The Crowning of Wilhelm

   The German Empire was one of the most powerful nations in Europe at the turn of the Twentieth Century. Wilhelm The First's crowning was only made possible by the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, asserting the total power of the Prussian dominated North German Confederation. Tied with the economic connectivity of the German States, Germany was ready to become a unified nation. On 18 January 1871, Prussian King Wilhelm was pronounced Kaiser, of the German Empire at the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles.

   The French were made to suffer horribly under the terms of the first Treaty of Versailles, giving up Alsace Lorraine and having to pay an indemnity to Prussia which was to the same specifications as the indemnity Prussia had been made to pay Napoleon in 1807. German troops occupied Northern France until this indemnity was paid.

   At the end of the First World War, France did everything to destroy Germany. The German Empire was officially dissolved at it's birth place, the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles. The terms given to Germany in the second Treaty of Versailles were a direct cause of the Second World War. The correlation can be directly scene from the Napoleonic Wars, right up to the Second World War. All  of this is because of one nation, a nation that when it asserts its national identity, causes problems. this nation is Germany.