[Burkeman1]

Germany was not a "collection of tribes" before 1900. It was a system of principalities that made up the bulk of the Holy Roman Empire for hundreds of years. Tribalism had been dead in Germany for about a thousand years by 1900. The Franco- Prussian war of 1871 gave Prussia predominace among the weak states of Germany and unification came about 15 years later (before 1900).

[Verginius Rufus]

Actually, German unification was completed during the Franco-Prussian War: Wilhelm I was proclaimed German emperor on January 18, 1871, at Versailles, while the German armies were besieging Paris. The French National Assembly accepted the terms of peace March 1, 1871, and the peace treaty was signed May 10, 1871.