Chapter 26 – Reaction and Nationalism

1. Chapter 26 – Reaction and Nationalism Section 1: The Unification of Italy

2. Early Attempts • The most effective speaker on behalf of Risorgimento, or Italian unity, was Giuseppe Mazzini, who founded the secret society Young Italy in 1831 to transform Italy into a sovereign nation. • In 1848 Mazzini-inspired nationalists led republican revolutions against Austria throughout the Italian Peninsula. Pope Pius IX at first backed the revolutionaries but later withdrew his support, and Austria was able to reestablish control.

3. Early Attempts (cont.) • The events of 1848 caused many Italians to lose faith in Mazzini’s methods. Nationalists now looked to Sardinia, led by King Charles Albert, to lead the Italian unification struggle.

4. Count Cavour’s Diplomacy • Charles Albert’s son and successor, Victor Emmanuel II, aided by an adviser named Count Camillo di Cavour, kept the unity movement alive. • To win foreign support for Italian unity, Cavour shrewdly decided to support France and Britain in the Crimean War. In the summer of 1858, Napoleon III promised to aid Sardinia in expelling Austria if war broke out; in return, Sardinia agreed to turn over two provinces – Savoy and Nice – to France in the event of victory over Austria.

5. Count Cavour’s Diplomacy (cont.) • In June 1859, the combined forces of France and Sardinia defeated the Austrians at Magenta and Solferino, but Napoleon III withdrew from the fighting in Italy and signed a treaty with Austria.

6. Garibaldi Seizes the South • Guerrilla fighter Giuseppe Garibaldi gathered a thousand volunteers to lead a revolt in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies; in a few weeks, he gained control of Sicily and later captured Naples on the mainland. • When voters in southern Italy supported union with Sardinia in October 1860, Garibaldi surrendered his conquests to Victor Emmanuel II, who by February 1861 was king of the newly created constitutional monarchy of Italy.

7. Building a New Nation • Many difficult problems confronted newly independent Italy, including the cultural and economic divisions between north and south. The government, however, developed a unified military, a national education system, and an extensive railroad system. • In return for Italy’s allegiance in a war against Austria in 1866, Prussia gave Venetia to Italy.

8. Building a New Nation (cont.) • Most Italians thought that Rome should be the capital, but during the 1860s, the pope still ruled the city with the help of French forces. When war broke out between France and Prussia in 1870, Napoleon III withdrew French troops, clearing the way for Italian troops to conquer Rome and complete the unification of Italy.

9. The Unification of Germany Section 2

10. Steps Toward Unity • The Congress of Vienna in 1815 created the German Confederation, which loosely tied together the numerous German states. Neither Austria nor the smaller German states, however, wanted to see a united Germany. • The largest of the German states, Prussia, had a well-organized government and a strong economy. The Prussian military quashed the efforts of liberals to unite Germany under a constitution in the 1840s; in the 1850s conservatives came to control nationalist causes.

11. Rise of Bismarck • Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck, who supported the Prussian king’s pro-army stance, embraced the policy of realpolitik. • When the Prussian assembly refused to support the new army budget, Bismarck pushed the program through by simply collecting the necessary taxes without authorization.

12. Three Wars • To accomplish his major objective – the unification of Germany – Bismarck made warfare an important part of his strategy; an 1864 war against Denmark brought the disputed provinces of Schleswig and Holstein under the joint control of Prussia and Austria. • After isolating Austria diplomatically, Bismarck then declared war against Austria. The Seven Weeks’ War, which Prussia won, was intended by Bismarck to end the chance for a united Germany under Austrian control; the conflict made Bismarck a hero among German nationalists.

13. Three Wars (cont.) • The refusal of Napoleon III of France to accept German unification inspired Bismarck to go to war with France; in 1870, Bismarck maneuvered Napoleon III into declaring war on Prussia; with highly efficient military forces and the allegiance of the southern German states, the Prussians easily defeated the French.

14. Formation of an Empire • In January 1871, William I assumed the title of Kaiser of a united Germany; Bismarck became the German Chancellor. The Kaiser could make appointments, command the military in time of war, and determine foreign policy. • William’s son, Crown Prince Frederick, was a liberal; while he deplored the consequences of Bismarck’s policies, he did nothing to stop them.

15. Bismarck’s Realm Section 3

16. Bismarck and the Church • One of the first challenges Bismarck faced was with the Catholic Church in the so-called Kulturkampf, or cultural struggle. Bismarck viewed Catholicism as an antinationalist force and consequently supported the Protestants in political affairs. • In response to Bismarck’s expulsion of Jesuits from Germany and the passage of the anti-Catholic May Laws, Pope Pius IX declared the laws invalid and broke diplomatic ties with Germany. • Knowing that he needed the support of the Center party to defeat a serious challenge from the Socialists, Bismarck made peace with the Catholics.

17. Germany’s Industrial Growth • As industry took hold, cities grew rapidly; as a result, Germany finally became a major industrial power at the end of the 1800s. • The economic changes conferred a high standard of living on some people but meant lower wages and higher unemployment for many factory workers.

