First Schleswig War - Background

Background

At the beginning of 1848, Denmark contained the Duchy of Schleswig, Duchy of Holstein and Saxe-Lauenburg, where the majority of the ethnic Germans in Denmark lived. Germans made up a third of the country's population, and the three duchies were behind a half of Denmark's economic power. The Napoleonic Wars, which ended in 1815, had increased Danish and German nationalism. Pan-German ideology had become highly influential in the decades prior to the war outbreak and writers such as Jacob Grimm argued that the entire Peninsula of Jutland had been populated by Germans in before the arrival of the Danes and that there it could justifiably be reclaimed by Germany. These claims were countered in pamphlets by Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae, an archaeologist who had excavated parts of Danevirke, who argued that there was no way of knowing the language of the earliest inhabitants of Danish territory, that Germans had more solid historical claims to large parts of France and England, and that Slavs by the same reasoning could annex parts of Eastern Germany.

The conflicting aims of Danish and German nationalists was a cause behind the First Schleswig War. Danish nationalists believed that Schleswig, but not Holstein, should be a part of Denmark, as Schleswig contained a large number of Danes, whilst Holstein did not. German nationalists believed that Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg should remain united, and their belief that Schleswig and Holstein should not be separated led to the two duchies being referred to as Schleswig-Holstein. Schleswig was a particular source of contention, as it contained a large number of Danes, Germans and North Frisians. Another cause of the war was the illegal introduction of a royal law in the duchies.

When King Christian VIII of Denmark died in January 1848, and seeing that his only legitimate son, the future Frederick VII, was apparently unable to beget heirs the duchies could have gone under the rule of the House of Oldenburg, which might have resulted in a division of Denmark. As a result, a royal law was decreed in the duchies that would allow a female relative of Christian VIII to assume control. The implementation of this law was illegal.