Modern World: Notes: Storm and Stress –Nationalism Reshapes Europe
The German term “Sturm und Drang”,
which means “storm and stress”, is used to
specifically describe the beginning of the
Romantic Movement in Germany. The imagery of
this term can also be aptly applied the whole
period of European history from the fall of
Napoleon in 1815 to the unification of Germany in
1871. This was a period when Europe was in
turmoil and torn by change brought on by the
conflicts between many different forces competing
for control. Principally, it was a conflict between
the traditional powers of Europe, led by Metternich
and the Concert of Europe, and the new emerging
forces represented by the ideas of liberalism,
romanticism, and nationalism.
Russian Empire
England
France
Prussia
Austrian
Empire
Spain
Nationalism, which held that the people who live in a country should share a common identity, language, culture
and shared history, was the idea set free by the French Revolution that would have the greatest impact on reshaping the
countries of Europe. In contrast to the other major ideas of the French Revolution, Liberty and Equality, Fraternity or
nationalism was not a product of the rational age of Enlightenment. In many ways, it is actually a rejection of many
aspects of the Enlightenment. In Europe after the horrors of the Reign of Terror and the violence of the Napoleonic Wars,
many of the Enlightenment ideals, like liberty and equality, had been tarnished and were viewed as dangerous – at least to
the people in power. However, nationalism had spread to all parts of Europe and became a motivation for many different
European groups seeking to build their own countries out of existing European empires.
Romantic Movement
The spread of nationalism across Europe coincided with another philosophical movement called Romanticism.
Romanticism provided a philosophical justification for many of the irrational ideas that would embody nationalism.
However, as a philosophical movement, Romanticism was more a spiritual movement than a unified philosophy that was
build out of logical thinking. In fact, the Romantics rejected the rational world view that man can understand the larger
world. In essence, the Romantic Movement was a reaction against the Enlightenment. In contrast to the Enlightenment
that had emphasized logic and rationality, the Romantics stressed the importance of emotion and imagination. Rather than
having a goal of using rational thought to set order to the world and perfect human society, Romantics sought to celebrate
the chaos of the world and the natural state of man. In general, Romantics viewed nature as a mystical force beyond the
comprehension and power of humans. An example of this is the English painter J.M.W. Turner, who depicted human
disaster caused by nature, such as shipwrecks, as a common theme in his paintings.
Philosophically, Jean-Jacque Rousseau was heralded as the father of Romanticism. While his ideas were often
unclear and contradictory, these inconsistencies along with his notions of freedom and a “national will” struck the ideals
of the Romantics. Rousseau wrote that in nature man was good. It was civilization that corrupted and enslaved man. For
Rousseau, the “noble savage”, man without the influence of civilization, was the ideal. Many Romantic artists wanted to
glorify the heroic individual who fought against the conventions of civilized society for a more noble cause.
The Romantic Movement was an artistic and literary movement that played to the feelings of the heart rather than
the logic of the brain. Romantic works sought to evoke an emotional response from their audience. As the painter Casper
David Fredrick said, “Every true work of art must express a distinct feeling”. Romanticisms primary proponents were
thinkers, writers and artists, who sought to oppose traditional social conventions and traditional world-views. They
opposed modernization and industrialization and viewed the individual person as being lost and powerless to the world.
The romantics desired to regain some mystical connection to nature, other people (either in the form of a social class or a
national identity), and the past (particularly the Middle Ages). Often the Romantics portrayed village life as superior to
cities, poor and workers as dignified, and nature as an all-powerful force.
O
In general, the Romantics turned to sources of inspiration at the fringes or beyond the borders of European
civilization. The Romantics drew inspiration from folk stories, music and dance. Elements of folk culture were woven
into paintings, symphonies, and novels. Composers such as Richard Wagner, who wrote a series of operas based Norse
mythology. Russian writer Alexander Pushkin, retold Russian folktales and created works that celebrated nationalism.
The brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm collected and published German folktales. Painters, such as Eugene Delacroix of
France, used their work to promote and inspire nationalistic rebellions. Romantics also looked beyond Europe to the
cultures of Asia and the Middle East, which they called the Orient.
