Germany as a unified country is younger than many people think. The German Empire was proclaimed in 1871 after Prussia's victory in the Franco Prussian War. Its unification was engineered by Otto von Bismarck, the Minister President of Prussia, through a series of wars and diplomatic efforts that brought most of the German states under Prussian leadership. Before 1871, there was no single German nation state. For centuries, the German speaking lands were divided among hundreds of kingdoms, duchies, principalities, free imperial cities, and church territories. From 962 to 1806, most belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, a loose political union in which the emperor had limited authority and the individual states largely governed themselves. After the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars, the German Confederation was established in 1815 as a loose association of 39 independent states. In 1867, Prussia formed the North German Confederation, uniting most of the northern states. Following Prussia's victory over France in 1871, the southern German states joined, creating the German Empire and marking the first unified German nation state. #archaeohistories#