During the 18th century, King Frederick I of Prussia set about melding a powerful professional army that his successor, Frederick ‘the Great’ II, would utilise during a series of wars. His aim was to expand the kingdom through conquest, such as in Silesia, and buoy its economy to raise the aspirations of its people. The growing power of Prussia threatened rival Austria, sparking repeated wars between the two central European powers. During the Napoleonic Wars, the Prussians had become acutely aware of the need for a general staff capable of developing military plans to achieve the kingdom's war aims – this was duly established in 1809.
In the wake of Napoleon's defeat, the rivalry between Austria and Prussia heated up again. When King William I took the crown in 1861, he appointed ministers who were just as determined as he was to replace Austria as the champion of the German states. Since its foundation in the early 19th century, Austria had dominated the German Confederation, which consisted of nearly three dozen lesser German states.
Through the machinations of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Germany deliberately provoked Austria. By employing Prussian Chief of General Staff Helmuth von Moltke's strategy of surrounding the enemy and defeating him in a kesselschlacht, literally translated as cauldron battle, the Prussians vanquished the Austrians on 3 July 1866.
The Congress of Vienna reset the expanded French borders to the 1792 level, reverting to the pre-war consensus. However, during the first half of the 19th century, the French gradually slid back toward an