The Romantics explored the irrational side of the mind. The Spanish painter Goya depicted the irrational
monsters that haunt the human imagination, and even titled one of his paintings, “The Sleep of Reason Brings forth
Monsters”. Some Romantics artists used opium as a way of unlocking the irrational nature of the mind. For example,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote his vivid fantasy poem “Kubla Khan” after emerging from an opium induced dream. The
poem abruptly ends at the point where Coleridge forgot the dream.
It was during this period that Europe went though the period of the Gothic revival, where modern buildings were
designed to resemble the gothic style of the High Middle Ages. An example of this building style from this period is the
British House of Parliament. Although it looks like it is from the Middle Ages, it was really built in 1834. The term
“gothic” was also applied to literature that celebrated the medieval settings, the supernatural, and madness. Perhaps the
most famous gothic novel is “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelly, which directly attacks the logic and rationality of science.
The work of the Romantics set the stage for many of the philosophies that would challenge the liberal tradition
based on the Enlightenment that would come to dominate Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth century.
Hegelian Philosophy
Friedrich Hegel, a German philosopher, while not easily categorized, was an
important figure in this period and the twentieth century. His philosophical ideas were
twisted by both the Communists and the Nazis. Hegel developed his philosophical ideas by
trying to reconcile opposing philosophical schools from throughout history into one unified
system.
Principally, Hegel based his philosophy on a study of history. He believed that that
any aspect of human existence (art, architecture, economics) could be understood by studying
human historical development. In studying history, Hegel did not view history as a series of event, but rather as an age
that was guided by an idea or spirit (Zeitgeist) that humans would finally achieve and understand. Historical conflict was
an important part of his philosophy. It was through conflict that history progressed. History was about the struggle
between competing forces, which for Hegel called ideas. At any period of history there was a dominant, but incomplete,
idea, which he called the thesis. Its opposite was the anti-thesis. The conflict between the two creates a synthesis.
However, this solution is not permanent, but only starts a new conflict in which the synthesis becomes the new thesis and
a new anti-thesis is formed to challenge it. Hegel developed his ideas into a theory he called the dialect. For Hegel there
were no great events or people who shaped history – only ideas and their conflicts. While humans can support or oppose
ideas, they are minor players in the outcome of events. In essence, history creates its own solutions.
Hegel’s philosophy held two important messages that affected the actions of the people who followed the ideas of
his philosophy. The first is the importance of large ideas that transcend both history and society and it is the large ideas
that drive the flow of history. The second is that conflict is a necessary good for the advancement of society, even violent
revolutions.
Germany Prior to the French Revolution
During the Middle Ages, the region of Germany was made up of hundreds of small independent kingdoms that
were loosely grouped together and ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Historically, the Holy Roman Emperor was also
the king of Austria and the head of the Hapsburg family.
The Protestant Reformation, begun in 1517, divided the area of Germany between Protestant Lutherans, who
controlled Northern Germany, and Catholics, who controlled the South. The Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperors were
Catholics and saw the Lutherans in Northern Germany as a challenge to their rule. This religious division in Germany
caused a series of religious wars that raged until the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, which gave the princes of Germany the
right to choose the religion of their kingdoms. This treaty created peace in Germany and created a patchwork of
Protestant and Catholic kingdoms across Germany.
However, this peace collapsed in 1618, when the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II wanted to make the
Protestant Kingdom of Bohemia (now Czech Republic) into a Catholic kingdom. This conflict over religion quickly grew
into the Thirty Years War, which became a power struggle between the major powers in Europe for control of Germany.
Because of Germany’s central location in Europe, major European countries fought to extend their influence and control
over Germany.
By 1629, the Spanish, French, Swedes, Danes, Dutch, and Swiss were all involved in the war, either by sending
their armies to fight in Germany or by hiring mercenary armies to fight for the side they supported. As a result, German
leaders lost control over the war. In 1634, after the Battle of Lutzen, German Protestant nobles and Ferdinand II reached a
peace agreement. However, because neither the French nor the Spanish supported this peace, their armies continued to
wage war across Germany. For the next 13 years, these foreign armies continued to wage war across Germany – which
simply became a battleground, having lost any control over the outcome. As a result of this, whole cities in Germany
were destroyed. Around 25 – 30% of the population of Germany was killed or died as a result of the war (mostly
starvation from destroyed crops).
