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A heavily rural collection of states in 1815, the now united Germany became predominantly urban. In 1871, Germany had a population of 41 million people by 1913, this had increased to 68 million.

While Prussia was one of four kingdoms in the realm, it contained about two-thirds of the Empire's population and territory, and Prussian dominance was also constitutionally established, since the King of Prussia was also the German Emperor ( Deutscher Kaiser).Īfter 1850, the states of Germany had rapidly become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron (and later steel), chemicals, and railways. The German Empire consisted of 25 states, each with its own nobility, four constituent kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies (six before 1876), seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. As these events occurred, the Prussian-led North German Confederation and its southern German allies, such as Baden, Bavaria, Württemberg, and Hesse, were still engaged in the Franco-Prussian War. Berlin remained its capital, and Otto von Bismarck, Minister President of Prussia, became Chancellor, the head of government. The empire was founded on 18 January 1871, when the south German states, except for Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, joined the North German Confederation and the new constitution came into force on April 16, changing the name of the federal state to the German Empire and introducing the title of German Emperor for Wilhelm I, King of Prussia from the House of Hohenzollern.

The German Empire ( German: Deutsches Kaiserreich), also referred to as Imperial Germany, the Second Reich, or simply Germany, was the period of the German Reich from the unification of Germany in 1871 until the November Revolution in 1918, when the German Reich changed its form of government from a monarchy to a republic. Area and population not including colonial possessions.

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