How did unification take place in Germany and Poland.
Explain the key points of this unification.
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Answers
•in 1830s middle class German people tried to unify Germany as a nation state
•but they were crushed by the joint forces of military and monarchy supported by large land owners called junkers
•from then on Prussian king Otto wan Bismark took the responsibility of unifying Germany
•he faught three wars under seven years with Austria, Denmark and France and ended with victory
•this is how Germany gets unified in 1848 and William 1 proclaimed as the throne of unified Germany.
In the 1800s, nationalist feelings were strong in the hearts of the middle-class Germans. They united in 1848 to create a nation-state out of the numerous German States. But the monarchy and the military got together to repress them and they gained support from the landowners of Prussia (the Junkers) too. Prussia soon became the leader of German unification movement. Its Chief Minister Otto von Bismarck was the architect of the process with support from Prussian army and Prussian bureaucracy. The unification process was completed after Prussia won wars with Austria, Denmark and France over seven years time. The new state placed a strong emphasis on modernising currency banking, legal and judicial systems in Germany. In January 1871, the Prussian king, William I, was proclaimed the German Emperor in a ceremony held at Versailles.
The language also played a distinctive role in developing nationalist feelings in Europe. An example of this is how during the Russian occupation, the use of Polish came to be seen as a symbol of struggle against Russian dominance. During this period, the Polish language was forced out of schools and the Russian language was imposed everywhere. Following the defeat of an armed rebellion against Russian rule in 1831, many members of the clergy in Poland began using language as a weapon of national resistance. They did so by refusing to preach in Russian, and by using Polish for Church gatherings and religious instruction. A large number of priests and bishops were put in jail or sent to Siberia by the Russian authorities as punishment for their refusal to preach Russia. The emphasis on the use of vernacular language, the language of the masses, helped spread the message of national unity.