The North German Confederation was initially a German military alliance established in August 1866 under the leadership of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was transformed in the subsequent year into a confederated state that existed from July 1867 to December 1870. A milestone of the German Unification, it was the earliest continual legal predecessor of the modern German nation-state known today as the Federal Republic of Germany.
A 1867 German caricature showing Germania, the personification of the German nation, asking Otto von Bismarck (as a shepherd of the German states), to protect Luxembourg, who is threatened by Napoleon III (as a wolf) on the other side of the Rhine.
Denmark, war, Austria–Hungary, Prussia, North German Confederation, German Confederation, Second French Empire, Kingdom of Bavaria, Kingdom of Württemberg, Kingdom of Italy, Grand Duchy of Baden
French Third Republic, North German Confederation, German Empire, Kingdom of Württemberg, Kingdom of Bavaria, Grand Duchy of Baden, war, Second French Empire