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By 1900, Germany was the dominant power on the European continent and its rapidly expanding industry had surpassed Britain's while provoking it in a naval arms race. Germany led the Central Powers in World War I, but was defeated, partly occupied, forced to pay war reparations, and stripped of its colonies and significant territory along its ...
The first nation state named "Germany" began in 1871; before that Germany referred to a geographical entity comprising many states, much as "the Balkans" is used today, or the term "America" was used by the founders of "the United States of America".
Germany, [e] officially the Federal Republic of Germany, [f] is a country in Central Europe.It lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen constituent states have a total population of over 82 million in an area of 357,596 km 2 (138,069 sq mi), making it the most populous member state of the European Union.
World map of Waldseemüller (Germany, 1507), which first used the name America (in the lower-left section, over South America) [1]. The earliest known use of the name America dates to April 25, 1507, when it was applied to what is now known as South America. [1]
German Americans were drawn to colonial-era British America by its abundant land and religious freedom, and were pushed out of Germany by shortages of land and religious or political oppression. [13] Many arrived seeking religious or political freedom , others for economic opportunities greater than those in Europe, and others for the chance to ...
Meanwhile, Yankees from New England started moving in, as did immigrants from Germany. New York City attracted a large polyglot population, including a large black slave population. [60] New Jersey began as a division of New York, and was divided into the proprietary colonies of East and West Jersey for a time. [61]
The English term Germans is derived from the ethnonym Germani, which was used for Germanic peoples in ancient times. [7] [8] Since the early modern period, it has been the most common name for the Germans in English, being applied to any citizens, natives or inhabitants of Germany, regardless of whether they are considered to have German ethnicity.
Groß-Friedrichsburg, a Brandenburg colony (1683–1717) in the territory of modern Ghana. Germans had traditions of foreign sea-borne trade dating back to the Hanseatic League; German emigrants had flowed eastward in the direction of the Baltic littoral, Russia and Transylvania and westward to the Americas; and North German merchants and missionaries showed interest in overseas engagements. [4]