Made in China: Austro-Prussian Overseas Rivalry and the Global Unification of the German Nation

摘要

German unification is commonly seen as the outcome of a series of European wars, with the Hohenzollern dynasty asserting its model of a German Empire against a Habsburg alternative. This paper examines a broader context for the achievement of unification by looking beyond Europe to the larger dimensions of the German national project. More specifically, it focuses on a particular phase of the unification narrative and integrates it into a new global history. A telling example of the ways in which European politics was played out globally is in the history of the Austrian and Prussian voyages to East Asia undertaken in the period 1857–1862. A close examination of these expeditions reveals the extent to which Austrian and Prussian elites were aware of the need to tread the world stage, even during times of instability and uncertainty at home. The projects of domestic unification and overseas expansion were closely intertwined.