ABSTRACT
Most of the Prussian provinces, with a population totalling 7.9 millions, were admitted to the Bund in 1818. The exclusion from the Bund of East and West Prussia and Posen, that is, of the areas bordering on Russia, awakened doubts whether in the event of war Prussia could count on the support of the Bund. Prussia had also to reckon with enemies inside Germany. The Catholic Rhinelanders, and the particularists in the many small pieces of territory which Prussia had received from the legacy of the old Reich, thought largely along the same lines and the South Germans were for the most part very anti-Prussian. Prussian tradition granted the army pride of place. The transformation of the old Prussia into a closely-knit economic unit brought excellent results, politically as well as economically. Prussian customs policy and the German Zollverein contributed decisively to the economic rise of Germany.