The Treaty of Westphalia, signed in 1648 ended the Thirty Years War and recognized religious toleration in the
region of Germany. It also left the region of Germany as 300 independent kingdoms that were loosely grouped into the
Holy Roman Empire. The French writer Voltaire aptly described the Holy Roman Empire when he said, “It is neither
holy, nor Roman, nor an empire”. In a Europe that was being divided between powerful nation-states, this area was
bound to be either taken over by existing country or united into a single country. Two countries, Hapsburg Austria and
Prussia, ruled by the Hohenzollern family struggled against each other to bring the independent kingdoms of Germany
under their control.
Unlike the Hapsburg Austrian Empire, which was a large multinational empire, Hohenzollern Prussia was a small
kingdom in northern Germany that was not even geographically united. Prussia was a collection of scattered patchwork
of lands organized from the state of Brandenburg, with its capital of Berlin. This was a region that had been devastated by
the Thirty Years War. In 1640, Fredrick William, the known as the “Elector” of Brandenburg, recognized that the only
way to protect Germany from its larger neighbors was to make it militarily strong. His grandson, Fredrick William I, who
had the title King in Prussia, spent his reign building a well-trained and
“It cannot be done with the
disciplined army. Three quarters of the Prussian government’s revenues were
pen if it is not supported by
spent on the army. The 80,000 man Prussian Army was considered the best in
the power of the sword.”
Europe. The size of the Prussian Army was equal to Austria’s army, even though
Fredrick William
Austria was ten times as large. In addition, the Prussian Army was the first army
in Europe to march, fire and reload in synchronicity. Because of his unrelenting
focus on the military, Fredrick William was known as the “Soldier King”.
Prussian society was very conservative and most of the power rested with the landed nobility. The kings of Prussia
ruled with the support of the Junkers or noble landlords. Junkers were expected to provide monarchy with military and
administrative leadership. In return, the Junkers and return were given great powers in ruling with own lands, including
control of the peasant serfs who lived on the lands. Serfdom was not ended in Prussia until 1807. The relatively small
middle class was had little political power and was expected to engage in commerce, run industry and work in the
government bureaucracy. Strict social rules kept the nobility and middle class from intermarrying.
All aspects of the Prussian economy and government were designed to further the power of the king and the army.
For example, the economy was strengthened by inviting Protestant foreigners to move to Prussia. For example, after
Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes and expelled the Huguenots, Fredrick William invited 20,000
Huguenots to Prussia. These skilled craftsmen developed the Prussian economy and equipped the Prussian army. In
addition, he developed a civil service system to run Prussia according to his orders. A civil service is a professional
bureaucracy that administers government. Fredrick expected the civil service to enforce his rules. He introduced
compulsory education and went as far as to tell his subjects what to eat – making it a crime not to eat potatoes. People
who did not have jobs were put in the army or made to work for the government.
As a result of Frederick William’s rule, Prussia became an autocratic state that was focused on developing its military
power. At the time of Fredrick William, a French government official remarked about the power of the Prussian military
when he wrote that Prussia was “not a country with an army, but an army with a country”.
His grandson, Fredrick William II or Frederick the Great, became King of Prussia in 1740
and was intent on turning Prussia into the dominant state in the Holy Roman Empire. In order to
do this, Fredrick the Great fought two wars against Austria for the region of Silesia. Silesia was a
prosperous and wealthy region in the heart of Germany. In the first war, War of the Austrian
Succession (1740 – 1748), Fredrick’s Prussian army defeated the Austrians. However, the
second war, the Seven Years War (1756 – 1763) – also known in British North America as the
French and Indian War, became a world-wide war that involved all the major European powers.
It was only by luck that Prussia survived the Seven Years War. At one point or another every part
of Prussia had been attacked, including the capital Berlin. The Prussian population was able to
survive during the invasions by living on potatoes. The death of the Russian Czarina Elizabeth
stopped the Russians from conquering Prussia. It was only in the post-war peace that Prussia gained any lands.
Following the war, Fredrick remarked, “The acquisitions one makes with the pen are always preferable to those made
with the sword.”
Fredrick the Great was more than just a military ruler. Unlike his strict, austere and militaristic father, Fredrick
the Great was inspired by the Enlightenment, spoke many languages, played the flute and wrote his own book of history.
