this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2026
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Explanation: In the Medieval and Early Modern period, the area we now know as Germany was home to a... staggering variety of independent polities.
... it would take quite some time for them all to be sorted out and put under one flag.
Fighting the French did help a lot
Hatred of the French brings people together.
Interacting with France is the gateway drug to country-hood.
Nothing quite like the mutual desire to not be french for making friends.
Acshually briefly being governed by a certain french gentleman helped a lot more.
You're right. Bonaparte is the common factor of every European country's journey to unification, except the UK of course
It usually does, no matter the context.
Why didn't Bohemia, the largest polity, not simply eat the other polities?
too busying creating the RHAPSODY?
We ate Moravia, the second largest, so there's that.
The smaller polities can ally.
Also, a single small polity can be relatively powerful based on its wealth and population density. It can also have local defensive advantages.
Ostwald wasn't born yet
Because reality is not Europa Universalis.