It was not easy to unite Germany into a single political and economic entity. The Holy Roman Empire began to decline and was unable to unite into a single state during the 16th and 17th centuries due to a number of internal and external causes. (Bickford 54). These problems stayed difficult for many years despite numerous attempts to solve them. Some of them had political motivations, while others were influenced by religion.
Germanic nobles' opposition to Charles, who was the king of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, was one of the notable reasons that prevented the creation of a unified Germany. (Sabine 52). This factor ultimately caused all efforts to unify the empire to fail. Another issue that contributed to making it hard to unify German was the political unease experienced by most of the German nobility. This political problem was mostly influenced by the Catholic Church being after the affairs of the empire.
Although the church conflict with the empire was politically motivated, there was also prominent religious conflicts that exerted pressure to the realm (Cramer 96). During early 16th century, Martin Luther King's decision to set off the reformation of Protestant faith in Germany ignited internal conflicts and uproar within the decaying empire. With Lutheranism thriving and being embraced by the majority of nobility, the disputes turned into civil chaos that ended up making the hopes of having a unified German to be unattainable.
This protestant reformation worsened the situation by initiating religious wars. Perhaps, this was one of the most fundamental war in the European history. This thirty years of war and conflicts contributed further to the decline of the once strong holy empire (Sabine 52). During the war period, German was the most significant battlefield, a situation which seemed to impact the way in which other states perceived it. During this time, the empire had attackers from all edges. The situation worsened the state of an already collapsing empire hence affecting the attempts of establishing unity. The consequences of realizing several years of war and conflicts, as well as the peace of Westphalia provided yet again another blow to the plans of establishing unity through incorporating Calvinism to the list of recognized religions.
Another factor that played a role in preventing the developed of truly unified German was the endless threats of invasion that came from the Turkish Ottoman Empire (Cramer 99). Internal conflicts and disunity further stimulated this constant threat from the south during the times of protestant reformation and the 30 years of war. The Kaiser of German was responsible for not only mending internal problems but also provided security for the frontiers of empire.
In addition to the endless conflicts that the empire was involved with, another issue that impacted the missions to unite German resulted when the two influential families withdrew their plans to govern German (Eric 95). This development resulted to the rise of a powerful Eastern Europe. One of the families, Hohenzollerns, gave up its expectations of controlling German when they diverted their attention to Brandenburg-Russia. The other influential family, the Austria, also abandoned the empire, and instead emphasized on establishing another that would later grow to become among the five European powers. The rise of Eastern Europe resulted in shifting of attention from the outdated, crumbling Holy Roman Empire to the upcoming nations of Eastern Europe.
The Holy Roman Empire also failed to unite because it did not learn a lesson from other countries that vanished because of embracing feudalism (Eric 96). In a period where transnational trade and commerce on a national scale was thriving, a feudalistic society like German remained irrelevant and unsuccessful. During this time, Feudalism meant division, and fragmentation meant lack of hopes for having commerce, wealth, or unification.
During the middle ages, the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) was the most influential kingdom, but during the reign of HRE, there was no any form of centralized government that was in existence (Cramer 112). During this period, the kingdom was divided because of religious issues. The war which had lasted for thirty years also resulted to economic distress which made the people to realize a lot of difficulties. The fact that the Germanic states remained to be separate governments with no plans to surrender power and the fact that the parties could reach no agreeable idea, it remained impossible for a unified Germany to be established.
The other reason that made it difficult for the unification is that the process would result to tension because linguistic as well as social and cultural differences which would exist among the residents of the new nation (Eric 105). Other factors that hindered this unification were differences in economics, education, and religion. Because of these factors, most of the societies believed they would be no positive relationship among them. For example, Austria believed that Prussia would not be satisfied to relate with Holstein, Italy would not be contented to connect to Venetia and so on.
Challenges in coming up with an agreed method of unity was also a notable factor that led to problems in unifying German before 1871. This resulted because each country had a firm standpoint to oppose the unification (Sabine 59). For example, the rulers of the smaller German states were strictly against all attempts to establish greater unity because they saw it as a threat to their power. The considerable rival and jealousy that existed between them also contributed to this opposition. Austria, on the other hand, opposed all measures to establish unification because it would make its multi-national empire to collapse.
Continuous opposition from France and some other countries was also a significant barrier to the plans of establishing a unified state. After France attained its power, it had some influence on the southern German states that remained to be jealous of Australian power. This factor made it hard to oppose any serious attempts to establish a unified German state (Eric 99). Other notable elements that influenced unifying German comprise of the Metternich system of repression, an ineffectual federal diet, differences and divisions that existed among the German people, among others.
Some states also opposed the unification mission because they feared to lose control and power. For example, Austria felt that if it broke away to join a unified German, it would end up becoming smaller and even weaker. Other reasons that brought challenges to the unification was that some countries kept opposing the idea because they saw it as a significant threat to their empire
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Work cited
Bickford. Andrew .Fallen Elites: The Military Other in Post-Unification Germany. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 2011.
Eric. Yonke, Fighting for the Soul of Germany: The Catholic Struggle for Inclusion after Unification. The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 99, No. 2, 2013, PP. 89-125.
Sabine. Von Dirke. Cosmopolitan Anxieties. Turkish Challenges to Citizenship and Belonging in Germany. German Quarterly. 2010.
Cramer. Kevin . The Thirty Years' War and German Memory in the Nineteenth Century. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. 2010
