North German Federation
In 1860 Prussia together with all the northern States in Germany formed the North German Federation. They quickly began expanding and seized Schleswig- Holstein from the Danish after only 2 months of fighting. Bismarck then turned his eyes toward west and declared war on the Netherlands and the Belgian Empire. After 6 months of fierce fighting the North German flag was shown in Amsterdam and the Dutch surrendered and switched side. As the Germans invaded Belgium the French declared war on the Germans and allied themselves with the Belgians because they wanted to keep Belgium as a buffet between the two countries but France still weak from the Napoleon era was no match for the well trained and well equipped Germans and 2 years after the war started the four nations signed a peace treaty that said that both Belgium and the Netherlands was to be absorbed into the North German Federation. The French had to demobilize their army and pay war debts to Germany and promise not to have an army bigger than 200 000 men.
After the success against the French and the Low Countries the North German Federation turned their eyes south towards the minor States of southern Germany. The states sensing the danger quickly joint forces and formed the Bavarian Coalition named after the biggest state in the Coalition.
In 1870 the North Germans invaded the Bavarian Coalition. At first the North Germans seemed unstoppable and was quickly reaching the capitol of the Coalition, Munich. Since the start of the war the Bavarians had been negotiating with Austrian. And when the North Germans reached Munich after 7 months of fighting the Bavarians got desperate and signed a contract stating that the Austrian will receive Military Passage and that Austria will have their representatives in the Bavarian Coalitions Reichtag. The Bavarians pretty much gave up their freedom for the next 100 years.
Munich was lost before the Austrian troops reached the front but they fierce fighting broke loose as the Austrians started to push back the tired North German troops. 1 year after the fall of Munich the Austrian troops reached the outskirts of Munich and was treated as liberated. The Austrians kept pushing and another 1½ year later they were reaching the original border of Bavaria and North German Federation. Otto von Bismarck then realised the war was over and send a messenger to the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph asking for a cease fire. Franz Joseph accepted it and in 1874 Bismarck and Franz Joseph signed a peace treaty in the town of Nurnberg in Bavaria.
The North Germans were to take the full responsibility of the war and pay war debts to both Bavaria and Austria; they would also give up all their big cannons and war ships to the Austrians. At last they would release one of their union states, Saxony, as an independent state which would serve as a buffet between North German Federation and Austria and to some extend Bavaria.
Even though The North Germans lost the war the Bavarians had been the true looser of the war, they’d lost the most men but more importantly they’d lost their freedom to the Austrians. The Bavarian Coalition was no more than an Austrian puppet.
Since the defeat against the Austrians the North Germans have been longing for payback. Now, 62 years, later the North Germans are more than ready to take revenge. Will Bavaria join forces against Austria or will they honor their agreement they signed in despair more than 60 years ago?