Suman

=Explain how Prussia extended her influence over German states during the period of 1815-1848. =

The early 19th century caused economic developments to take place all around the world and while many German countries opposed growth, a country that recognized this progress was Prussia. The acceptance of these developments by Prussia was one of the most significant reasons in Prussia influencing the German states. Other evolvements that contributed to Prussia’s influence over the German states were the political, social and the growing beliefs of the inferior classes during the 1800s. After the Napoleon Wars in the year 1815, the two countries that influenced the management of the German states were Austria and Prussia.

Prussia was viewed as a powerful country but only after Austria and consequently Prussia followed Austria’s leadership approach but unlike Austria, Prussia started to evolve. During the commencement of the 1820s Prussia started to develop through the modification in its economical sector. Prussia commenced its developments with the growth in agriculture and gradually advanced to the construction of railways and roads. Even though Prussia was adapting to changes and allowing developments, other German states opposed this growth. Their views progressively changed as they noticed the developments taking place in Prussia were highly beneficial.

As a consequence to the introduction and developments of railways and roads, trade between the countries started to take place. These trade systems were not based on the free-market system but rather had tariffs and customs. This process made it difficult for the tradesmen to trade goods and thus limited trade. Prussia acknowledged this situation and thus decided to create The Zollverein (also known as the Prussian Customs Union) in the year 1834. The Zollverein significantly meant the abolishment of most tariffs and customs. The formation of Zollverein was considered the most substantial economic development.

The Zollverein did not only resulted to the benefits for the tradesmen but was exceedingly favorable for Prussia giving it more power and placing it to become one of the most powerful countries, above Austria. As a consequent to the economical developments, Prussia received more power and thus highly influenced other German states.

Though the economical developments played a substantial role in influencing the German states, there were other factors that led to Prussia influencing the German states. The failure of Liberalism in 1848 was one of the reasons that contributed to Prussia’s influence over the German states. The growing beliefs of the inferior class was steadily progressing, the desire to have freedom and to have equal rights as other classes were highly discussed. These desires and freedoms were considered to the people’s Liberty. The emergence of small groups sharing these ideas started to surface and an example to this was the Burschenscaften (the Unconditionals) where many university students promoted their views to the public through public speaking and other non-violent methods. Even though with the Burschenscaften different approaches they were unsuccessful in fulfilling their quest as the Burschenscaften was abolished in the year 1819 by Austrian Foreign Minster Prince Metternich.

As a consequent to Metternich’s “approaches” Austria was considered political strong but that shortly came to an end in the year 1848 as a result to the revolution. This was considered to be extremely shocking for the leading rulers of other countries as they considered Austria to be politically strong and thus followed Austria’s example and agreed to the revolutionaries demand. The revolutionaries were thought to be strong and therefore many countries accepted their demands, including Prussia.

As a result to the revolutionaries’ actions The Frankfurt Parliament was formed in 1848 with the objective of German Unification. The Frankfurt Parliament members were elected by the public and were deemed to be intellectuals and yet did not perform various tasks that would lead to their objectives. The Frankfurt Parliament commenced to create a constitution which they believed would lead to their objective. They decided this constitution would be placed in the united Germany. As Prussia was seen to be a better state than Austria due to it economical authority, the Frankfurt parliament desired to have Prussia involved in this constitution and thus give the position of the emperor to the ruler of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm IV.

 Friedrich Wilhelm IV did not accept the Emperor’s position as he opposed the revolutionary objective and thus resulted to the downfall of the Frankfurt Parliament. This signifies the impact that Prussia had on the German states; as Prussia’s rejection not only led to the Frankfurt parliament’s dismissal but also resulted to Austria losing its power. A cartoonist view during the 1849 clearly demonstrates the impact that Prussia had over the German states as it shows the impacts that Friedrich Wilhelm IV created when he did not accept the crown offered by the Frankfurt Parliament. The image shows two characters, a man and a female. The man appears to be sad and the woman seems to be larger, more powerful and stronger than him. The woman has been used to represent Prussia and the man to represent the Frankfurt Parliament.

Prussia's influence over the German states gradually increased between the years 1815 to 1848. It commenced with Prussia’s economical developments followed by the downfall of Austria resulting to Prussia receiving more power and lastly its reactionary responses towards stopping liberalism which led to Prussia receiving more political power. All these historical events can be viewed to be a factor that resulted to Prussia severely impacting the German states. Therefore Prussia highly influenced the German states during the period of 1815-1848 due to its different and broad approaches to the diverse circumstances.

// suman your essay was great! :) you answered the question in your introduction. you kept the same thesis of economic factors being the most dominant factor on how Prussia extended her influence, throughout. you summed up your points well in the conclusion. i might add, for constructive critisism purposes, that there wasnt alot of evidence through the use of quote, or historians points of view, to back up the statements you were making. the only other thing i might say is the paragraphing was a bit disjointed maybe ? (dont listen to me though because i have no idea when to start a new paragraph lol) but overall i enjoyed reading your insightful essay :) jess //

**The amount of historical detail used is an impressive strength. However to improve your essay, I think that you need to restate your argument (i.e. “economic factors were the most significant, however this factor still contributed…”) with each new idea/factor, rather than just once. This will in turn help strengthen your overall argument. Also, linking language was used; however more language of cause and effect would help improve the overall argument and fulfill the “explain” part of the question.** **Lastly, although I’m not 100% sure on paragraphing, I think that some paragraphs that you separated can actually be grouped together, which will help improve the structure of the essay.** **Overall, it was a really good job. Very insightful and really good use of historical detail. =]**
 * Your essay was written really well. Your introduction specifically answered the question and provided the necessary road map for your essay. It addressed all the key points/factors that were needed and you furthermore began in a creative way.**