In the build up to war, the southern confederate German states voluntarily joined the Prussian-controlled Northern German Confederation. Germany was now unified. The Franco-Prussian war was ended ...

Deceased French president Francois Mitterrand in 1989 gave his approval to German unification on condition that then Chancellor Helmut Kohl opened the way for the creation of an only currency in ...

Prussia's development as a successful, modern industrial state gave hope to German nationalists. Economically, unification through the Zollverein economic alliance of 1834 had been a success.