The Effects of Nationalism

Italian Unification Decisions at the Congress of Vienna gave a lot of land in Italy back to the Austrians (they lost a lot of it when Napoleon beat them) Giuseppe Mazzini – Italian patriot who wanted to create an independent republic to bring the Italian people together – This created revolutionary cells across the peninsula The Kingdom of Sardinia was able to take back control of Pidemont, Nice, Savoy, and Genoa – Sardinia becomes the most powerful Italian city-state – This makes it seem like the perfect leader for unification (at least according to the middle class) Sardinia’s king, Victor Emmanuel II, named Camillo di Cavour the prime minister and allowed him to set about expanding Sardinia’s power – Convinced the French emperor, Napoleon III, to help drive the Austrians out of Northern Italy – This solidified control of N. Italy in the hands of Sardinia While this was going on in the North, there was another movement that was taking place in the South, specifically in Sicily – Giuseppe Garibaldi started a movement known as the Risorgimento which he used as he was moving through Sicily and onto the mainland – He was being helped by Cavour in the North and made an agreement to hand over the S to Victor Emmanuel, which he did in 1861 This united the majority of the country but it was not until the areas of Umbria, Marches, Venice, and Rome were finally captured that Italy was completely united – Rome was delivered to Victor Emmanuel in 1870 after a vote by the Roman people to join the rest of Italy – July 1871 – Rome became the capital of a united Italy

German Unification Controlled by Austrian Empire Prussia leads unification – Mainly a German population – Prussian’s army was the most powerful in Europe Otto von Bismarck – Junkers – wealthy land-owning class – Realpolitik – “the politics of reality” Making decisions based on what is best for the country without regard for what else was happening – Ruled without the consent of parliament and without a legal budget “Blood and Iron” 1863 – Polish Revolt – Bismarck realized that the Russians would put down the Polish Revolt and so he agreed to help the Russians – The revolt was put down and Bismarck secured his Eastern border 1864 – Prussia forms an alliance with Austria to gain control of land on their border – Then Bismarck picked the Seven Weeks’ War by playing up agitation on the border Prussians destroyed the Austrians and gained control of N. German territory 1867 – the remaining sates of the N joined the Confederation 1867 – Franco-Prussian War – Bismarck created an incident to gain his ends – French declared war and the Prussians beat them badly – Final stage in German unification because southern Germany gave into the nationalism and joined with the north Wilhelm I is named the kaiser

Empires Crumble As these nationalist ideas expanded and nation-states were created, the multi-cultural empires of the time were having more issues keeping everything together – Ottoman Empire lost Greece in 1830 and continued to lose land through the 1850s until World War I Lost Egypt and the Sudan to Britain in 1882 Lost control of the wider areas of the empire at the same time – Austria Empire lost control of the German Confederation when Prussia defeated them in the Austro-Prussian War Had to split the Austrian Empire in to the Austro-Hungarian empire after the Hungarians threatened to break away from the Austrians unless they got some kind of ruling power This is going to make other minority groups pretty mad It would break into multiple city-states in the next 40 years