was not invited to become part of this version of Lesser Germany. Joseph von Radowitz, adviser to the Prussian king and actual leader of the project, tried to bind Austria and the Union together in a confederation. Evolution after 1850 Austria rejected these attempts and made Prussia give up for the time being its union plans in late 1850. Except for Hungary, the Austrian Empire remained a part of the re-established German Confederation, while Prussia still tried to improve its position within the confederation and even cherished its union plans. Around 1860, the German question became dynamic again. Austria came out weakened by the Italian War of the previous year while Prussia sought to gain the approval of the national movement. Several proposals were made to reform the German Confederation, most notably in 1863 at the Frankfurter Fürstentag. At this moment, the networks of the political elites in Lesser Germany were already quite separate from the Austrian ones. In April and June 1866, Prussia proposed to convert the German Confederation into a federal state without Austria. Bavaria refused to become Prussia's junior partner in this project. But nevertheless Prussia sought the confrontation with Austria that was unwilling to accept Prussia as its equal within the confederation. The Austro-Prussian War of summer 1866 ended with a Prussian victory and the dissolution of the German Confederation. Prussia established a federal state in Northern Germany, called the North German Confederation, expanded through addition of the original Prussian nucleus (the East Prussia), as well as annexing into it the predominantly Polish-speaking Prussian-held share of Poland, namely the territories of Province of Posen, West Prussia and the Lauenburg and Bütow Land which were not included in its predecessor, the German Confederation. Although hailed as a German success at the time, the annexations were in fact a Pyrrhic victory, because along with the ensuing Germanisation, the Kulturkampf and the Prussian deportations, they alienated decisively and irrevocably the Polish majority living in these territories from the Hohenzollerns as well as eroded any confidence or loyalty of Poles towards the State of Prussia. In the peace treaty with Austria, and already before with France, Prussia promised not to expand the North German state to southern Germany. Austria still tried to be a player in the German question. In summer 1870, war broke out between France and the North German Confederation. The south German states were loyal to their