18. Workers and Socialism • To ensure workers would no longer be exploited, Ferdinand Lassalle founded the Universal German Workingmen’s Association in 1863. • After his death, the party Lassalle founded merged with the Social Democratic party in 1875 and became a major political force.

19. Bismarck and the Socialists • To destroy the Socialist movement, Bismarck set out to crush its organization; in 1878 the German legislature outlawed all Socialist meetings and publications. • By passing several bills that improved working conditions, Bismarck tried to show the workers that the government had their true interests at heart. Bismarck’s reform efforts did not, however, end the popularity of the Socialists.

20. The Fall of Bismarck • After the deaths, in rapid succession, of Kaiser William I and his liberal son Crown Prince Frederick, Frederick’s son William II became Kaiser in 1888. William’s belief in the absolute power of the emperor brought him into conflict with Bismarck, and Bismarck resigned in 1890. • Bismarck’s policies, though they left Germany strong, had prevented the development of parliamentary democracy. During William II’s reign, Germany became one of the world’s major industrial and military power.

21. Empire of the Czars Section 4

22. Autocracy on the Defensive • In 1825, after the death of liberal-minded Czar Alexander I, some liberal Russian officers staged a military revolt. The Decembrist Revolt, though soon crushed, had two effects: it inspired later generations of revolutionaries and, in the short term, hardened the determination of Nicholas I to suppress all opposition. • Despite Nicholas I’s harsh efforts to resist change, demands for reform persisted during the 1830s and 1840s. Russian losses in the Crimean War underscored the fact that the Russian Empire was in serious trouble.

23. Alexander II Reforms • The Russian Empire’s serfs attained legal freedom in March 1861, but they received no land individually; peasants could not leave their village communities without paying their share of a mortgage. • The discontent of landless peasants moving to the cities revealed itself in occasional uprisings and new stirrings of revolutionary movements. • Czar Alexander II became known as the Czar Liberator for freeing the serfs and for him many other reforms. Unfortunately, the reforms of Alexander II failed to halt the growth of revolutionary movements.

24. Terror and Reaction • Among the most vocal critics of the Russian government during Alexander II’s reign were intellectuals and students form the upper and middle classes. Many of them rejected all traditions, believing that Russia would have to destroy the czarist autocracy and build a completely new society. In 1881, Alexander II was killed by a young revolutionary. • Alexander III reversed his father’s reforms. To protect the autocracy, he imposed Russian ways on the empire’s non-Russian peoples. This policy of Russification signaled out the Jews in particular for persecution.

25. The Revolution of 1905 • During the reign of Nicholas II, a revolutionary mood swept over Russia. By the early 1900s, several revolutionary groups in Russia followed the teachings of Karl Marx, maintaining that the working class would lead the revolution. • War between Russia and Japan in 1904 furthered the Socialist’s cause, straining the economy and heightening opposition to the czar’s government.

26. The Revolution of 1905 (cont.) • In 1905, the Blood Sunday killings sparked riots, strikes, and political protests. Reformist and revolutionary groups called for the establishment of a representative government elected by universal suffrage. • After angry workers seized control of the major cities in a general strike, Nicholas issued the October Manifesto, establishing an elected representative duma, or legislature; in practice, Nicholas kept his powers.

27. Austria-Hungary’s Decline Section 5

28. The Revolution of 1848 • Prince Klemens von Metternich, who held the office of minister of foreign affairs in Austria from 1809 to 1848, worked to crush all revolutionary activities. • In 1848 revolution swept the Austrian Empire, bringing it to the verge of collapse. Infighting among nationalist and revolutionary groups, however, enabled conservative forces to regain control under Emperor Francis Joseph. • Nationalist tensions and a series of foreign crises weakened the empire during Francis Joseph’s 68-year reign.

29. The Dual Monarchy • After Austria’s defeat in the Seven Weeks’ War of 1866, the Austrian Empire became a dual monarchy, with Austria and Hungary having equal status. In internal affairs, Austria and Hungary were completely independent of each other; in external affairs, they were joined. • Slavs remained discontent, because they had no choice in government. The discontent of Slavic nationalist groups became a threat to the empire’s unity. • Austria and Hungary were dependent on each other economically, but disputes inevitably developed between them.

30. Powder Keg in the Balkans • During the late 1800s, European powers watched the decline of the Ottoman Empire closely, intent on preventing Russian expansion into the region. • In 1877, Russia went to war on behalf of the Slavic people of the Balkan Peninsula, using the conflict to justify its expansion into Balkan territory. The great European powers met to revise the treaty that had given Russia control of the Bulgarian state.

31. Powder Keg in the Balkans (cont.) • As a result of the Balkan League’s War on Turkey in 1912, the Ottomans lost almost all their European territory. No sooner had the Balkan states won the war than they began to fight themselves over the lands they had gained. • Writers of the time called the Balkans “the powder keg of Europe” because it seemed inevitable that events there would sooner or later explode into a major European war (World War I).