| abstract
| - The background of the war goes back to the First European War where Prussia and Austria were thoroughly humiliated, and the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine brought into play a new and powerful enemy for both of them. As Prussia and Austria built up a new military in the decades that followed the First European War, the Confederation of the Rhine became more and more centralized in the terms of military. The Confederated Rhineland Army had been established in 1838 to create a single army for Confederation, and had been supported and built by the French Empire. The clear military build-ups in Germany began to increase political tensions between the neighboring powers. The Confederation then began to take step after step towards centralization, establishing central banks, taxation ministries, increased trades, and eventually pushed for a centralized federal government. The French Emperor, Napoleon III, gave up the French Emperor's position as Protector of the Confederation and handed power to the title of the Chief Minister of the Confederation to, then Prince-Primate of the Confederation, and King of Saxony, Frederick Augustus II of Saxony. As the new Chief Minister, Frederick built upon the the existing army, expanding the role of cavalry within it, and establishing a new system of conscription across the Confederation, and expanding its role as a military machine capable of offense as well as defense, something that seems threatening to both Prussia and Austria. The new Rhineland form of government was heavily supported by the Marseilles Pact, especially France, who found it useful now that they didn't have to keep soldiers inside the area to defend it. Their push for a central government then began to take a more serious push as John I of Saxony, Frederick's son, announced the creation of a national assembly for the Confederation government, which would be called the Reichstag (Imperial Diet). The elections for said government would be done in April 1857, and would result in a massive turnouts and resulted in a heavily conservative parliament, something Frederick highly approved of. And using this new conservative parliament, Frederick passed a new constitution, which separated the power of government between the Executive Prince-Primate, Legislative Reichstag, and a new federal judicial branch, the Supreme Constitutional Court, which would be brought into creation when its members were selected and approved by the government in 1858. And following this new constitution, would come a new series of military laws, outlining the federal structure of the national army, along with the beginning of a navy, to be built at Lübeck. Meanwhile, in the Austrian Empire, racial tensions grew between the ethnically-German Austrians and the Hungarians, who wanted independence from the Habsburg's rule. The Emperor, Ferdinand I, was extremely oppressive of the Hungarians, who knew if Austria were to go to war with the Confederation, it would be their time to strike. Ferdinand prepared his army for war, albeit with little reason to as of yet, he only prepared them for securing the border, making sure that if war were to come, Austria would be ready. But as Austria became torn up because its internal problems, external problems began to plague her sole, land-connected ally, the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1861, Wilhelm I was made King of Prussia, and he made a promise of revenge against the Confederation, he came to power in a time of trouble, as the rapidly arming Confederation proved a problem to the east, and the growth of the power within the country of Poland. However, in the public eye, Poland was a nation that could do nothing to raise their spirits, only defeating their German nemesis, the Confederation of the Rhine, would bring around public opinion. Like Austria, Wilhelm prepared his country for a coming war, as tensions rose between the two sides, and war seemed inevitable, so the Prussians began to prepare their massive army. When Prussia began to seem up in hopes as its economy was on the rise, Wilhelm declared war on the Confederation, and three days later, so did Austria.
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