Austro‐PrussianWar (1866)

Abstract

The Austro‐Prussian War (1866) was a seven‐week conflict fought between Prussia and Italy on the one hand, and the Austrian Empire and a number of smaller German states on the other. The Prussian and Italian governments conspired to fight a war in order to increase their territorial possessions within Germany and Italy respectively, in both cases at the expense of their mutual rival Austria. The Prussians' victories secured the exclusion of Austria from Germany, which subsequently fell under Prussian domination. Similarly, although the Italians suffered defeats on both land and sea, they secured possession of Venetia and the exclusion of Austria from Italy, by virtue of being on the winning side. The war was therefore simultaneously one of a sequence of conflicts that brought about the unification of Germany, and one of a separate sequence of wars that secured Italian independence and unity. It was also important as a factor which contributed to the tipping of the balance of power in the Continent away from Paris, towards Berlin.