Mönchengladbach and Dortmund become Prussian

The Congress of Vienna awards new territories in the Rhineland to Prussia

Convened in 1814/15 to establish the post-war European order after the defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna decided to compensate Prussia for the loss of many of its eastern lands by giving it new territories in the west, predominantly along the Rhine and Ruhr rivers. This not only shifted the centre of Prussian political gravity westwards, but the large deposits of raw materials in the new territories later established it as a leading industrial power.

Prussia’s main competitor for the leadership of Germany, the Habsburg Empire, was also awarded new territory, but mostly in non-German-speaking areas. This signalled the likelihood that Austria could be squeezed out of any future German political settlement and set the German nation on the path to a “small German” solution to the “German question”. These changes played out in 1871: a united Germany under Prussian leadership that excluded Austria.