In the mean time, while negotiations passed between all four Governments, the Prussians pushed forward until their outposts came within sight of Vienna. If in pursuance of General Moltke's plan the Italian generals had thrown a corps northeastward from the head of the Adriatic, and so struck at the very heart of the Austrian monarchy, it is possible that the victors of Koeniggraetz might have imposed their own terms without regard to Napoleon's mediation, and, while adding the Italian Tyrol to Victor Emmanuel's dominions, have completed the union of Germany under the house of Hohenzollern at one stroke. But with Hungary still intact, and the Italian army paralyzed by the dissensions of its commanders, prudence bade the great statesman of Berlin content himself with the advantages he could reap without prolongation of the war, and without the risk of throwing Napoleon into the enemy's camp. He had at first required, as conditions of peace, that Prussia should be left free to annex Saxony, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, and other North German territory; that Austria should wholly withdraw from German affairs; and that all Germany, less the Austrian Provinces, should be united in a federation under Prussian leadership.
To gain the assent of Napoleon to these terms, Bismarck hinted that France might by accord with Prussia annex Belgium. Napoleon, however, refused to agree to the extension of Prussia's ascendency over all Germany, and presented a counter-project, which in its turn was rejected by Bismarck. It was finally settled that Prussia should not be prevented from annexing Hanover, Nassau, and Hesse-Cassel, as conquered territory that lay between its own Rhenish Provinces and the rest of the Kingdom that Austria should completely withdraw from German affairs; that Germany north of the Main, together with Saxony, should be included in a federation under Prussian leadership; and that for the States south of the Main the right of entering into a national bond with the Northern League should be reserved.
Austria escaped without loss of any of its non-Italian territory; it also succeeded in preserving the existence of Saxony, which, as in 1815, the Prussian Government had been most anxious to annex.
Napoleon, in confining the Prussian Federation to the north of the Main, and in securing by a formal stipulation in the treaty the independence of the South German States, imagined himself to have broken Germany into halves, and to have laid the foundation of a South German League that should look to France as its protector. On the other hand, Bismarck by his annexation of Hanover and neighboring districts had added a population of four millions to the Prussian Kingdom, and given it a continuous territory; he had forced Austria out of the German system; he had gained its sanction to the federal union of all Germany north of the Main, and had at least kept the way open for the later extension of this union to the South German States.
Preliminaries of peace embodying these conditions and recognizing Prussia's sovereignty in Schleswig-Holstein were signed at Nicolsburg on July 26th, and formed the basis of the definitive treaty of peace, which was concluded at Prague on August 23d. An illusory clause, added at the instance of Napoleon, provided that if the population of the northern districts of Schleswig should by a free vote express the wish to be united with Denmark, these districts should be ceded to the Danish Kingdom.
Bavaria and the southwestern allies of Austria, though their military action was ineffective, continued in arms for some weeks after the Battle of Koeniggraetz, and the suspension of hostilities arranged at Nicolsburg did not come into operation in their behalf till August 2d. Before that date their forces were dispersed and their power of resistance broken by the Prussian generals Falckenstein and Manteuffel in a series of unimportant engagements and intricate manoeuvres. The city of Frankfort, against which Bismarck seems to have borne some personal hatred, was treated for a while by the conquerors with extraordinary and most impolitic harshness; in other respects the action of the Prussian Government toward these conquered States was not such as to render future union and friendship difficult.
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
– Hebrews 11:6