4.3 Italian and German Unification PDF

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CHY4UAdapted from Wikipedia 4 Italian and German UnificationLearning Goals Explain the forces of change and continuity.  By examining chronology, understand the process of change.Italian Unification Italian unification was the political and social movement that consolidated different states of th...

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CHY4U Adapted from Wikipedia 4.3 Italian and German Unification Learning Goals  Explain the forces of change and continuity.  By examining chronology, understand the process of change. Italian Unification  Italian unification was the political and social movement that consolidated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of the Kingdom of Italy in the 19th century.  The process began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and the end of Napoleonic rule, and ended in 1871 when Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.  At the time, the struggle for Italian unification was perceived to be waged primarily against the Austrian Empire and the Habsburgs, since they directly controlled the predominantly Italian-speaking northeastern part of present-day Italy and were, together, the most powerful force against unification. Challenges to Unification  The Austrian Empire vigorously repressed nationalist sentiment growing on the Italian peninsula, as well as in the other parts of Habsburg domains.  The Austrian diplomat Klemens von Metternich, an influential diplomat at the Congress of Vienna, stated that the word Italy was nothing more than "a geographic expression".  Those in favour of unification also faced opposition from the Holy See, particularly after failed attempts to broker a confederation with the Papal States.  Even among those who wanted to see the peninsula unified as one country, different groups could not agree on what form a unified state would take.  Three prominent figures in the unification movement were Giuseppe Mazzini, Count Camillo di Cavour, and Giuseppe Garibaldi. Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872)

 Giuseppe Mazzini was an Italian politician, journalist and activist for the unification of Italy.  Mazzini was an early advocate of a "United States of Europe" about a century before the European Union began to take shape. For him, European unification was a logical continuation of Italian unification.  1832: Giuseppe Mazzini founds "Young Italy", a society to make propaganda for the unification of the Italian nation as a democratic and class-free republic: "Our problem is, above all things, a problem of national education", that is, of persuading the peoples of the peninsula and the islands of Italy to regard themselves as a single nation. Count Camillo di Cavour (1810-1861)  Count of Cavour, generally known as Cavour, was an Italian statesman and a leading figure in the movement toward Italian unification.  He allied Piedmont, a powerful Italian state, with both France and Prussia against the Austrian Empire.  Both wars led to the gradual withdrawal of Austrian control in the Italian peninsula. Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882)  Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian general and politician who is considered one of Italy's "fathers of the fatherland".  He personally commanded and fought in many military campaigns that led eventually to the formation of a unified Italy.  He led the Expedition of the Thousand on behalf and with the consent of Victor Emmanuel II, in which he conquered the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Victor Emmanuel II of Italy (1820-1878)  Victor Emanuel II was king of Sardinia from 1849 until, on 17 March 1861, he assumed the title King of Italy to become the first king of a united Italy. German Unification

 The formal unification of Germany into a nation state officially occurred on 18 January 1871 at the Versailles Palace's Hall of Mirrors in France.  Princes of the German states gathered there to proclaim Wilhelm of Prussia as Emperor Wilhelm of the German Empire after the French capitulation in the Franco-Prussian War. Otto von Bismarck (1815 –1898)  Otto von Bismarck was a conservative Prussian statesman who dominated German and European affairs from the 1860s until 1890.  In the 1860s he engineered a series of wars that unified the German states (excluding Austria) into a powerful German Empire under Prussian leadership.  With that accomplished by 1871, he skillfully used balance of power diplomacy to preserve German hegemony in a Europe which, despite many disputes and war scares, remained at peace. German Unification Timeline  1801: Napoleon Bonaparte, self-crowned emperor of France, began his conquests of Germanic states east of the Rhine.  1806: Napoleon grouped the Germanic states into the Confederation of the Rhine as a French client-state.  1815: After the defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna reinstated the Germanic states into the German Confederation under the leadership of the Austrian Empire.  1819: The Carlsbad Decrees suppressed any form of panGermanic activities to avoid the creation of a 'German state'; the Kingdom of Prussia, however, initiated a customs union with other Confederation states.  1834: The Prussian-led custom union evolved into the Zollverein that included almost all Confederation states except the Austrian Empire.  1848: Revolts across the German Confederation, such as Berlin, Dresden and Frankfurt, forced the Prussian King Frederik Wilhelm IV to grant a constitution to the Confederation. In the meantime, the Frankfurt Parliament was set up in 1848 and attempted to proclaim a united Germany, but this was refused by Frederik Wilhelm IV.

 The question of a united Germany under the Kleindeutsch Solution (to exclude Austria) or the so-called Großdeutsch (to include Austria) began to surface.  1861: King Wilhelm I became King of Prussia and he appointed Otto von Bismarck as the Chancellor, who favoured a 'blood-andiron' policy to create a united Germany under the leadership of Prussia.  1864: Danish-Prussian War started as Prussia protested against Danish incoporation of Schleswig into the Kingdom of Denmark. The Austrian Empire was deliberately drawn into this war by Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Prussia. The Austro-Prussian victory led to Schleswig, the northern part, being governed by Prussia and Holstein, the southern part, being governed by Austria. (Treaty of Vienna (1864))  1866: Bismarck accused the Austrian Empire of stirring up troubles in Prussia-held Schleswig. Prussian troops drove into Austrian-held Holstein and took control of the entire state of Schleswig-Holstein. Austria declared war on Prussia and, after fighting the Austro-Prussian War (Seven Weeks' War), was swiftly defeated. The Treaty of Prague (1866) formally dissolved the German Confederation and Prussia created the North German Confederation to include all Germanic states except the proFrench, southern kingdoms of Bavaria, Baden and Württemberg.  1870: When the French emperor, Napoleon III, demanded territories of the Rhineland in return for his neutrality amid the Austro-Prussian War, Bismarck used the Spanish Succession Question and Ems Telegram (1868) as an opportunity to incorporate the southern kingdoms. Napoleon III declared war against Prussia.  1871: The Franco-Prussian War ended with Prussian troops capturing Paris, the capital of the Second French Empire. Bavaria, Baden, and Württemberg were incorporated into the North German Confederation in the Treaty of Frankfurt (1871). Bismarck then proclaimed King Wilhelm I, now Kaiser Wilhelm I, as leader of the new, united Germany (German Reich). With the German troops remaining in Paris, Napoleon III dissolved the French Empire and a new republic, Third French Republic, was created under Adolphe Thiers....