He was also a personal friend of Voltaire, who lived in Prussia as a guest of Fredrick for two and a half years. Frederick
designed and built an Enlightenment palace called San Souci (meaning “carefree” in French) from where he could rule as
a “philosopher king” who would use reason to improve his country. As king, he allowed freedom of religion, freedom of
the press and abolished torture. He also invited foreign scholars to improve the Berlin Academy, set up a royal bank and
reformed the judicial system. He focused his life’s attentions on improving Prussia and described his role in the country
as being the “first servant of the state”. However, despite the influence of the Enlightenment, Fredrick ruled as an
absolute monarch and he is often described as being an “enlightened despot”.
By the time of the French Revolution, the region of Germany was still a collection of independent kingdoms,
known as the Holy Roman Empire” over which Austria and Prussia struggled with for domination. Napoleon ended Holy
Roman Empire and reorganized it into 39 states called the German Confederation. The Napoleonic Wars also introduced
the idea of nationalism to the region of Germany as the German states organized military resistance to French domination.
In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, Prussia emerged as an economic leader among the German states. After
the Congress of Vienna granted Prussia lands in western Germany so that it could “keep watch on the Rhine” – this meant
to be ready to militarily stop any future French expansion. However, this acquisition of new lands led Prussia to develop
a system to unify its disparate lands in a single economic system. In 1818, Prussia organized a commercial union of its
territories called the Zollverein which allowed free trade between all lands under Prussian rule. Over time, Prussia
worked to expand this to the neighboring German states. This removed the hundreds of tolls and economic laws that had
limited trade between the German states. As trade improved, the region of Germany became wealthier and Prussia’s
status rose. This process was enhanced by the building of railroads during the nineteenth century, which only further
interlinked the economies of the German states. It also created a technical unification because the process of building
railroads meant standardizing weights and measures for trade and rail gauges. The leaders of Prussia used this process to
strengthen Prussia and also weaken Austria, which was kept out of the Zollverein.
Education and Romanticism had an impact in forming German ideas of nationalism. Compared to many other
parts of Europe, Germany had a highly educated population. Germany had twice as many universities as France and
larger towns had libraries and reading societies. Romantic thinkers began to adapt history and cultural to create a German
national identity. The Brothers Grim played a significant role in this process by traveling across Germany and going into
villages to hear the oral stories that had been told by people for generations. The Brothers Grim wanted to show that there
was a common “German” folk tradition by showing that the villages of Germany had a common culture of shared stories.
They also wrote a dictionary that served the process for making a standardized German language by providing a history of
the German language and explained the grammatical ruled of the language. The German philosopher Johann von Herder
had a profound effect on this process. Herder wrote that each national people had a distinctive identity based in its
language and culture. For this reason, a national people should not try to borrow ideas from other cultures, but should
form its own ideas of law a government based on its culture. This is essentially a rejection of the universal and natural
laws of the Enlightenment. He also held that all cultures went though cycles of rise and fall, and that French culture was
in decline while German culture was in assent and would dominate the next part of European history.
Political Events – Restoration Europe
Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the
Congress of Vienna under Metternich’s guidance
developed the Concert of Europe in order to reassert the
traditional powers in Europe, to divide Europe into sphere
of influence controlled by the major powers, and to
prevent future wars. As part of this agreement, Austria
gained control of the German Confederation of 39 small
independent German States. Prussia gained territory along
the Rhine River in northwest Germany, so that it could
keep “watch on Rhine” and stand guard against future
French expansion. Russia was granted control over
Poland and Finland. Britain was awarded overseas
territories and islands in the Mediterranean Sea. This
alliance between the major powers was cemented in the Quadruple Alliance, which France joined in 1818, to maintain the
status quo in Europe. While France was at the focal point of the alliance, it was not considered an enemy of the alliance.
Over the next decade, the Concert of Europe worked and achieved its goals. Despite many rebellions, Europe did
not change or suffer from any major wars. In fact, one testament to the Concert of Europe is that there were no major
wars in Europe for almost one hundred years, until the outbreak of World War One.
The Concert of Europe involved the major European powers coordinating their actions to suppress liberal or
nationalistic movements. For example, in 1820, the Spanish rebelled against the reinstated Bourbon king to force him to
return to the constitution of 1812, which had been dissolved by the Congress of Vienna. In order to suppress the
rebellion, France, with permission of the other major powers, sent in its army to intervene to support king and stop
rebellion. While a civil war raged in Spain until 1839, the monarchy of Spain had been preserved.
