How old is germany as a country

It derived its initial name from the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar who named the areas east of the Rhine River as Germania , based on the fact that he was yet to conquer them. The collapse of that empire led to the formation of the German Federation in In Prussia defeated Austria and their rallied allies, putting an end to the influence of Austria in Germany which had lasted since the 15th century. This victory facilitated the formation of the North German Federation led by Prussia.

This was followed by three victorious wars against Denmark, the Hapsburg monarchy, and France. The lakes and wetlands along Germany's coastlines are important stopover points for many migrating birds. The government has set up reserves for the birds' protection. West Germany recovered to become Europe's richest country, but East Germany, under communist control, fell far behind. After reunification in , Germany spent billions of dollars to modernize the East.

Humans settled in northern Europe about 10, years ago, after the end of the last Ice Age. The first people to speak a language similar to modern German probably lived in the area about 5, years ago. It was still thousands of years, though, before Germany was created. Early Germany was a patchwork of small states ruled by dukes and kings. But in , the country was united, through force and alliances, by a politician named Otto von Bismarck.

In the late 19th century Germany began competing with other European countries to set up colonies in Africa and Asia.

These tensions led to World War I in , the worst conflict the world had ever seen. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party came to power in promising to make Germany great again. During the war, Hitler created camps in Germany where millions of Jewish people and others were murdered.

The war ended in with the Germans' defeat and Hitler committing suicide. The Soviets reacted quickly to the action in West Germany. These actions in marked the end of any talk of a reunified Germany. In , with Soviet strength ebbing and the Communist Party in East Germany steadily losing its grip on power, East and West Germany were finally reunited as one nation.

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As head of the Waffen-Schutzstaffel the military arm of the Nazi He requested, however, that the Secretary formally notify him of the intentions of the U. Government concerning the question of the recognition of the North German Confederation. This exchange between Seward and Bancroft implicitly signified a formal recognition of the North German Confederation by the United States.

Following the establishment of the German Empire on January 18, , the United States recognized the new German Empire by changing the accreditation of its Minister to Prussia to become Minister to the German Empire. On April 8, , U. President Ulysses S. Grant dated March 16, The letter from the President congratulated the Emperor on his assumption of the German throne and recognized him as the head-of-state of a federal Germany.

On February 3, , U. President Woodrow Wilson had severed diplomatic relations with Germany, that the U. Ambassador in Berlin James W. Gerrard had been withdrawn, and that the U. Following a series of attacks against American merchant ships on the high seas by German U-boats, on February, 24, , the U. On April 2, U. The history of the establishment of recognitions and relations, where applicable between the United States and the German states impacted several different areas of policy, including:.

Trade and Commerce. Although the Napoleonic period stunted the growth of industrialization in the German states during the early nineteenth century, by the s and s the industrialization process was underway, especially in areas such as Westphalia, the Rhineland, and Upper Silesia. It was also during this time that the first railways were built in the German lands, thus facilitating the transportation of goods to and from the main ports of Hamburg and Bremen.