German Confederation
Established by the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna in June 1815, the German Confederation (Deutscher Bund) replaced Napoleon's Confederation of the Rhine and the dissolved Holy Roman Empire with a loose association of 39 sovereign German states under the presidency of Austria. Metternich designed it deliberately to prevent German unification — a unified Germany under Prussian or popular nationalist leadership would threaten Austrian hegemony — providing instead a platform for conservative cooperation against liberalism and nationalism. The Confederation became the political arena in which Bismarck would eventually maneuver Austria out of German affairs entirely, dissolving it after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866.
- Year: 1815 CE
- Category: Political
