On 18 January 1871, rulers and representatives from the various German principalities assembled in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles to proclaim King Wilhelm I of Prussia emperor of the Germans. German unification marked the conclusion of decades of debate on that nation's proper constitution. It also brought to a close a remarkable series of diplomatic and military triumphs for the Prussian state. Led by the Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, the Prussians had gone to war successfully against the Danes in 1864; against the Austrians, their main rivals for power within the German area, in 1866; and against the French, the main opponents of German unification on the Continent, in 1870. Intensive diplomatic preparation had preceded each of those wars, and shrewd diplomacy had followed each victory, paving the way for achievement of the ultimate objective: a united Germany dominated by Prussia.

During the same decade that Bismarck was planning and conducting that series of wars, a new and vibrant industry was taking shape in the German area; it became one of the power bases of the newly established German state. From 1871 until 1914, the new German organic chemical industry helped propel a tremendous burst of economic growth in the country.