In Italy, also in 1820, nationalism became a force to unify the different kingdoms of Italy. For Italians, the cause
of unification was both a cause of nationalism and liberalism. In Naples, the Carbonari (charcoal burners), named because
the held secret meetings in the forest, rebelled and forced the King of Naples to grant a constitution and an elected
parliament. Again, to squash these democratic ideas, the Austrian army, with permission from other countries, entered
Naples and abolished the constitution and ended the parliament.
In Russia, in 1825, the death of Czar Alexander I without a legitimate heir created an
opportunity for moderates to try to create a constitutional monarchy in Russia. They supported
Alexander’s brother Constantine to be the new Czar. However, Constantine had previously
renounced his claim to the throne in the favor of his younger brother, Nicholas. Still, a group of
young army officers and supporters, called the Decembrists, attempted to install Constantine as
czar. However, most of the army remained loyal to Nicholas and crushed the Decembrists
movement and its leaders were executed or exiled to Siberia. Nicholas I, as czar, ruled Russia as an
absolute monarch and his reign can be summed up in the phrase, “Orthodoxy, Autocracy,
Nationality”. This slogan meant that the Orthodox Church would be supreme, the Czar would have
all power, and the Russian language and culture would dominate. The suppression of the
Decembrists revolt had another impact on Russia, members of the educated and liberal upper class, called the
intelligentsia, came to believe it was their duty to fight for the general good of the people. This was a very Romantic ideal
that glorified the rural peasants, but held them incapable of helping themselves.
During this time period, the only successful nationalist revolt in Europe was in Greece. It was successful because
the major European powers viewed it as a rebellion against a non-European power. Beginning in 1821, the Greeks had
been involved in a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire and for six years they fought on alone with small amounts of
support from Christian Europe. For example, the Romantic British poet Lord Byron donated large amount of money and
ultimately lost his life in the Greek struggle. In 1827, Britain, France, and Russia, intervened in support of the Greeks. In
October 1827, their combined navies destroyed the Ottoman navy and forced the Ottomans to grant the Greeks
independence. The Treaty of Adrianople recognized Greek independence and made prince Otto of Bavaria the king of
Greece, which maintained the goal of legitimacy.
Shortly after the revolts in France in 1830 that had Charles X removed as king and Louis Phillip become the King
of the French or Citizen King, there were a series of nationalist revolts in different parts of Europe which indicated that
nationalism was becoming a force in reshaping the counties of Europe.
In 1831, Belgium broke away from the Netherlands. Belgium was Catholic and French speaking, while the
Netherlands was generally protestant and Dutch speaking. While this type of nationalist rebellion had previously been
crushed by the Concert of Europe, the Belgian nationalists were supported by both Britain and the new French
government. Through treaty, to maintain the goal of legitimacy, a German prince Leopold was put on the throne as king
of Belgium. Leopold was related to the royal families of France and England, which insured Belgian independence.
In contrast, Poland had no such protection from a major power. Since the partition of Poland in 1795 by Austria,
Prussia and Russia, Poland had ceased to exist as an independent country. During the period of the Napoleonic Wars, the
Poles had sided with Napoleon believing he would grant them their own country. As a result, at the Congress of Vienna,
most of Poland was given to Russia. However, Russian Czar, Alexander I had allowed the Poles limited self-government.
In 1830, inspired by France, Polish liberals rebelled against the Russians and declared independence. The new Czar,
Nicholas I, crushed the rebellion in September 1831. Under his autocratic rule all hints of Polish nationalism and
language were suppressed by the Russians. Any pro-Polish agitators were executed or sent to Siberia.
In Europe, England was only the only place where political reforms could be brought about legally. This meant
that England saw the steady advancement of liberal ideas, mostly brought about by the growing power of industrialist and
middle class. For example, the Reform Bill of 1832 altered voting rights by expanding number of eligible voters to
include most property holders and gave more power to growing cities and towns. Still, even in England, these reforms
were carried out under threat of street protests and possible rebellion.
