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Nationalism Triumphs in Europe. Bellwork #1 To be allowed to the game I had to finish my math doing my chores and helping my Dad at the station. Building a German Nation. The early calls to nationhood came mostly form students and intellectuals.
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Nationalism Triumphs in Europe Bellwork #1 To be allowed to the game I had to finish my math doing my chores and helping my Dad at the station
Building a German Nation • The early calls to nationhood came mostly form students and intellectuals. • In the mid 1800s however, an aggressive leader named Otto von Bismarck imposed a Prussian brand of nationhood on all of Germany.
First Steps • Between 1807 and 1812, Napoleon made important territorial changes in the German speaking lands. He added lands along the Rhine River to France. He dissolved the Holy Roman Empire and organized a number of German states into a French controlled Rhine Confederation. • At the same time, Napoleon’s conquests sparked German nationalism. People who had fought to free their lands from French rule began to demand a unified German state. • At Congress of Vienna, Metternich pointed out that a united Germany would require dismantling the governments of the many separate German states. Instead, the conservative peacemakers created the German Confederation, a weak body headed by Austria.
Prussian Leadership • 1830s, Prussia took the lead in creating an economic union called the Zollverein. • Zollverein- dismantled tariff barriers between many of the German states. Still Germany remained politically fragmented. • 1848, liberals meeting tin the Frankfurt Assembly once more took up the demand for German political unity. They offered the throne to King Frederick William IV of Prussia. He rejected the throne because it was by the people. Again Germany remained divided.
Bismarck Architect of German Unity • Otto von Bismarck came from Prussia’s Junker class, which was made up of conservative landowning nobles. Bismarck served Prussia as a diplomat in Russia and France before King William made him prime minister • 1862, the prime minister used his policy of “blood and iron” to unite the German states under Prussian rule.
Master of Realpolitik • Bismarck’s success was due to his strong will and his ability to manipulate others. He was a master of Realpolitik, or realistic politics based on a tough minded evaluation of the needs of the state. • He was not really a German nationalist. His primary loyalty was to Prussia. He regarded uniting Germany as a means to make the Hohenzollerns master of all the German states.
Strengthening the Army • As Prime Minister, Bismarck moved first to build up the Prussian army. • The liberal legislature refused to vote funds for the military. • Bismarck, simply used money that had been collected for other purposes to strengthen the army. With a powerful, well equipped military, he was ready to pursue and aggressive foreign policy.
Victory in Three Wars • Bismarck led Prussia into three wars. Which would increase Prussian prestige and power while paving the way for German unity. • Schleswig and Holstein- Bismarck’s first maneuver was to form an alliance in 1864 with Austria. They then moved to seize the provinces of Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark. Austria was to administer Holstein and Prussia was to administer Schleswig.
Austria- 1866, Bismarck invented an excuse to attack Austria. The Austro-Prussian War lasted just seven weeks and ended in a decisive Prussian victory. Prussia then added Holstein and several other North German states. • Franco-Prussian War- The Prussian victory worried napoleon III in France. A growing rivalry between the two nations led to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The cause was a struggle over the vacant Spanish throne. Bismarck seized on the situation to rally all Germans no matter where they lived against Napoleon III.
Bismarck helped the crisis by rewriting and then releasing to the press a telegram “Ems dispath” which made it seem that William I had insulted the Frenchman. Furious, Napoleon III declared war on Prussia, as Bismarck hoped. Cries of “On to Berlin!” filled the streets of Paris. The fighting, however, quickly proved otherwise. • A superior Prussian force, helped by troops from other German states, smashed the badly organized, poorly supplied French soldiers. Napoleon III, surrendered after a few weeks of fighting. France had to accept a humiliation peace. The French defeat led to the down fall of the Second Empire.
The German Empire • Delighted by the victory over France, princes from the southern German states and the North German Confederation persuaded William I to take the title Kaiser, or emperor. In January 1871, German nationalist celebrated the birth of the Second empire. • A Constitution drafted by Bismarck set up a two house legislature for the second empire. Still, the new German nation was far from democratic, since the Bundesrat which was the upper house could veto any decisions of the Reichstag which was the lower house. Real power remained in the hands of the emperor and his Prime Minister.
