This was the case of Prussia, a former duchy that in the early 1700s emerged from the shadow of Poland and the Holy Roman Empire. Growing to encompass much of northern and central Europe ...

Allied with France and Britain, Grand Duke Nicholas, the Russian commander, agreed to help relieve the French, under attack from Germany, with an offensive in East Prussia. This required mobility ...

Prussia's development as a successful, modern industrial state gave hope to German nationalists. Economically, unification through the Zollverein economic alliance of 1834 had been a success ...