The German Question, Part Fifty

"Bismarck" Part Three/B "The Day of Reckoning"

Now we need to go back to "Schleswig-Holstein." After the two German super powers defeated Denmark in 1864, they made an agreement regarding these two provinces in 1865. Both provinces became members of the (Prussian-run) Customs Union ("Zollverein"), although Austria herself was not a member. There were various stipulations, but basically Prussia was to administer Schleswig, the northern most province, and Austria was to administer Holstein. This left Austrian-run Holstein as the peanut butter and jelly between a slice of Prussian bread in Schleswig, and another slice of Prussian bread in Prussia proper.* Austria agreed to permit Prussian access to Schleswig through Holstein. The two powers agreed to resolve any differences over administration between themselves. Put simply, there were disagreements, and Austria called for the issues to be resolved by the German Confederation. This was a clear violation of the agreement with Prussia, although a violation that gave Bismarck his reason to act against Austria.

The overall march to war was highly complex, but essentially events began unfolding when Italy moved numerous military units to the border of the Austrian controlled Italian regions coveted by the Italians. Austria called up troops to reinforce its units in these same regions. This gave Italy cause to order a full mobilization of its army, and with Prussia committed to support Italy,** the Prussians mobilized their army shortly thereafter. Most of the representatives in the assembly at Frankfurt wanted matters to calm down, and for all sides to demobilize their forces, although most supported Austria, still the symbolic leader of Germany. The few supporters of Prussia among the German states had only small military forces, but Austria's potential to gain non-German allies was slim (Russia especially was reluctant to get involved on Austria's side, due to past differences between the two powers, although the Russians were alarmed by Prussia's growing power among the German states***). Austria agreed to the calls for demobilization of any troops that were seen as threatening Prussia, but she could not do the same with Italy, which was in no way connected with the German Confederation. Bismarck cried "Foul!" He sent Prussian troops into Holstein in response to Austria's calling the Holstein provincial assembly into session about the dispute with Prussia. Austrian troops, far from Austria (which was much further south), and sandwiched between Prussian forces, withdrew from Holstein.

This prompted Austria to call for the German Confederation to mobilize forces against Prussia, a process that began. Prussia declared that such actions dissolved the German Confederation (saying it, did not truly make it so), but the Prussians also offered new constitutional reform and reorganization for a new federation of all the German states.

Prussia pressured the other German states to accept its reform plan, but they rejected it (most favored Austria, anyhow). In mid June 1866, Prussia sent troops into the states of Saxony, Hanover, and Hessen-Kassel, and the war began. The Prussian forces dominated the forces of these states, except those of Hanover, which inflicted a defeat on the Prussian army in late June, but then surrendered to Prussia shortly thereafter, when more Prussian forces arrived.

Relatively small Prussian forces kept forces of other Austrian allies, like Bavaria, tied down and thus out of the main fighting, except for Saxony. The rapidly mobilized Prussian forces advanced into Saxony. The Saxons moved their army (relatively small) out of Saxony and into neighboring Bohemia (a Habsburg possession) to join the slowly mobilizing Austrian forces which were assembling for an eventual attack on the Prussians in Silesia.**** The Prussians struck in early July with three converging armies inflicting a devastating defeat on the Austrian forces at the "Battle of Königgrätz" (Sadowa, in Czech), with the Austrians losing 40-45,000 men (killed, wounded, captured), while total Prussian losses were less than 10,000. This one major battle brought agreement between the two German states for France's Napoleon III to begin mediation between the belligerents for an end to the war. Napoleon III accepted the role.

While the Austrians suffered at the hands of the Prussians, they enjoyed far more success against the Italians, who suffered a major defeat early on (June 24) in the Austrian held region of Veneto at the "Battle of Custoza" (near the city of Verona), although the Italians did achieve a victory in the Trentino region (about 20 miles from the city of "Trento") on July 21 against the Austrians. Peace negotiations required that the Italians yield any gains in the area.

Next, the war ends....... (A Word History is below the notes)

* You can see the almost hopeless military situation for Austrian troops in Holstein, if any war developed between Austria and Prussia. You know what happens when you press two slices of bread against a layer of peanut butter and jelly......SQUISH!

** Remember, Italy and Prussia had an agreement to support one another in a war against Austria.

*** Russia siding with Austria would then have forced Prussia to divide its forces, just as Austria was already doing, due to the threat from Italy.

**** For those who have been following this series, you may recall Austria's long held desire for more territory in Silesia going back to the wars between Austria and Prussia when led by Maria Theresa and Frederick the Great, respectively.

WORD HISTORY:
Beer-The ultimate origin of this word is uncertain. Some linguists believe it came from Latin "bibere," meaning "to drink," which then went back to Indo European "po/poi," which then had a variant "bibo," which gave Latin "bibere," and the noun form "biber," meaning "a drink." The theory is that West Germanic borrowed the word from Latin, giving Anglo-Saxon "beor," although Anglo-Saxon (and Germanic generally) used the ancestral form of "ale" as a general word for "beer," in those times. Another theory has the word derived from Old Germanic "beuwoz," a form of which meant "barley." Still another theory has "beer" coming from Indo European "beus/bheus," which meant "sediment, yeast sediment," which then gave Old Germanic "biuzan" or "biuzaz," which meant "beverage made from yeast;" thus, "beer." To be honest, I don't know, as all are certainly possible; however, the word "beer" only appears in the Germanic languages (see other Germanic forms below), except for borrowings, so perhaps the last theory is correct, that it developed in Germanic. The Latin ancestor is possible, but the problem I have with it is, most sources cite a West Germanic borrowing during the 500s (A.D.). The Anglo-Saxons had already established themselves in Britain (what would be called 'England') by that time, and while they could have borrowed it from the continental Germanic relatives (or vice versa), that makes it a little more of a stretch. Anyway, Old English "beor" later became "ber/bere," before the modern spelling. German, Dutch, and West Frisian have "Bier/bier," all with similar pronunciations to the English form (the German form has a capital "B," as all modern German nouns are capitalized), Low German Saxon has "beer," and Icelandic has "bjór." Danish, Norwegian and Swedish all use a form of "ale" for their word for "beer."