November Treaties
1870 treaties leading to unification of Germany
The November Treaties (German: Novemberverträge) were three treaties concluded during the Franco-Prussian War in November 1870 which laid the constitutional framework for the founding of the German Empire in January 1871. The treaties were between the North German Confederation under the leadership of the Kingdom of Prussia and the four remaining sovereign German states: the Grand Duchies of Baden and Hesse and the Kingdoms of Bavaria and Württemberg.
Background
Franco-Prussian War
During the course of the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), Prussia's military successes made the unification of Germany an increasing likelihood. After Prussia's 1866 victory over the Austrian Empire in the Austro-Prussian War, the German question of whether German unification would proceed with or without Austria had essentially been settled in favor of the Lesser Germany solution under Prussia's leadership. Chancellor Otto von Bismarck of the North German Confederation therefore pushed for the four sovereign south German states, which were not a part of the North German Confederation, to join it and complete the formation of a united Germany.
Positions of the south German states
The Grand Duchy of Baden was fully behind a Lesser German unification. Grand Duke Frederick I and Minister-President Julius Jolly voiced their desire to join on 3 September 1870. They had applied to join the North German Confederation in 1867 and again in the spring of 1870, but the North German Reichstag, at Bismarck's instigation, rejected their request on foreign policy considerations.
The Kingdom of Württemberg favored a Greater Germany that would include Austria. Under the influence of the Württemberg German Party, the cabinet of King Charles I sent an envoy to the German military headquarters in France on 12 September to conduct negotiations with the North German Confederation on unification.
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