The Confederation was dissolved on the 20th, and the proclamation of the Empire was set to be delivered on 18 January 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors. On 16 December 1870 a delegation from the parliament of North Germany arrived at Versailles to beg the Prussian king to accept the title of Emperor of Germany.
The proclamation of German unity had begun. Whatever the reason, his brother Othon negotiated in his place. King Louis II of Bavaria refused to join the other German princes at Versailles, perhaps out of respect for the location and the legacy of Louis XIV. He constituted the North German Confederation, which united all the states except those in the south, and which was joined in 1870 by Hesse, Baden, Bavaria and Württemberg. Bismarck's aim was to become the new major power in the centre of Europe, between France and Russia. Chancellor Bismarck intended to federate the other German states around Prussia to build an empire at the expense of its rival, the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On 5 October Wilhelm I and Bismarck entered the city and prepared the proclamation of the German Empire in the Palace.Īfter its campaigns against Austria and Denmark in the mid-1860s Prussia had increased its territory and grown stronger, and it now stretched from the Rhine to Russia. On 19 September the siege of Paris began, and the first troops arrived at Versailles. On 2 September the French forces in Sedan surrendered, and Prussia invaded France.
France declared war against Prussia on 19 July 1870.
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