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| History of Germany |
Around the year 200 A.D. the Franks established the first settlements along the river Rhine. 600 years later Charlemagne created the Frankish kingdom which included modern Germany. Frank domination of Germany continued till the 14th century when the Austrians began to dominate this area.
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In the following years events like the Reformation and other feligious conflicts took place here. It was in the year 1740 that prussia emerged as the most powerful state in Germany under the regin of king Fredrick the Great. In the year 1850 the Germany formed a confederation to unit the 39 states in Germany. This unification attempt was not very successful. In the year 1871 Otto Bismarck; a great politician and chancellor of Prussia, successfully united Germany and made it a republic.
Under his control Germany became a dominating power in Europe. In the following years Germany and Austria fought and Russians, British and French alliance in World War-I. The war ended in 1918 and the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919. This treaty impsed a lot of restrictions on Germany and the economy was badly hit. The country went through a period of depression and by 1931 the situation became bad. In 1933 the Nazi party led by Adolf Hitler came into power. The party became stronger in the following years and in 1939 the Nazis invaded rest of Europe thus initiating Word War-II.
The war lasted till 1945 and in this period Hitler took control of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Franch, Belgium, Netherlands, Northern Africa, etc. Millions of Jews were herded into concentration camps and murdered. Fighting against the Germans was the alliance of Britain, America and the then Soviet Union. In the year 1945 the Germans were defeated and Germany was divided in two parts, the East under Soviet control and the West with the Allies. It was only as late as 1989 that Germany was reunited as a nation.
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