The 176th anniversary of the First Schleswig Holstein War is unremarkable, although with hindsight you can link it to the 80th anniversary of the Normandy Landings in June 1944.
The Victorians made humour of Schleswig Holstein framing a Question no one could answer. Lord Palmerston famously said only he and two others (a professor gone mad and the prince consort – now dead) new of it and he had forgotten what it was about….
The British might have done better to look closely at this first war, certainly the second war in 1864 and definitely a third war in 1866 that swept away Austria, while they should have worried in 1870 when the French Empire dissappeared. All these wars can be linked to one man – Otto Von Bismarck. Needless to say all this created the climate that ultimately enabled the subsequent two world wars in Europe.
It seems odd that the war which effectively kick started the Second Reich gets little notice today. Perhaps that is because the Germans or rather the Prussians most notably lost. Defeated by a regular mid nineteenth century Monarchy. The Danes were anything but united at the time and yet still managed to defeat the Prussians and the rebellious Schlieswig Holsteiners along with Saxons, Hanoverians and other North German Confederation members.
It was a short war and ended in steps, first Prussia withdrew – capitulating in 1848 – under the threat of a British Fleet in the Baltic (the Danes did not want it there either!) but more importantly a Russian Land and Sea invasion. The Russians sent a squadron into the western baltic to show support for the Danes.
The war then carried on despite conferences, conventions, truces and protocols: The nineteenth century was the peak for treaties and diplomatic events.
Peace eventually broke out and a final protocol was agreed by the major european powers. Crucially the German Diet refused to recognise this 1852 London Protocol, leaving the door open for a rejuvenated Prussia to resume its Danish interests in 1864.
The Wargaming Erratic 