Austro-Prussian War (Seven Weeks' War)
Prussia beat Austria and most of the German states in seven weeks in 1866, and decided which of them would build Germany. Bismarck had engineered it out of the joint war against Denmark two years earlier. Schleswig and Holstein had been taken together and administered separately, Prussia in the north and Austria in the south, which guaranteed friction; Prussia occupied Holstein in June 1866 and Austria took the quarrel to the German Confederation. Most of the German states — Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, Württemberg, Hesse — sided with Austria on the reasonable view that Prussia was the more immediate threat. Prussia had two decisive advantages that were not evident beforehand: the needle gun, a breech-loader that let infantry fire lying down at five rounds a minute against two, and Moltke's use of the telegraph and five railway lines to move separate armies and unite them on the battlefield. Italy joined Prussia and lost at Custoza and Lissa, and gained Venetia anyway from the peace. The war was settled at Königgrätz on 3 July, where 220,000 Prussians beat 215,000 Austrians and Saxons after the Second Army arrived on the flank in the afternoon. Bismarck then refused to march on Vienna, take Austrian territory or hold a triumph, against the wishes of his king and his generals, on the argument that Austria would be needed later. The German Confederation was dissolved, Prussia annexed Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, Nassau and Frankfurt, and the North German Confederation followed in 1867. France got nothing and understood too late.
- Year: 1866 CE
- Category: Military
