History of the North Sea the North Sea though they saw little action. The Austro-Prussian War (1866) resulted in Prussia's gaining full control of the Kiel Canal, allowing their Baltic ports access to the North Sea. France declared war on Prussia 19 July 1870 which initiated the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871). The French Navy was, at the time far larger and superior to the North German Federal Navy, the Navy of the North German Confederation. Though the French did take a number of merchant ships bound to and from North Germany, shortages of manpower and coal, as well as conflicting orders, made the attempted blockade of
Geology of the Baltic Sea Silurian. At this time the Baltic sea basin and the East European Craton were part of a continent and tectonic plate known as Baltica. Baltica collided with the continent Laurentia in the Late Silurian and Early Devonian. This caused compression in the basin in a north-west to south-east direction. This collision further led to the formation of a fold and thrust belt and faults north of the Danish–North German–Polish Caledonides. During the Carboniferous and Permian the basin areas around Rügen and northern Poland were subject to the intrusion of magma. After the Permian there was little tectonic activity in the