Revolt of 1848 in Austria and Germany
French revolts of 1848 (which resulted in the overthrow of Louis Philip and the rise of Louis Napoleon), inspired
revolts across Europe, as other liberals and nationalists across Europe tried to change their governments. In March 1848,
a combination of liberals and radicals carried out a revolution in the Austrian capital of Vienna, which was the heart of the
Concert of Europe. To maintain his throne, the Austrian king Ferdinand I fired
Metternich and forced him into exile in England. Ferdinand also allowed a liberal
constitution and an elected assembly. However, Ferdinand used this to buy time, but
when he attempted to suppress the rebellion he was also forced to flee Vienna.
The collapse of the imperial government in Austria, inspired the non-Austrian
peoples (Hungarians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Italians) to demand more power
and attempt to break away from Austria and set up their own countries. The Slavic
nationalities organized a congress in Prague to demand autonomy for their peoples.
While the Slavic congress was meeting, street protestors accidentally killed the wife
of the Austrian military commander of Prague. In response, he attacked the city,
crushed the Slavic congress and made himself dictator of Bohemia, an area that
included Prague. Throughout the summer and fall, the Austrian Army, dominated by noble officers, battled with
nationalist and liberal forces for control of the Austrian Empire. The army was able to restore order to Austria and
dissolve both the liberal constitution and elected assembly. The noble officers of the army replaced Ferdinand I with 18
year-old Franz Joseph, who ruled until 1916. By the beginning of 1849, only the Hungarians held out against the
Austrians. A Russian army assisted in crushing the Hungarian revolt by the summer of 1849.
In Prussia, rebellion also broke out in Berlin in March 1848. The king, Frederick William allowed Prussians to
meet to draft a constitution. At the same time, in May, 800 representatives from across Germany met as the Frankfurt
Assembly to develop a government for a united German state. The goal was to unify the 30 different kingdoms,
independent cities and principalities that comprised the German Confederation.
The idea of German nationalism had been a growing issue within Germany and was closely connected to the
Romantic movement in Germany. Since the Middle Ages, Germany had never been unified, so there was no real history
of a unified German nation. While there was a German language, it varied greatly across the region of Germany. As a
result, it was the German Romantic artists who created the concept of German nationalism. A large part of forming a
German nation was based on inventing a German “national character” and “national culture” where there had never been
any. The Middle Ages, especially the idea of the Holy Roman Empire, the Teutonic Knights, and fairy tales, were used as
guides to this German character. This is where the work of the Brothers Grimm (Jacob Grimm was elected to be part of
the Frankfurt National Assembly) and Richard Wagner, supported the political aspirations of many Germans.
The meeting of the Frankfurt Assembly was divided between liberals and conservatives as well as by those who
wanted a strong national government and those that wanted each German state to retain large amounts of independence. It
was also divided over how large the German state should be – there were German populations scattered all across Central
and Eastern Europe – including Austrian, French, and Russian territory. One side wanted to extend Germany to include
all German peoples and was called the Gross-Deutschland or “Greater German” faction. The other side, called the KleinDeutschland or “Clean German” faction, had more votes and wanted the German State to include only Prussia and the
German Confederation. Despite the differences, all sides agreed to make the Prussian king Frederick William the king of
this new state. However, Frederick William responded by saying he did not want “a crown from the gutter” of the elected
assembly. This was a snub to the Frankfurt Assembly in which Fredrick William made it clear that he did not think the
assembly had legitimacy to offer him the crown. After his refusal to accept this crown, the revolt in Germany collapsed
and the divided groups in the Frankfurt Assembly fell into infighting. The combined armies of Prussia and Austria
restored the traditional rulers to the German Confederation.
In total, the revolts of 1830 and 1848 seemed to have little impact on European government and society. In the
end, the traditional powers seemed to have prevailed. However, the traditional order had been shaken and some powerful
leaders, such as Metternich, had lost power and influence. In addition, the middle class did gain some political and
economic power in some countries. A crucial point was that the workers were no better after the revolts. The workers
had to wait for the gradual improvement of economic conditions to lift them out of poverty and for World War One to
destroy the traditional power of the kings and nobles. The real change in Europe marked by these revolts was the force of
nationalism that exerted a growing force on the map of Europe, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. This force
would continue to affect Europe through the twentieth century.
The Unification of Italy
Before 1815, the country of Italy did not exist. Instead, the territory of Italy was comprised of several kingdoms
that were ruled by Italian nobles, the Pope, or foreign countries (Austria & France). Even though they were politically
divided into different countries, the Italians did have a common national identity based on a common language, history
(ancient Rome) and religion (Roman Catholicism).
