Gott mit uns ("God With Us") | |||||||
| Anthem | "Heil dir im Siegerkranz" | ||||||
| Capital (and largest city) |
Berlin | ||||||
| Language | German | ||||||
History[]
The German Empire (German: Deutsches Kaiserreich), also referred to as Imperial Germany, the Kaiserreich, the Second Reich, as well as simply Germany, was the period of the German Reich from the unification of Germany in 1871 until the November Revolution in 1918, when the German Reich changed its form of government from a monarchy to a republic.
It was founded on 18 January 1871, when the south German states, except for Austria, joined the North German Confederation and the new constitution came into force on April 16, changing the name of the federal state to the German Empire and introducing the title of German Emperor for Wilhelm I, King of Prussia from the House of Hohenzollern. Berlin remained its capital, and Otto von Bismarck, Minister President of Prussia, became Chancellor, the head of government. As these events occurred, the Prussian-led North German Confederation and its southern German allies, such as Baden, Bavaria, Württemburg and Hesse, were still engaged in the Franco-Prussian War.
The German Empire consisted of 25 states, each with their own nobility, four constituent kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies (six before 1876), seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. While Prussia was one of four kingdoms in the realm, it contained about two-thirds of the Empire's population and territory, and Prussian dominance was also constitutionally established, since the King of Prussia was also the German Emperor (Deutscher Kaiser).
After 1850, the states of Germany had rapidly become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron (and later steel), chemicals, and railways. In 1871, Germany had a population of 41 million people; by 1913, this had increased to 68 million. A heavily rural collection of states in 1815, the now united Germany became predominantly urban. The success of German industrialization manifested itself in two ways since the early 20th century: the German factories were larger and more modern than their British and French counterparts. The dominance of the German Empire in the natural sciences, especially in physics and chemistry, was such that one-third of all Nobel Prizes went to German inventors and researchers. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire became the industrial, technological, and scientific giant of Europe, and by 1913, Germany was the largest economy in Continental Europe and the third-largest in the world. Germany also became a great power, it built up the longest railway network of Europe, the world's strongest army, and a fast-growing industrial base. Starting very small in 1871, in a decade, the navy became second only to Britain's Royal Navy. After the removal of Otto von Bismarck by Wilhelm II in 1890, the empire embarked on Weltpolitik – a bellicose new course that ultimately contributed to the outbreak of World War I.
From 1871 to 1890, Otto von Bismarck's tenure as the first and to this day longest-serving Chancellor was marked by relative liberalism at its start, but in time grew more conservative. Broad reforms and the Kulturkampf marked his period in the office. Late in Bismarck's chancellorship and in spite of his earlier personal opposition, Germany became involved in colonialism. Claiming much of the leftover territory that was yet unclaimed in the Scramble for Africa, it managed to build the third-largest colonial empire at the time, after the British and the French ones. As a colonial state, it sometimes clashed with the interests of other European powers, especially the British Empire. During its colonial expansion, the German Empire committed the Herero and Namaqua genocide.
In addition, Bismarck's successors were incapable of maintaining their predecessor's complex, shifting, and overlapping alliances which had kept Germany from being diplomatically isolated. This period was marked by various factors influencing the Emperor's decisions, which were often perceived as contradictory or unpredictable by the public. In 1879, the German Empire consolidated the Dual Alliance with Austria-Hungary, followed by the Triple Alliance with Italy in 1882. It also retained strong diplomatic ties to the Ottoman Empire. When the great crisis of 1914.
