Towards the close of the eighteenth century Germany presented a spectacle of being a divided country. There existed over 300 small kingdoms which were ruled by petty kings.
It was Napoleon Bonaparte who for the first time combined these states into 38 states and thus paved the way for the ultimate unification of Germany in the seventies of nineteenth century. After the downfall of Napoleon the liberal Germans looked forward to German unification but their hopes were completely shattered by the reactionary settlement at Vienna in 1815.
The reactionary leaders at Vienna created a Confederation of 39 German states under the presidency of Austria. It also created a Federal Diet consisting of representatives of all the 39 states under the Presidentship of Austria. Thus the Vienna Settlement sought to crush the national sentiments of the Germans.