The German Question, Part Forty-Nine

"Bismarck" Part Three/A- "The Day Of Reckoning"

The events prior to, and during the "Austro-Prussian War" ("Der Deutsche Krieg," in German, "the German War"), were far more complex than what I'll write about here.

Bismarck saw an opportunity for Prussia to place Austria in a sort of military vise grip. With a newly united Italy still desiring certain Italian majority provinces that were controlled by Austria, Bismarck made a pact with the Italians. The pact essentially committed Prussia and Italy to assist each other in any war either had with Austria; a war that seemed more likely to start between Italy and Austria, at that time. Earlier, Bismarck secured French neutrality in any conflict between Prussia and Austria,* with France's "Napoleon III" believing that any war between the two German states could only benefit France's territorial desires along the western areas of the German states (like Luxembourg), and further, he believed that Austria would defeat Prussia in any war.**

Prussia enjoyed several advantages over Austria. The Prussian army was large, well trained, well led, well equipped***, had a significant number of well trained reservists, and individual regiments had their personnel located close by, for quick mobilization. By this time, 1866, railways had developed throughout the German states, although somewhat unevenly, but Prussia's railways were especially well developed, giving Prussia's army the ability to quickly move troops from one location to another, and then to also quickly supply those troops. On the other hand, Austria faced the prospect of a two-front war; against Prussia in the north, and against Italy in the south. Further, the unrest of her many non-German subjects, and their resentments, made many of Austria's infantry units, where there were numerous non-Germans, a bit suspect in terms of reliability. Austria's cavalry and artillery forces, however, were renowned for their prowess. The threat of unrest also made the Austrians choose to keep many military personnel far from their regimental commands in an attempt to prevent armed organized uprisings. This meant it took time for Austria to mobilize its army, as many troops had to travel considerable distances to join their units, and Austria's railways were somewhat less well developed in certain parts of her vast territories than Prussia's.

To be continued.... (A Word History is below the notes)

* France was ruled by Napoleon's nephew, "Napoleon III." Bismarck and Napoleon III had a one-on-one meeting, at which time Bismarck secured France's neutrality.

** Luxembourg was a member of the German Confederation and the Zollverein (the Customs Union, led by Prussia), close to Prussian territory, and actually had, at times, Prussian troops stationed there. Any Prussian defeat could have helped France in their desire for Luxembourg. France also was interested in Belgium.

*** Prussia's infantry were equipped with bolt-action, breech-loading guns, which allowed their infantry to lie down and fire, making them more difficult targets. They could also fire at a faster rate than Austria's muzzle-loading guns, which pretty much required infantrymen to stand to reload. While the Austrian military leaders saw the effectiveness of the Prussian guns during their joint-effort with Prussia in the war with Denmark, they seemingly did not grasp the significance of the more modern gun, or Austria's strained financial resources may have forced them to abandon any plan to re-equip, as thousands of new guns would have been costly.

WORD HISTORY:
Stone (Stein)-For those of you who have been following this series on the Germans, you probably have noticed my tendency to do words which were borrowed into English from German, or words that we associate with Germans. While "stone" was NOT borrowed, its Germanic ancestor also gave German "Stein," which besides having the same meaning as the English word, also means "stone/ceramic beer mug," but only in certain regions of the German-speaking world. It is a shortened form of German "Steingut," or "stoneware." "Stein" is a word very much present in English. It is perhaps more prevalent in American English from the large number of German immigrants who came here.

This word goes back to Indo European "stai," which meant "stone." (Note of interest: It also had the meaning, perhaps the original meaning, of "hard substance, solidity," which gave some of our more distant relatives; that is, further down the "family tree," words associated with that concept, such as Greek "stear" which means "tallow;" that is "solidified fat," and Latin "stiria," which means "icicle." The Old Germanic offshoot was "stainaz," which then gave Old English "stan," with a long "a" sound, unlike the modern short form for "Stanley." Later it was spelled "ston," before acquiring its modern form. The verb form, as in "to stone someone to death," developed in English during the 1100s. It is VERY much present in the Germanic languages: as noted above, German has "Stein," Low German has both "steyn" and "steen," Dutch has "steen," Frisian has "stien," Danish and Swedish both have "sten," Norwegian has "stein," and Icelandic has "steinn." The term "Stone Age" originated in the 1830s from Danish archeologist Christian Jürgensen Thomsen.