Victory in the Great War[]
Following the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip, German and Austria had both declared war on the Kingdom of Serbia, leading to Russia and France attacking, and later, Britain, Japan, and the United States. Germany maintains a close alliance towards the Austrian's, but a large scale political split between the German and non German states resulting in the former allies splitting up. The new German Empire has become the worlds leading power, maintaing millions of people, being the richest nation in the world. France has been ultimately humiliated, resulting in a large scale civil war beginning inside of France that Divided up the nation. The Belgian Congo was seized by Germany, as the mainland Belgian's had fallen under the German Sphere of Influence, changing the house inside of Belgium. Great Britain had survived all invasions by Prussian Military, but was forced to sign off on peace with some terms. They kept some colonial gains, however, the Black Revolution of 1921 had caused Britain to become a fully isolated nation, focusing on its large scale colonial empire, and slowly destabilizing. The Russian Revolution had taken a different turn. The Communists, after successfully starting a civil war in Russia, had provoked the Republican troops to also join the civil war, and when the war ended in 1923, the Tsarists and Republicans had united into a single cause, known as Tsarist Democracy, which had a President and a King. All thoughout Russia, the decrease of wages due to the devaluing of oils and the crashing of the Russian Economy leading to surfs becoming massacred, a strike was organized to protest this in April of 1919. Soon the purple autocratic workers armed themselves, in response authorities oppressed the strikers who began rebelling only to be harshly put down by the government of the Russian Empire, making Nicholas even more unpopular. Days Later, the Tsar would end up killing himself via a gunshot wound, with his son fleeing to Alaska. Moscow wanted to end this war by 1920 in a bid to maintain its superpower status which was being torn away every day. No long-term military plans have been planned to suggest the Tsar could have won, which is what would end up causing the Siber Revolution, which had freed Siberia under the olde Surfs.
Roaring 20's[]
In 1921, Ukraine had defied its German Rulers. Ukrainian villages were regularly destroyed in rascist German attacks, as the Slavic Peoples in Ukraine were seen as a inferior race to Germany. Ukrainian Farmers and Peasants were tired of this, and the Orthodox Marxist Peoples decided it was time to overthrow Germany, and so Ukrainian peoples put up arms, and with aids from the US and Japan, the Ukrainians were pushing the Germans out of the East. Faced with imminent defeat, the Ukrainian Yellow Army turned to its allies, America and Japan, for Military Help, which was accepted by America in the first Miami Agreement (signed on February 9, 1918) in return for desperately needed food supplies which the Americans would provide to the Ukrainians. The Imperial German and Austro-Hungarian armies would then be pushed out of Ukraine, taking Kiev on June 17. Two days later, the Germans signed the Treaty of Norfolk, which formally ended hostilities between Ukraine and Germany, allowing the UYA to finally be free from the brutal, oppressive Imperial Kaiserreich. However, there appears to be an upcoming war with the Russian Empire, as Tsar Alexi was looking to restore the olde Napoleonic Russia that was once ruling over Europe. Many atrocities occurred during the Ukrainian Independence war as the Red, Blue, Purple, White, and Ukrainian armies massacred each other, leading to other Ukrainian parties going to escape to Russia, which has become a democratic state.
Great Depression[]
The German Empire was hit hard by the Great Depression. In January 1932, Wilhelm III had claimed that a further economic collapse is a large possibility, and even though he put up large scale economical reforms, the German Economy, had crashed fully, resulting in Poland, Ruthenia, Courland, Livonia, Estonia, and Lithuania revolting against the German Empire. As expected, the German Kaiser had ordered the execution of communists and fascists, in an attempt to protect the German Throne. However, the actual killing of communists in Germany had actually caused more unrest. The Communists planned to raid Bavaria and the South, but where stopped and imprisoned by Germany. Even though the idea of killing communists in Germany was “horribly brutal” in many German Generals words, it was in actual fact what made German more stable politically as it had helped secure monarchism in Germany. In March 1932, the Berlin government had made a deal with the Chancellor of Austria, Adolf Hitler, to allow communists in Austria to also be purged. The only reason that this had not been done was because Hitler was aware of the instability in Austria-Hungary, and so he couped the state and became the Fuhrer of Austria-Hungary, which he transformed into just Austria, as Hungarians, and various other Slavic people were purged to make more room for the German Peoples.