History

On May 10, 1871, the third and final phase of what are known as the German Wars of Unification came to an abrupt end. Paris had fallen in January; and the German states had proclaimed their union under the Prussian Kaiser, taken from the ancient Roman Caesar, thus creating a new nation-state, or Deutsches Reich, the German Empire. The initial peace treaty was called the Preliminary Treaty of Versailles of 1871, and the final peace treaty, the Treaty of Frankfurt, was signed on May 10th and had been crafted by the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, arguably the most coldly efficient statesman of his time‚ his mantra was Blut und Eisen, blood and iron. The consequences of this treaty have caused historians to argue that it was an extraordinary example of Bismarck miscalculating the opposition and lighting a fuse that would explode a mere 48 years later in the same place it began, the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, in 1919.

Include the following into the paper:

What were the Wars of German Unification, and why were they fought?

Where do you think Bismarck grossly miscalculated the French in the Treaty of Frankfurt?

Make the historical link between the treaty drawn up in 1871 and the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and demonstrate why the French were so revengeful.