German Confederation

German Confederation Deutscher Bund
1815–1866
Coat of arms (from 1848)
The German Confederation in 1820. The two major powers - the Austrian Empire (yellow) and the Kingdom of Prussia (blue) - were not totally enclosed by the confederation's borders (red)
Capital	Free City of Frankfurt
Presidency
Federal Assembly
History
• Established	June 8 1815
• Disestablished	August 23 1866
ISO 3166 code	DE
Preceded by Succeeded by Confederation of the Rhine Austrian Empire Kingdom of Prussia North German Confederation Austrian Empire Kingdom of Bavaria Kingdom of Württemberg Grand Duchy of Baden Grand Duchy of Hesse Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

The German Confederation replaced the Holy Roman Empire in Central Europe. After the Holy Roman Empire fell, Germany had fallen into over 350 different small kingdoms. In 1815, the Congress of Vienna decided that these weak kingdoms were not strong enough to keep France from trying to conquer them, which it had already done once under Napoleon. The Congress decided to keep the 39 larger countries that Napoleon had created in his Confederation of the Rhine. He joined all those little countries into 39 larger countries, which were still very small compared to the powerful countries of Europe.

The problem was that the Congress did not want to make them too strong, or they might conquer other countries. So they put the 39 countries into a confederation which meant that they were all separate countries, but they agreed to help defend each other, and in some ways acted like one big country. The Confederation would not be strong enough to attack another country; only strong enough to preserve the European balance of power.

The German Confederation lasted until 1866, when the members fought each other. The winners formed a new North German Confederation. In 1871 after winning the Franco-Prussian War, Otto von Bismarck, chancellor of Prussia, combined all the countries of Germany into the German Empire.