While the core areas of the old Prussian state, East and West Prussia, lay outside the German Confederation, the newest part of the Kingdom, Rhineland-Westphalia, added by the Congress of Vienna, was separated from the rest of Prussia by the Kingdom of Hanover. These western areas were by the middle of the century proving to be a huge advantage to Prussia: traditionally a centre of manufacture and commerce, they were now undergoing rapid industrialization on a large scale.
