Transcript German and Italian Unification

German
and
Italian
Unification
Divided Italy
 Following the Revolution of 1848, the
Risorgimento seemed a distant dream.
 Italy remained divided into three main
parts:
 Kingdom of the Two Sicilies – ruled by
Bourbon monarch.
 Pope ruled the Papal States.
 In the North, Sardinia-Piedmont was ruled
by the House of Savoy; Tuscany, Modena
and Parma were dominated by Austria while
Venice and Lombardy were part of the
Austria Empire.
Count Camillo Cavour (1810-1861)
 Born of nobility, he became
a liberal early in his career.
 In 1848, he was elected to
the new Piedmontese
Parliament and rose
through the ranks.
 King Victor Emmanuel II
(r. 1849-1878) appointed
him premier in 1852.
Count Camillo Cavour
 Cavour quickly instituted a program of
liberal reforms, hoping to discredit
Austrian tyranny and creating a united
North Italian state.
 He reformed the currency and finance
systems.
 Balanced the state budget.
 He modernized railroads and factories.
 He established banks.
Piedmont – Austrian War
 Cavour sought alliance with France to help
deal with Austria.
 Piedmont sends troops to the Crimea.
 Napoleon III agrees to deal with Cavour.
 Provides French troops to fight against Austria.
 Piedmont would gain Lombardy and Venetia.
 France would gain Savoy and Nice.
 Cavour provokes Austria into war in April
1859.
Piedmont – Austrian War
 Austria attacked, but were turned back by
the Piedmontese and the French at the
Battles of Magenta and Solferino.
 Napoleon III made a separate peace with
Austria (Peace of Villafranca), giving
Lombardy to Piedmont but retaining
Venice.
 Cavour resigned in disgust, but returned
in 1860 when revolutionary assemblies
across northern Italy moved to join with
Piedmont.
Revolution in Southern
Italy
 Revolution broke out in Southern Italy in
1860 against Bourbon Francis II.
 Guiseppe Garibaldi sailed south with
1000 Red Shirts to Sicily to support the
revolt, taking Palermo.
 In August, they crossed to the Italian
mainland, Francis II fled.
 On Sept. 7, Garibaldi took Naples.
The Kingdom of Italy
 Cavour then sent troops to take control of the
Papal States before Garibaldi moved against
Rome.
 Garibaldi allowed the annexation of the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
 On March 17, 1861 an Italian parliament
proclaimed the Kingdom of Italy with Victor
Emmanuel II as king.
 Wars between Prussia and Austria and France
allowed Venetia and Rome to be incorporated
into Italy by 1870.
Divided Germany
 After 1848, liberal nationalists were in a
weak position politically.
 The German Confederation was
reestablished as a loose union of 39
states (including the powerful Prussia
and Austria).
 The union was dominated by Austria,
which held the presidency.
Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898)
 Bismarck was born on
Prussian Junker
aristocracy.
 Worked unhappily in civil
service and became a
farmer.
 Elected to the Landtag
(Prussian Parliament) in
1847.
 Here he would begin his
practice of “realpolitik”
Otto von Bismarck
Wilhelm I
 In 1852, he became Prussia’s
rep. at the Confederation
(later he became ambassador
to Russia and France).
 Wilhelm I (r. 1861-1888)
named him minister-president
to push forward expansion of
the military.
 Despite liberal opposition, he
raised taxes to do so, claiming
change would come through
“blood and iron.”
The Schleswig-Holstein
Affair
 1863 annexation by Denmark infuriated
German nationalists.
 Prussia and Austria allied to defeat
Demark in 1864.
 The Convention of Gastein provided for
joint Austrian-Prussian rule of the duchies.
 Bismarck began making deals with
France, Italy and Russia for neutrality in
dealing with Austria.
The Seven Weeks War
 In 1866, Prussia accused Austria of
violating the Convention of Gastein.
 In June, they went to war.
 Austrians were soundly defeated at the
Battle of Königgrätz (Sadowa) on July 3.
 In the Treaty of Prague, Prussia gained
several states in northern Germany, the
German Conf. dissolved and Italy
received Venetia.
The North German
Confederation
 Prussia established the North German
Confederation in 1867.
 South German states of Bavaria,
Wurttemburg, Baden, and Hesse
remained independent.
 Bismarck wanted to absorb them, but
differences (south was Catholic and
liberal) and French opposition made this
difficult.
The Hohenzollern
Candidacy
 An 1868 Spanish revolution resulted in the
nomination of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern as
king.
 The French protested and the Prussians
acquiesced.
 At Elms, French Count Benedetti demanded
further Prussian concessions, Wilhelm I refused.
 Bismarck had notes of the meeting (known as the
Elms Dispatch) released. Napoleon III was
enraged and declared war on July 19, 1870.
 The South German states allied with Prussia.
The Franco-Prussian War
 The German armies quickly mobilized and
invaded France.
 On Sept. 2, the Napoleon III was captured and
a large part of the French Army surrendered at
Sedan.
 In Paris, rebels proclaimed the Third French
Republic and continued the war.
 On May 10, the Treaty of Frankfurt ended the
war.
 Germany got the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine
and 5 billion francs.
 The French greatly resented their defeat.
The
German Reich
 During the war negotiations continued in
Germany.
 As a result, on Jan. 18, 1871 Wilhelm I
was proclaimed Kaiser before an
assembly of German princes in the Hall
of Mirrors at Versailles.
 The unification of Germany was
complete, Bismarck became Chancellor.
Lessons and Impact
 Liberal nationalists had failed to unify Germany
and Italy from below in 1848 .
 Where they failed, conservative nationalists
were able to succeed from above in the 1860s.
 The unification of Germany and Italy changed
the balance of power established at the
Congress of Vienna (1815) at the expense of
Austria and France.
 Immediately, Germany became the most
powerful nation on the European continent.