Austro-Prussian War

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    The second of the three major wars that led to the creation of Germany as a single state. It was provoked by rivalry between Prussia and the residual Habsburg power over supremacy in Germany, the Habsburgs claiming authority based on tradition dating from the days of the Holy Roman Empire, and Prussia based on its claim to be The Champion of German Nationalism. As with the Franco-Prussian War, there are claims that Otto von Bismarck the Chancellor of Prussia deliberately provoked it, but that is unclear. However, it is clear that the authorities in Prussia, notably Bismarck and von Moltke (the German chief of staff), were expecting it for a long time.

    The Prussian army under von Moltke was able to mobilize faster then the Austrians due to the skillful use of their railroad and telegraph network. This allowed them to take the risk of deploying on what is called exterior lines(that is curved away from their own base to partially surround the enemy and be on his exterior with him on the interior) and converging on the Austrians to cut off the retreat of much of their army. Traditionally, other things being equal having the interior is an advantage because there is a shorter march to any given point. However von Moltke had carefully spaced the army to be able to unite together whenever needed. Doing this, the Prussians were able to bring the Austrian forces to battle at the field of Sadowa (also referred to as Königgrätz) surrounding and destroying large parts of the Habsburg forces.

    In the meantime Italy had declared war on Austria in coordination with Prussia. This did not go quite as well, Italy suffering several defeats including Lissa, which must be the only naval victory credited to Austria. The Italian front however did not affect the main issue which was the fighting in Germany. Prussia came off a winner by a long shot and was ready to begin the founding of Imperial Germany.


    Austro-Prussian War provides examples of the following tropes:

    Depictions in fiction
    • A preview of an arc about the war has shown up in Axis Powers Hetalia, focusing on the embodiments Austria and Prussia, along with possibly Hungary's historic involvement in it.