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| For thousands of years, the nation now
known as "Deutschland" has more often
been the object of history than its subject. Inhabitants of this
region beyond the Rhine have been variously designated "Germans", "Allemandes",
or "Nemtsi" by their neighbors.
Rarely united in a single state, the Germans have nevertheless had a
profound impact on European civilization. |
| The division of his empire
among Charlemagne's sons separated France from Germany, which degenerated
into an increasingly disunited set of principalities
— Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria, Saxony, Lorraine —
whose leaders vied for the title of Holy Roman Empire and competed
for influence in Italy. By the 15th century, the Austrian Hapsburgs
had come to dominate their fellow Germans. |
| The Protestant Reformation spawned the
Thirty Years War, which devastated German towns and countryside.
Prussia emerged as a rival to Austria by the end of the 17th century,
slowly enlarging its territory at the expense of its neighbors.
Napoleonic invasion further shuffled the German political deck, as the
Holy Roman Empire gave way to the German Confederation. |
| 19th-century German nationalism, coupled
with Prussian militarism, culminated in the establishment of the German
Empire in 1871. This economically and militarily powerful state
upset the European balance of power, leading to world war in 1914 and
again in 1939. Germany was again divided during the Cold War, with
the socialist eastern part reintegrated into the Federal Republic of
Germany only in 1990. |
We lived in the Rheinland-Pfalz from 1999 to 2002.
This page was last
updated 29 March 2005.
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