1. The Lead Up To WWI
Modern World History

2. End of the Concert of Europe
The revolutions of 1830 and 1848 had failed everywhere except France. The reason for this failure was that Russia had continued to step in under the Concert of Europe and its principle of intervention.
In 1853, Russia invaded the Balkans. This area was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. This Empire was slowly dying and Russia saw this as a major opportunity to gain access to the Mediterranean. Victory would have given the Russians a warm water port, this is a port that doesn’t freeze at some point, with direct access to the ocean.

3. End of the Concert of Europe
With the potential for Russia to have such an important military gain, Great Britain and France decided that this would be bad. As a result, the two declared war on Russia.
With the help of the Ottoman Empire, the Russians were defeated in The significance of this however came from Russia’s response to the defeat. Humiliated and angry that no one allied with them, Russia withdrew from European affairs for 20 years.

4. Italian Unification
Italy had attempted to unify in 1848, but was stopped by Russia and Austria.
Even though their attempts to unify were unsuccessful, Italians looked to the state of Piedmont to lead future unification attempts.
In 1849 Piedmont got a new leader, Victor Emmanuel II. Even though he wasn’t in charge of earlier unification attempts, the new King was still interested in creating a unified Italy. In 1852, he made Camillo di Cavour his prime minister. Cavour then proceeded to lead Piedmont in economic and military expansion.

5. Italian Unification
In 1859, Piedmont made a deal with France to give them the Italian states of Nice and Savoy, which were originally part of France, in exchange for their support in fighting the Austrians.
With Russia out of the picture, no one came to the aid of the Austrians, and the combined forces of Italy and France won. The victory gave Piedmont control of Lombardy, but Austria retained control of Venetia.
The victory inspired nationalist feelings to pop up all over Italy. The states of Parma, Modena, and Tuscany, overthrew their government and joined Piedmont.

6. Italian Unification
In southern Italy, another leader was spreading nationalism and hopes for unification. Giuseppe Garibaldi began to raise an army in southern Italy, they were known as the Red Shirts.
In the late 1850’s, a revolt broke out in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. These islands were controlled by the Bourbons. When the revolt broke out, the Red Shirts left the mainland and traveled to the area to support the revolutionaries. By July 1860, Garibaldi’s Red Shirts had control of Sicily and moved over to the mainland of Italy. Once there they began to move up from the south, uniting Italian states along the way.

7. Italian Unification
By March of 1861, Garibaldi needed to decide his next move. He controlled the southern half of Italy and Victor Emmanuel II controlled the northern half. Garibaldi decided to turn over his territory to Victor Emmanuel II and the country of Italy came into existence.
Two parts of Italy were not part of the country yet. The Papal States and Venetia. Those to were added later.

8. German Unification
The Congress of Vienna had officially recognized 38 German states. Each one of these had their own ruler and laws. The largest of these states were Prussia and the Austrian Empire. All of the states were loosely affiliated under the German Confederation.
In 1848, attempts were made to officially bring the country together. However, not many of the monarchs were willing to give up their power and without any real leadership, things fell apart.

9. German Unification
With the collapse of these early unification attempts, nationalists looked to Prussia to lead them to a unified Germany.
In the early 1860’s, Prussian leader Kaiser Wilhelm I attempted to increase the size of the Prussian army. When the legislature failed to approve a tax increase needed to do this, the Kaiser appointed Otto von Bismarck prime minister.
Bismarck is known for his practice of “realpolitik,” or the politics of reality. This means that his decisions were based on the reality of the situation instead of theory or ethics.

12. Kaiser Wilhelm I
Otto von Bismarck

14. German Unification
With Bismarck as prime minister, Prussia began to strengthen quickly. After becoming prime minister, Bismarck ignored the legislature and increased taxes and the military on his own. He argued that the rest of Germany looks to Prussia for its power and not its liberal government. From 1862 to 1866, Bismarck acted on his own without approval from the legislature.
The first war took place in Denmark had been given control of two German states, Schleswig and Holstein, during the Congress of Vienna. However, with the death of their king in 1863, question arose over who should control the territories. In 1864, Prussia with the help of Austria invaded and easily defeated Denmark, liberating the two countries. This war was very popular and helped to show that Prussia was interested in nationalism.

15. German Unification
The next conflict took place in Prussia and Austria had agreed to each take one of the states liberated from Denmark. Even though Austria had helped them in this war, Bismarck knew that they would attempt to block efforts to unify and therefore Prussia should do something to show the rest of the German states they were the strongest and that no one should join with Austria.
With this in mind, Bismarck took over both liberated German states claiming that Austria had violated the terms of the agreement. This wasn’t true, but Bismarck knew doing this would provoke Austria into a fight.
He was right and on June 14, 1866, Austria declared war on Prussia. The two forces were roughly the same size, however, the Prussians were better organized and well trained. By July 3, 1866 the Austrians had been defeated.

16. German Unification
After the defeat of Austria, German states in the North began to form official alliances with each other. This was called the North German Confederation. Catholic states in the South feared Protestant Prussia and didn’t join.
Prussia knew the only thing blocking unification would be France. So in 1870, Prussia started an argument with France over who would take over the Spanish throne. France was then tricked into declaring war on Prussia. Prussia easily defeated France. In fact, the French were beaten so bad, their entire army including their emperor Napoleon III was captured. On January 18, 1871, Germany was created and Wilhelm was named Kaiser Wilhelm I of the Second German Empire (The Second Reich).

18. Europe
Great Britain – During the 1800’s, most of Europe was experiencing a great deal of tension between conservative forces and the nationalists and liberals. However, Britain was largely able to avoid these issues. There were two things that lead to the country’s stability. First, Britain was still experiencing economic growth, this generally leads to social stability. Second, Britain under went reforms to increase the participation of the middle class in government. By allowing this participation, people felt that the government was listening to their concerns and that there was no need to revolt.
England was ruled during this period by Queen Victoria. The Queen was on the throne from 1837 to This long reign also helped to create a since of stability in the country. Under Queen Victoria, the power of parliament continued to increase.
The period that coincides with Queen Victoria’s reign is referred to as the Victorian Era. This period was known for the development of modern society and strict social system.

24. Europe
France – Louis Napoleon had been elected president in the 1848 election. This election took place after the revolution of Under this new government, the president would serve for a four year term and then they could run for election again.
As Louis Napoleon’s term came to an end, he asked the people if they wanted him to become emperor. On a public vote, 97% of the country said yes, he should become emperor. On December 2, 1852, he became Napoleon III, emperor of France.
Napoleon III was well liked because of the economic expansion France experienced under his reign. People liked him despite the fact that he limited rights of the people.
Things fell apart after their defeat by Prussia in the Franco-Prussian war in 1871.

25. Europe
Austria was also forced to make changes after losing to the Prussians. The Hungarians had attempted to become independent before, but had been stopped with the help of the Russians. With Russia out of the picture and Austria weakened from their defeat, Hungary took this opportunity.
1867 – Hungary forces Austria to become a dual monarchy. The country was now known as Austria Hungary. Franz Joseph was Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. Under this system, Hungary could do what every they wanted to as long as they stayed in the empire. Hungary took this chance to develop a government that offered the people many rights and a high level of participation in government affairs. This was all secured through their constitution.