Why was Prussia able to win the war with Austria in 1866?

Authors Avatar

Why was Prussia able to win the

war with Austria in 1866?

        1866 saw a complete change in the political structure of the German speaking nations, Prussia finally broke free of the shackles imposed on her by a dominant Austria.

        

        Since the 15th century, Austria had always been considered the natural leader of the German states. The Habsburg family had always been accustomed to ruling and dominating, Habsburgs had been Kings or Dukes of Austria, Hungary, Spain, Italian States, France. It can be seen here that the Habsburg family and therefore Austria (Franz Joseph I, was a Habsburg) had a traditional role as head of the German states.

        Throughout the 19th century, Austria had always been ultra-conservative, Metternich is a prime example of 19th century ultra- conservatism. Austria aimed to keep power and continue to dominate despite the role of an increasing powerful Prussia. Someone once said, “The one thing people in power are afraid of is losing that power,” the ultra-conservative policies of Metternich and the Habsburg government in the Vormarz period shows this point perfectly. They censored newspapers in order to silence liberals and nationalists, they created the Bund out of the ashes of the Holy Roman Empire and they refused to acknowledge the power of Prussia. Even up to 1866, these conservative attitudes lingered throughout the Habsburg empire.

        Prussia, on the other hand, was always accustomed to following Austria’s lead. Prussia grew significantly from 1848 to 1866 but until Bismarck the King Fredrick William IV, always took the traditionalist approach rather than breaking away from a weakened Austria. Prussia never got the respect it deserved from Austria and it is not surprising due to the indecisiveness of Fredrick William IV.

        Prussia was a slightly backward country during the Vormarz period and although it was called a great power it did not have the imperial force of Russia, Britain or Austria for example. Many Prussian were peasants and the Prussian government relied on the Junker class also many of the Junker looked to Austria for guidance, they did not behave like a great power in the Vormarz period, they along with the smaller German countries behaved like client states to Austria.

        The Erfurt Union of 1849 showed to Europe that Prussia may be breaking away from Austria and beginning its own period of ascendancy. This vision was limited due to the continuing dominance of Austria and the indecisiveness of Fredrick William IV, Austria was willing to use force to crush the Erfurt scheme and Fredrick William IV was not willing to use force to defend it hence it was doomed. This shows the positions of Austria and Prussia perfectly, Austria wanted to continue its control over Germany and was willing to use force to do so but Prussia accustomed to second placed wanted more power but refused to fight for it, so in the period 1848-62 nothing critically changed.

        Bismarck, Von Roon and William I are the real forces of change in central Europe, with there ascendancy to power a new era in Prussian history begins. This starts with reforms but ends with an armed conflict with Austria in 1866, but why was Prussia able to win the Seven Weeks War?

        Prussia was economically strong for many reasons, firstly was the creation of the Zollverein in 1834. The Zollverein was a customs union which allowed free trade throughout the German states except the Austrian Empire. Prussia created the Zollverein in 1834 in order to make herself richer and to encourage trade but as a by product of this it had made Prussia the natural leader of Germany’s economy because the Zollverein relied on Prussia.

Join now!

        

        Secondly, since the early 1850’s, Prussia had developed massive industrial power specifically in Silesia, Saar and the Ruhr. Examples of this industrial power can be seen by the growth of the Krupp, Siemens and Borsig companies. All three of these began in the mid 19th centuries and prospered due to the demand of their products e.g. Borsig’s trains and Krupp’s weapons and steel. Prussia had the capacity for massive industrial production through this it made Prussia wealthy and economically stable.

        Also Prussia had large reserves of Coal and Iron, the essentials of an industrial society, with these ...

This is a preview of the whole essay