Chapter 12 Political Turmoil in Europe

French Revolution France was at the end of the Enlightenment. Voltaire wrote many books about Enlightenment ideas France’s society was divided into 3 groups First Estate-highest group made of archbishops and bishops numbering 10,000 Second Estate-made up of 350,000 nobles and aristocrats who owned 20% of the land Third Estate-made up of 24 million people who were middle class or poorer

Economic Collapse The economy was in trouble from being in wars. Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates General to come up with a plan. The Third Estate was upset with being mistreated at the meeting and formed the National Assembly They signed the Declaration of the Rights of Man that demanded abuses of the French people to stop

Reign of Terror The French government had committees to manage the government The Committee of Public Safety took control and started to get rid of opponents in the Reign of Terror when at least 25,000 people were executed including Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette Guillotine After the Reign of Terror, a new government formed with a 5 man committee called the Directory in charge

Revolts Across Europe After Napoleon was defeated, nationalism (intense devotion and loyalty to one’s own people) began and and revolts broke out in Europe In Belgium, the Netherlands tried to stop Belgian independence by appealing to the Great Powers (major European nations) for a peaceful resolution

German Unification The economic union called the Zollverein was formed to enhance trade between the German states King Wilhelm I chose Otto von Bismarck as the chancellor of Prussia. Bismarck became the leader of German unification

Italian Unification A movement called the Risorgimento (resurgence) contributed to the movement for nationalism Giuseppe Mazzini created a group called Young Italy to help accomplish the goal of Italian unification Camillo di Cavour, prime minister of Sardinia, was the most successful at uniting Italy. He used alliance to build support for unification

Italian Unification Giuseppi Garibaldi formed an army known as the Red Shirts who took control of Sicily and planned to conquer Rome next. Cavour met with Garibaldi and convinced him to turn his territory over to Victor Emmanuel II, the king of Sardinia. An Italian parliament declared the Kingdom of Italy and Emmanuel II became the first king