A factor which strengthened Prussia and weakened Austria was the will to modernize. After Prussia’s defeats by the French in 1806, she sought to strengthen herself. In the years to come Prussia would greatly develop economically, and build a new infrastructure of a modern state. After her defeat by the French, Prussia also modernized her army, in model of the French one they fought. However, Austria refused to modernize which would weaken it in the long run. Austria did not develop its industry in the way Prussia had done, an example of this is Austria’s railway system. The Austrian king viewed modernization as a threat and also thought that railways led to revolutions, and therefore boycotted them. Also Austria did not modernize their army as Prussia had done, which would widen the gap between these two nations even more. A good example of the modernized Prussian army against a weaker and less modern Austrian army is the battle of Koniggratz in 1866. Prussia totally dominated the Austrians in this battle due to weak technical advancements in the Austrian army.
In 1843 the Zollverein was established. This was a customs union which acted to strengthen Prussia and weaken Austria. The Zollverein brought 25 German states together and was seen as the first steps towards economic and political unity in Germany. It strengthened Prussia because it was Prussia who controlled this customs union and this gave her major influence over the 25 German states, and this was seen as the first steps towards the unity of Germany under Prussia. The Zollverein also granted Prussia further economic development. This customs union weakened Austria because when Austria was invited to join in the early years it declined because Austria supported high tariffs. In doing this Austria handed over valuable economic areas to Prussia and lost more ground in the balance of power which would decide which country Germany would be united under.
Another factor which strengthened Prussia was the effects of the 1848-49 revolution. The failure of the middle class liberals to unite Germany from below showed that Germany would need to be united from above, Germany would need a powerful country to bring it together. After the failure of the revolution German nationalists became focused on Prussia as a force to unite Germany from above. The fact that Austria was also very against German unification made it quite obvious that seeing Germany being united under Austria would never happen.
After 1850 the basis of Prussian power became economic and industrial and this was to provide her with the military means to drive out the Austrians and unite Germany. Prussia’s industrial resources were unrivalled on the Continent. It received even more revenue from the Zollverein; it received high-quality armaments of Krupps and it had an exploding urban population. All this provided Prussia with a modern economic infrastructure that Austria could not match. This Weakened Austria as it further widened the gap between these two countries and tipped the balance of power into Prussia’s favour.
A man who was to ensure that Prussia placed the most important role in unifying Germany and destroying Austria’s power over the Germans was Otto von Bismarck who became Chancellor of Prussia in 1862. Bismarck combined a skillful diplomacy with realpolitik to achieve his goals in a political sense. Such examples from his skillful diplomacy include how he obtained Russian goodwill by allowing Russian troops to go through Prussia to crush a Polish uprising, he used the war with Denmark to stir up nationalism, after defeating Austria in the Austro-Prussian war Bismarck made sure that Prussia would not become a bitter enemy of Austria by not making them pay any reparations or suffering a Prussian occupation and finally he managed to do all this and exclude France through “The Hohenzollern Candidature” and the “Ems Telegram”. Altogether this greatly strengthened Prussia’s political stance and enabled Prussia to out maneuver Austria politically. During this period Austria’s diplomatic position weakened. In 1854, Austria failed to support Russia during the Crimean war, Russia had previously helped Austria crush insurgents during the 1848 revolutions and cower Prussia. As a result of this, the “holy alliance” was destroyed and Austria lost an important ally. Also, Austria’s poor performance in the war against the French in Italy (Solferino and Magenta) in 1859 signaled to Prussia that Austria’s army was no longer to be feared.
The 1866 Austro-Prussian war showed that the balance of power between Austria and Prussia decisively swung into Prussia’s favour. This war completely excluded Austria from German affairs and left the field totally open for Prussia to deal with Germany. With Austria out of the equation, Bismarck waited for the perfect time to unite Germany. This came in 1870 when Bismarck accumulated German nationalism and had Germany accept the Prussian king as leader of Germany.
In conclusion, the key factors expressed above show that Germany was united under Prussia due to its immense build up of strength compared to Austria who was gradually weakened and could not cover the gap in the balance of power between itself and Prussia.
