Germany
Germany for many centuries a collection of small states, power centers. It became unified in 1871. Germany located between France and Russia, and has fought with both nations as it attempted to expand its borders.
Germans are of mixed racial origins. In northern Germany are characteristic of the blonde Nordic racial type. In central and southern Germany people are of Alpine race, with traces of Celtic background.
German people speak a common language, with many different dialects and traditions. Although schools teach a standard form of language called High German, and most Germans use it for writing and reading, many people speak local dialects in everyday life. Religions vary from one area to another.
The Romans called the Teutonic warriors of Northern Europe Germani. These tribes migrated south and west they clashed with Romans.
113 BC German tribes known as the Cimbri and Teutoni, began invading the Mediterranean regions.
102 & 101 BC The Roman general Gaius Marius defeated the Cimbri and Teutoni.
55 & 53 BC Julius Ceaser crossed the Rhine to stop invasions.
9 AD the Germans under Arminius destroyed Quinctilius Varus's army . Augustus decided not to conquer Germany. the Limes Germanicus fortifications were built to keep out the German tribes. The Roman empire went into decline, and the German tribes began migration. The Franks crossed the Rhine into France, Goths migrated to the Balkans. The Alemanni moved into Rhineland. Burgundians and Vandals into the Main River valley.
In the 4th century Huns from Asia came into Europe. They defeated the Ostrogoths, or East Goths, and drove back the Visigoths, or West Goths. They invaded the Rhineland and Gaul. In the Middle Ages, German barbarians occupied and controled the western Roman Empire. These tribes accepted Christianity and adopted much of Roman culture.
Some of the tribes were:
Frisians- Between Netherlands and Denmark.
Saxtons- Between the Rhine and Elbe rivers.
Thuringians- Central Germany.
Alemanni- upper Rhine in Swabia.
Franks - lower Rhine.
486 AD at Soissons, Clovis extended Frankish rule over northern Gaul.
772 AD Charlemagne began a campaign that gave the kingdom covered most of Western Europe.
800 AD the pope crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
814 AD Charlemagne died.
843 AD The Treaty of Verdun in 843 divided Charlemagne's empire into three parts.
(1)Louis the German acquired the eastern part, which became Germany.
(2)Charles the Bald ruled the west, which became France.
(3)Lothair obtained the middle part.
Under feudalism Germany was cut into five tribal, or Stamm, duchies--
(1)Saxony
(2)Franconia
(3)Bavaria
(4)Swabia
(5)Lorraine
911 AD Carolingian rule of Germany ended. Conrad I of Franconia was the first German king.
919 to 936 Henry I was ruler thus starting the Saxon House.
936 -973 The strongest Saxon king was Otto I the Great. He revived the Holy Roman Empire, which did not include France.
1024 AD The Franconian (Salian) House was elected to rule. Soon after the empire began to come apart by the strugle between Henry IV & Gregory VII.
1138 to 1254, the chief rulers were Frederick I (Barbarossa) and Frederick II. Wars and feudalism destroyed the empire. The land were split into hundreds of smaller powers. The Hanseatic League for one
1254 to 1273 AD electors could not agree on an emperor. Then Pope Gregory X forced the electors to name Rudolph of Hapsburg emperor.
1356 AD Charles IV issued a proclamation, known as the Golden Bull, that gave to seven electors the right to elect the emperor.
During the rule of Charles V, Martin Luther led the Reformation, the religious revolt against the Roman Catholic church.
1555 The Peace of Augsburg gave each German prince the right to choose Catholicism or Lutheranism.
The religious struggle continued in the Thirty Years' War, which devastated Germany.
The Peace of Westphalia made the empire a loose confederation of princes.
During the war Prussia began its rise to power under the Hohenzollern family. Frederick William I created a military state.
Frederick II son of Frederick I made Prussia a leading power of Europe.
1756 to 1763 Frederick II seized Silesia from Austria in the Seven Years' War, and annexed part of Poland.