3 Wars to Unite Germany

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…e and helped to create fears, tensions and rivalries. The Franco-German War of 1870-71 established Prussia as the leading state in the imperial German Reich. William I of Prussia became German emperor on Jan. 18 1871; the Prussian army absorbed the other German armed forces, except the Bavarian army, which remained autonomous in peacetime. Bismarck combined the offices of imperial chancellor and Prussian minister-president, and Prussia's history merged largely into that of the German empire.