 Complete the following phrase:  A confederated realm of German princedoms had been in existence for over a thousand years, dating to the Treaty of Verdun in 843. However, there was no German national identity in development as late as 1800, mainly due to the autonomous nature of the princely states; most inhabitants of the Holy Roman Empire, outside of those ruled by the emperor directly, identified themselves mainly with their prince, and not with the Empire as a whole. This became known as the practice of kleinstaaterei, or practice of small-statery. By the 19th century, transportation and communications improvements brought these regions closer together. The Empire was dissolved in 1806 with the abdication of Emperor Francis II during the 