The National Party was a national conservative and monarchist political party in Prussia which was active from 1836 to 1871. The National Party was founded by aristocrats, military officers, Protestant clergymen, and landed junkers who were staunch supporters of the declining absolute monarchy during the mid-19th century. The National Party was allied to the Conservative Party, but, unlike the Conservatives - who had broad appeal across all classes - the National Party initially only represented the elite of society, explaining its inability to gain support until the Age of Liberalism and the Revolutions of 1848 generated enough reactionary backlash to fuel the National Party's growth and success at the polls. The National Party took the leadership of right-wing coalition governments during the late 1840s and 1850s following the introduction of landed voting and a constitutional monarchy, which the National Party had initially opposed. Soon, the Nationals came to dominate around half of the Prussian Landtag, fuelled by fiery sermons by conservative preachers who stressed the need to return to Prussia's old traditions. The National-Conservative coalition led Prussia into successful wars with Denmark, the Austrian Empire, and the Second French Empire, resulting in the creation of the German Empire in 1871 and the dissolution of the Prussian parties at the regional level.
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