Saturday, October 29, 2016

Germany



Proto-Germanic was spoken in the mid-first millennium BCE in Scandinavia. "Germanic" wasn't based on language, but was a general term the Romans used for those thought to be less civilised tribal groups living to their North. In the second century BCE, migrating Germanic Peoples came into conflict with Romans in Gaul, Italy and Hispania. Intense militarisation under Caesar began to deal with these Barbarians. In the absence of unification, these tribes remained largely free under hereditary leaders. Odoacer ended the Western Roman Empire in 476, becoming the first King of Italy. During the middle ages, the Holy Roman Empire developed as a multi-ethnic group of tribes and kingdoms with hundreds of sub-units, principalities, and free-imperial-cities. Germany only became a nation state in 1871, when the German states unified into the Prussian dominated German Empire. Germany became a Federal Republic when Kaizer Wilhelm, first cousin of the Tsar of Russia and King of England, grandson of Queen Victoria, abdicated in 1918.



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