The cause of Italian liberation and unification, called Risorgimento, while desirable to many Italians was often
blocked by both internal division and external powers, mainly France and Austria. Similar to the rest of Europe, liberal
nationalistic revolts erupted in northern Italy in 1848 and were crushed by French and Austrian forces. Despite this set
back, over the next two decades, Italy would form itself into a united country, largely as the result of two men.
The first was Count Camillo Cavour , a wealthy Italian noble by birth, whose liberal views had kept him out of
government until the revolts of 1848. At this point, he became a minister in the
Piedmont Parliament (combination of Sardina and Piedmont) and helped develop and
modernize northern Italy. Cavour wanted to unite all of Italy under the rule of the
Piedmont King, Victor Emmanuel III. Cavour believed that a strong and practical
foreign policy was the key to uniting Italy. His goal was to use the power of other
European nations (England and France) to force Austria to give up its claims to Italian
territory. With the assistance of an alliance with Napoleon III of France, Piedmont
fought a war in 1858 with Austria and was able to unite northern Italy under the control
of Victor Emmanuel III. After this Cavour began to scheme about how to extend power
down into southern Italy, particularly the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal States
around Rome. It was during the war between France and Austria, following the Battle
of Solferino in October, that Henry Dunant organized civilians to treat wounded soldiers on the battlefield. Dunant’s
experience caused him to organize the First Geneva Convention in 1864 and the formation of the International Red Cross.
The second man involved in Italian unification was Giuseppe Garibaldi, an international revolutionary and
military leader in southern Italy. Garibaldi formed an army called “Red Shirts” (because their uniform was a red shirt) to
fight the French supported rulers of Sicily and Southern Italy (Naples). Garibaldi was support by Cavour. Beginning in
1860, Garibaldi and his Red Shirts were able to quickly conquer both areas. After this, Garibaldi began to march
northward toward Rome with the goal of driving the French from the “capital” city of Italy. However, this was more
complicated than just driving out the French. The French were supporting the Pope, who controlled Rome and the region
of Central Italy known as the Papal States. The Pope opposed Italian unification and, as the leader of the Roman Catholic
Church, influenced many Italians. Garabaldi’s advance on Rome appeared to be a point of crisis. But, before Garibaldi
could attack Rome, Cavour convinced Garibaldi to not attack Rome and instead to bring Northern and Southern Italy
together into one country under the rule of King Victor Emmanuel III who became the King of Italy.
As a result, the city of Rome was outside the united country of Italy and remained under the control of the Pope.
Only in 1870, as a result of the Franco-Prussian War, did the city of Rome become part of Italy. The pope was allowed to
rule one section of Rome called the Vatican City. After Italian unification, American president Abraham Lincoln offered
Garibaldi the command of an Italian unit in the Union Army in the American Civil War. But, Garibaldi turned it down
because he wanted to command the whole Union Army!
The newly united Italy faced many economic and religious problems that made it difficult to form and united
nation. Italian leader Massimo d’Azeglio remarked at the first meeting of the Italian parliament, “We have made Italy.
Now we must make Italians.” The north was industrial and prosperous while the south was rural and poor. This southern
rural poverty would drive millions of Italians to immigrate to the United States and Argentina. While most Italians were
Roman Catholics (a point of unity) the leader of the Catholic Church, the Pope, did not support Italian unification and
opposed the new Italy. In a very religious country this weakened the power of the national government. In addition,
some Italian nationalists wanted to expand the borders of Italy include Italians who lived in neighboring countries. This
was called “Italia Irredenta” or “Italy unredeemed”.
Later, in the 1920’s Italian dictator Benito Mussolini would draw upon many points of Italian nationalism in
forming his Fascist Party – he would call his followers the “Black Shirts” and attempt to conquer areas of “Italia
Irredenta” particularly in the area of the Balkans.
Unification of Germany
The origin of the country of Germany was the area of the Holy Roman Empire. One result of Napoleon’s
conquest was the end of the Holy Roman Empire. He reorganized the German territory into 39 countries called the
German Confederation. Following his defeat, the German Confederation was dominated by Austria. However, Austria
was a weakening empire and had difficulty keeping the German Confederation under its
control.
