19th Century Nationalism and Reform The Big Picture

Great Britain The world’s strongest economic and political power through most of the 19th century. Victorian Age (1837-1901): G.B. slowly and peacefully moved toward greater democracy and social reform under prime ministers such as Disraeli and Gladstone Canada, New Zealand, & Australia granted home rule (but not Ireland)

France More violence & upheaval than in GB; empire to monarchy to republic to empire to republic in the 1800s Revolutions (again): 1830, 1848, 1871 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMYNfQlf1H8 Paris Commune, 1871: revolution coming?

The Americas (context) U.S. expanding (Manifest Destiny); but weakened by sectionalism and slavery issue U.S. power, reforms, etc. increase after The Civil War (1861-5), with South lagging behind the North into the 20th c. Independence movements sweep Latin America, but the new L.A. nations are weakened by geography, poor govts (often military dictatoships), economic inequities

Italian Unification Italian nationalism increases in late 1700s/early 1800s (Mazzini) – opposition mainly from Austria and the pope Sardinia’s p.m. Cavour in the north and the guerilla fighter Garibaldi in the south work to unify Italy. Italy a constitutional monarchy by 1861, Rome the capital by 1870

German Unification Austria and Prussia were rivals for domination of the German states after 1815. Prussia’s p.m. Bismarck used diplomacy and the army to create the German empire, without Austria, in 1871 (“Blood and Iron”) Germany (2nd Reich) becomes major industrial power with limited democracy and reforms

Russia & Austria-Hungary Czar Alexander II freed the serfs in 1861 and attempted some reforms, but his assassination in 1881 signaled a return to repression. After defeat by Prussia in 1867, Emperor of Austria, Francis Joseph, agrees to split power with Hungary (A-H) Slavic peoples (in the Balkan peninsula) denied equality with German Austrians and Hungarian Magyars; increasing rivalry between Russia and A-H.

So… Nationalism was an important force in the 19th century, creating new nation-states (Germany, Italy, Mexico, Canada, etc.) and strengthening existing ones, esp. in Europe. Reform was uneven and sometimes accompanied by violence, with the greatest move towards democracy in Western Europe and the U.S.