When Napoleon had invaded Prussia he had begun a massive road building program so that his forces could easily be transported to countries such as Russia, whom he wanted to invade and defeat. After Napoleon had been defeated Prussia continued this infrastructure building program and went to great lengths to improve transport. By 1845 the three main rivers in the area were connected and this also gave trade a massive boost as did free trade zones. Yet again it was crucial that Prussia was doing this complex and innovative work and the so-called most powerful state in the German area was not doing this. In 1835 Prussia the first German railway line connecting Nuremberg and Furth.
When the central and Southern German states set up two rival customs unions to the Prussian customs union it was very important to try and win their support because these two rival customs unions were supported by the Austrian Empire. Again this was exactly what happened in 1824 when the CGCU joined the PRCU, a few years later the SCGU also joined. After the SCGU joined the end result was the ‘Deutsche Zollverein’ or the ‘German Customs Union’. This union came into existence on the first of January 1834.
Another important factor was that Prussia handled the German Nationalists very well. 1848 was known as the year of the revolutions. Revolutions had taken place in France, Poland, Italy, Austria and Hungary. Britain had also come it’s closest to revolution. This revolutionary atmosphere spread to Germany. Among the reasons for this was the way Frederick William IV had called eight provincial estates to meet in Berlin as a united estate but when they reached there he refused to give them the opportunity of regular meetings and this disappointed the German Nationalists. The 1847 civil war in Switzerland had encouraged German liberals in South Germany who demanded a national parliament. German Nationalists had also been stirred in the North. If Prussia was to be successful as a state then she would have to be able to look after her citizens and stop them from revolting against the state. The Prussian government wanted Germany to be unified but under it’s control not by the German people, as the German nationalists wanted. They were Prussian nationalists. One of them was Otto Van Bismarck.
Perhaps another factor in the rise of Prussia’s influence was Otto van Bismarck. He was the Prussian ambassador to the German confederation between 1851 and 1858. Bismarck also became minister president of Prussia in 1862. Bismarck saw Austria as an equal and didn’t try to make Prussia look superior to Austria. He would go to extreme lengths to try and make Prussia look like Austria's equal for example at GC meetings where only the Austrian representative would take his coat off and get comfortable Bismarck would do the same. Bismarck was a tough character and if he got frustrated with Austria he would not be the kind of man who would back down from a confrontation with the Austrians. Bismarck had shown how strong he was when he needed to get the army reforms passed through the Landtag, the exact purpose for which he was given his position. Bismarck refused to back down to the liberals and made sure that the reforms were passed i.e. the strength of the Prussian army was increased.
As I have said I think the main reasons for the increase of Prussian influence were Austria's poor decisions and slow reactions, Prussia’s good relations with her neighbours for example through reducing tariffs, Prussia’s handling of the German Nationalists i.e. The fact that their idea of Prussian Nationalism was accepted by the German Nationalists and the role of Otto Van Bismarck.
I think Prussia’s good relations with her neighbours is the least important factor because it helped her co operate with her neighbours and trade with them peacefully. This helped economic growth, as there were many more investors than before because of the changed tariff system.
I think the role of Otto Van Bismarck was next most important because the other Prussian politicians had already a clear idea of what they were going to do and a lot of the early work for example building of infrastructure and the idea of making the army more powerful was planned out by them and not Bismarck although he did make a good impression on the international community for example the English prime minister through his efforts such as trying to make Austria look an equal while maintaining the strong image of Prussia and helping it to develop fully.
Prussia’s handling of the German Nationalists is the next most important because it helped stabilise the area and prevent revolutions from happening which would be not just nationally damaging but would also damage Prussia’s international relations, both social and economic.
I think Austria's poor decisions were the most important of the factors because it had an influence in almost everything that helped become Prussia powerful and influential. For example Metternich giving the Rhineland, Westphalia and parts of Silesia to the Prussians was a very bad decision which is very hard to understand. One big problem that the Austrians had was that they didn’t learn to move on with time as they should have with many things for example building infrastructure, understanding the needs of German Nationalists and the whole customs unions issue. As far as customs unions were concerned Austria gave a weak image of itself, like a nation clinging on to something which would never really work (the SCGU and the CGCU could never really compete against the PRCU) and the Austrians were humiliated when the SGCU and the CGCU joined the PRCU. The Austrian government didn’t realise that they needed to do what the Prussians were doing with the nationalists and that they needed to play a clever game. They thought that they were somehow greater than the Prussians even when they clearly weren’t and this is what ultimately cost them. This was the biggest reason but there was also a lot of hard work from Prussian politicians such as Bismarck who ensured that Prussia overtook Austria.