Article IV
His Majesty the Emperor of Austria recognises the dissolution of the present German Confederation and grants his permission to a new design of Germany without the participation of the Austrian Imperial State. Likewise, His Majesty promises to recognise the narrower federal relationship that the King of Prussia will form north of the line of the River Main, and declares to agree that the German states lying to the south of this line will join each other in a Union, to whom the national connection to the North German Confederation of the close understanding between both will be reserved and that will have an internationally independent existence.
However that is disingenuous. As the overwhelming victor, Prussian King Wilhelm I (with the advice and counsel of BismarkBismarck) is dictating the terms. So with an undenied interest, realized just five years later, of uniting all Germany, why do Wilhelm and BismarkBismarck in 1866 require the exclusion of the (Catholic) South German states? It's complicated:
Despite being in negotiations to end a current war with the Austrian Empire, BismarkBismarck wants an alliance with Austrian Empire going forward -— against France. He just wants them excluded ( NoteNote "grants his permission to a new design of Germany without the participation of the Austrian Imperial State." above) from the German ConfederationsConfederation. To this end the terms of the Treaty are very lenient, allowing them to save face.
Another means of allowing the Austrian Emperor to save face is by coercing them to cede Venetia -— the last remaining piece of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia -— to France and not Italy.
Article II
In order to execute Article VI of the peace preliminaries agreed in Nikolsburg on 26 July this year, and after His Majesty the Emperor of the French has administrively declared to His Majesty the King of Prussia through his certified messenger at Nikolsburg on 29 July: „qu'en ce qui concerne le Gouvernement de l'Empereur, la Vénétie est acquise á l'ltalie pour lui étre remise á la paix",4 - His Majesty the Emperor of Austria from his side also accedes to this declaration, and grants his permission to the unification of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom with the Kingdom of Italy without any other annoying condition, as a liquidation of all debts, which adhering to the ceded territories, will be recognised, in agreement with the stipulations of the Treaty of Zürich.
But BismarkBismarck holds a secret protocol with France that Napoleon III will in turn cede this territory to Italy.
- To guarantee that France (who "supports" Italian unification while continuing to maintain a French garrison in Rome, denying Italy its capital.) will keep its secret protocol, BismarkBismarck in turn makes the promise -— in exchange also for French neutrality in this just concluded war -— that:
Also in A. J. P. Taylor's The Courses of German History (1945), page 124:
In 1866 Bismark was not ready for war against France, and he agreed to give the German states south of the the Main 'an internationally independent existence'. These states had no power or reality. They were just as much conquered as the states north of the Main. But they survived four more years under the shadowy protection of Napoleon's palsied hand. Bismark was in no hurry. He had to create, almost single-handed the North German Confederation; and the outbursts of national enthusiasm which followed the events of 1866 stirred up his fears of German radicalism.
In 1866 Bismarck was not ready for war against France, and he agreed to give the German states south of the the Main 'an internationally independent existence'. These states had no power or reality. They were just as much conquered as the states north of the Main. But they survived four more years under the shadowy protection of Napoleon's palsied hand. Bismark was in no hurry. He had to create, almost single-handed the North German Confederation; and the outbursts of national enthusiasm which followed the events of 1866 stirred up his fears of German radicalism.
