Why was Germany unified under Prussia and not Austria

Also, Prussia also had lots of economic strength. Its economy grew steadily 1815 to 1848 and than through the 1850 and 60s it experienced the first industrial revolution on the continent. Its has three major advantages over Austria. Firstly it had the tradition of economic reform. This was actions by ministers such as Stein and Hardenberg which overhauled the financial system and modified the social structure by abloishing serfdom. What Hardening called ‘timely reforms from above gave a vital shove to private enterprise which unchanged system still held back in Austria. Secondly with a bit of diplomacy Prussia managed to get the coal and iron- producing areas areas of the Rhineland. She managed to get this from the congress of Vienna in compensation for the Polish provinces annexed by Russia. The Ruhr and Saar regions complemented Silesia in transforming Prussia form a state with relatively few resources to one of the richest mineral deposits in Central and Western Europe. Third, Prussia was able to extend her influence over German states by the Zolleveirn, which brought together the Prussian-Hessian, the South German and the Central German Customs Unions. By 1834 lots of German states were linked to Prussia by the Zollverin which strengthened their economy and were becoming cut off from Austria, which was obviously not in the Zollverein. So as we can see the Zollverein the key strength Prussia had to unify with Prussia. But why was it so popular? As we saw beforehand the 1830/ 1848 revolution brought up lots of liberalist ideias mainly within the middle class, which was very big. And the Zollverein brought lots of opportunities to these middle class liberals in the states, and began to think in terms of political unity with Prussia as a means of preserving a larger market and developing Germany as a more powerful economic entity. So overall this economic union brought lots of national strength.

As we saw the Zollverein led to economic unification in various states of Germany. It made their economies strong and consequently boosted the Prussian economy, as there was more trade now. So in the 1850s the Prussian economy took off. The railway network in Prussia increased from 3869 Km to 7169 Km by 1860 and 11,523 Km by 1870. Coal production in the Saar mines increased from 700,000 tons to 2.2 million by 1860, in the Ruhr during the same period, from 2 million to 4.3 million. The steel industry which took advantage of the Bessemer process, was further enhanced by the existence of the most highly developed chemical industry in the world. Moreover, this industrial growth made by the Zollverein made German economy depend even more on Prussia. The total value of Zollverein’s exports  increased between 1853 and 1856 from 356.9 million to 456.1 million, while German’s combined coal production expanded from 3.2 million tons in 1846 to 12.3 million in 1860.

So as we saw Prussia had everything to unite with Germany; economic, political and diplomatic strengths. However Austria insured unification under Prussia because of its political and economic failures. Austrian exports fell from 184.3 million to 150.3 million, while the continental depression which followed the Crimean War had a particular serious effect on Austria in 1857. Futhermore, one of the most important factors were Austria excluded from the Zollverein. This brought commercial isolation and a precarious economy.

So overall we can see that Germany was unified under Prussia for a number of reasons, being mostly its political and economic strength. In the political side can see that bismarks ideias of his diplomacy were very succesfull. The key to his diplomacy was his assertion that events were part of time stream of history and to achieve objectives you had to become part of this stream of history. And this policy made him so successful on winning the three wars which led to the unification. Also the economic strength in Prussia made German states more depend of Prussia excluding Austria. So we can see that eventhough Prussia was improving, it was no just improving, it was degrading Austria. Together with this came Austrian problems like the wars which degraded it even more making Germany successfully unified under Germany