Unification Movements in Europe
Nationalism
 Nationalism is loyalty to the nation above the king/queen
 Nationalists wanted their own independent government
(state) and started revolutions to get their independence
 3 Multinational empires (empires with many “nations”):
Austro-Hungarian, Russian, Ottoman
Italy: Cavour Unites Italy
 1815-1848- growing
feeling among Italians
that they didn’t want a
foreign leader anymore
 1832 Giuseppe Mazzini
organized the group
Young Italy but driven
into exile in 1848 after
failed revolution
 Sardinia’s count Camillo
di Cavour wanted to
expand Sardinia’s power
but managed to unite
Italy
Garibaldi Unites Southern Italy
 Giuseppe Garibaldi- 1860-
Red Shirts- leader of Italian
Nationalists in the South
united Italy but made a deal
with Cavour so that Cavour
would rule
 1866 Venetia added
 1870 papal states added
Germany: The Rise of Prussia
 Since 1815 39 German
states in German
Confederation with the
Austro-Hungarian
Empire and Prussia as
the largest states
 Prussia’s advantages:
ethnically unified
(German), strong
military, industrialized
faster
Otto von Bismarck and Realpolitik
 Bismarck – prime minister of




Prussia- violated the
constitution and began
expanding Prussia’s borders
Used realpolitik, the politics of
reality
1864 forged an alliance
between Prussia and Austria
and went to war with
Denmark
1866 Austria declared war on
Prussia (7 weeks war) but lost
1867 North German
Confederation
Bismarck Unites Germany
 Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871
 Bismarck begins a war against the French just so he can get the
southern Germans to join him
 Prussians win against the French and Germany united
 1871 King Wilhelm I of Prussia crowned Kaiser
 1871: Great Britain and Germany most powerful states in
Europe