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In the mid-19th century, the two small duchies of Schleswig and Holstein are at the centre of not one, but two wars that will change the map of Europe. The rising forces of revolution and nationalism help pit Denmark against the German Confederation in 1848 and again in 1864 - it’s the Schleswig Wars. In 1815, the Napoleonic Wars came to an end, and the Treaty of Vienna created a new peaceful order in Europe – a new order that meant to reverse the French revolution and re-establish a Europe of kings and princes. Denmark and Norway were separated in the peace, leaving a smaller Danish kingdom. The old Holy Roman Empire was gone, and to replace it, the Powers created a complex German Confederation made up of independent German-speaking states, the largest of which were Austria and Prussia. But not all the Confederation members were German – the King of Denmark was also the Duke of Confederation duchies Holstein and Lauenburg. The King of Denmark also happened to be the Duke of Schleswig, which was not part of the Confederation but had a mixed German and Danish-speaking population. These three duchies also provided about half of the Danish Crown’s economic output – a recipe for trouble in an age of rising nationalism in Denmark and the German lands, especially Prussia. Although the Great Powers had defeated France and tried to erase the impact of French revolution, its ideas of modern nationalism and republican democracy won’t go away. In 1848, revolutions sweep across much of Europe – first in France, then in Italy, Poland, Hungary, the German Confederation and Denmark. The revolutionaries are a diverse group: some were liberals who wished to remove the autocracy of princes, others came from social movements demanding better conditions for the poor, while nationalists wanted nation states defined by common language or culture. All of these ideals clashed with the traditional power of kings and princes. In March 1848 the revolution breaks out in the German lands and Denmark. In Berlin, Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV’s troops open fire on protesters, killing 270, and Prussian troops also help other German states like Baden struggle against the uprisings. The Danish Unified Monarchy (a catchall name for the Kingdom of Denmark and the three independent duchies ruled separately by the Danish king) faces challenges from two directions. In Copenhagen, Danish nationalists want a more firmly defined Danish national state. They argue that Denmark ends at the Eider river, the border between the Danish-ruled independent Duchy of Schleswig and the Danish-ruled Duchy of Holstein, which is part of the German Confederation. The Eider Danes, as they call themselves, claim Schleswig is part of Denmark, while Holstein could remain separate. German nationalists in Schleswig and Holstein on the other hand take a different view. They insist that Schleswig-Holstein is a single entity that should entirely be within the German Confederation according to a 15th century document stating they were to be “undivided forever.” The intricacies of the problem...