Abstract:

This study aims to analyze the relationship between the establisment of German National Unity and the Zollverein, continuing its existence until 1919 after being founded in 1834 under the leadership the Kingdom of Prussia. Since there is not even a descriptive research in the Turkish literature related to the subject, the study deals with the subject by comparing two different views by analyzing the historical events in a chronological order. According to the first view, the establishment of German national unity is based on the military and operational genius of Prussian military staff, especially Bismarck. According to this idea, German national unity was able to be founded thanks to the military and political moves of Prussian staff, especially Bismarck who managed to use it effectively both politically and militarily since the second half of 19th century. However, the opposing view states that the foundation of the union and Prussia's taking a leading role was laid with the Zollverein. According to this idea, the Zollverein enabled Prussia to establish economic leadership over the other German states and helped it to acquire political leadership over time. The study is a qualitative research, in which the opinions of experts were reached through archive scanning and the analysis was made accordingly. It has been found that Zollverein undertook an important mission by contributing to industrialization, but the main factor in the establishment of German national unity was the military, operational and political actions implemented by the Prussian staff.

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