1871), which formally ended the war . Although Bismarck had led the transformation of Germany from a loose confederation into a federal nation state, he had not done it alone . Unification was achieved by building on a tradition of legal collaboration under the Holy Roman Empire and economic collaboration through the Zollverein . The difficulties of the Vormärz, the impact of the 1848 liberals, the importance of von Roon's military reorganization, and von Moltke's strategic brilliance all played a part in political unification . </P> <P> The new German Empire included 25 states, three of them Hanseatic cities . It realized the Kleindeutsche Lösung ("Lesser German Solution", with the exclusion of Austria) as opposed to a Großdeutsche Lösung or "Greater German Solution", which would have included Austria . Unifying various states into one nation required more than some military victories, however much these might have boosted morale . It also required a rethinking of political, social, and cultural behaviors and the construction of new metaphors about "us" and "them". Who were the new members of this new nation? What did they stand for? How were they to be organized? </P>

Who is credited with creating germany and in what year