The other major German power, Prussia, due to its strong army and industry,
was a growing power in the German Confederation. The earlier attempt to unite the
German Confederation in 1848 ended in failure when Prussian king Frederich William
refused the crown offered by the Frankfurt Assembly. Frederich William eventually
went insane and, in 1861, he was replace by Wilhelm I. The next year, Wilhelm I
appointed Otto von Bismarck to be his Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. Bismarck
was a Junker or Prussian noble. He was politically conservative and believed that
Prussia should be a militaristic state or society based around the military. It was the
work of Otto von Bismarck that would unite Germany under the control of Prussia.
Over the next 27 years, while Wilhelm I held the title of King of Prussia, in
reality Bismarck ruled Prussia. As Prime Minister, Bismarck carried out a policy called
“Realpolitik” or “politics of reality”. This policy is based on the idea that power, strategy and military force, not idealism
and peaceful relations, should drive the foreign policy of Prussia toward the goal of unifying Germany. As part of this,
Bismarck believed the domestic policies of the Prussian government should work to achieve the foreign policy goals of
Prussia. Two quotes from Bismarck that express this idea are:
“The great questions of the day will not be settled by speeches or by majority decisions – that was the mistake of 1848 and
1849 – but by blood and iron”
“Germany does not look to Prussia’s liberalism, but to her power.”
Bismarck became known as the “Iron Chancellor”. To achieve German unity under Prussian domination,
Bismarck ignored the Prussian parliament and spent government money on building Prussian industry with the goal of
supporting a powerful modern military. Between 1864 and 1871, in an effort to unify Germany under Prussian control,
Bismarck planned, organized and led Prussia though a series of three wars against Denmark, Austria, and France, to bring
the lands of the German Confederation under the control of Prussia. Even though both the Austrian and French armies
outnumbered the Prussian army, the highly organized and well-equipped Prussian army quickly defeated each of its
enemies in wars that lasted only one or two battles. True to his concept of Realpolitik, Bismarck did not fight the wars to
conquer these other European countries or rule their people. He fought for and only took “German” territory.
In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, in seven weeks the Prussian army defeated the combined armies of the
German Confederation and Austria. The Austrians were crushed in the Battle of Sadova in which the Austrians lost
10,000 men in twenty minutes as they attacked the Prussian Army, which was armed with breach-loading rifles that could
fire five times faster than the Austrian rifles. The other countries of Europe were shocked by the speed at which Austria
had been defeated. Prussian victory in this war was largely based on its use of railroads, telegraphs, and modern gunnery.
Once the war had settled Prussia’s dominance over the German Confederation, Bismarck moved very quickly to make an
alliance with Austria, for use in a future war against France. The defeat forced Austrian Emperor Franz-Joseph to reform
the Austrian Empire, including establishing a parliament and giving equal self-government to Hungary. From this point
on, Austria was called the Austria-Hungarian Empire.
After the defeat of Austria, only France stood as an obstacle to Prussia unifying Germany under its control.
French Emperor, Napoleon III found himself in conflict with Bismarck over a number of issues in Europe, which
generally went in favor of Bismarck. In an effort to demonstrate French dominance, Napoleon III allowed himself to be
led into a diplomatic trap by Bismarck. On July 19, 1870, bowing to popular demands, Napoleon III declared war on
Prussia – he expected that the larger French army would crush the Prussians. However, the faster moving and better
equipped Prussian army surrounded the French army and Napoleon III at the Battle of Sedan. Following the battle on
September 1, Napoleon III became a prisoner of Bismarck and the Second French Empire ended.
The surrender of Napoleon III did not bring an end to the Franco-Prussian War. France formed a new
government called the Government of National Defense to negotiate a peace treaty with Prussia. As a condition for peace,
Bismarck demanded that France surrender the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine to Prussia. The French refused to meet
this demand and quickly raised a new army. As the French regrouped their army, the Prussian army laid siege to Paris.
For four months, the Prussian army attacked Paris while the Parisians slowly ran out of food. While the siege of Paris
continued, Bismarck further insulted the French by having the Prussian king Wilhelm I proclaimed Emperor of Germany,
or Kaiser, at the French palace of Versailles, on January 18, 1871. For the Germans, this event began the Second German
Empire, called the Second Reich (the First Reich was Charlemagne’s Frankish kingdom of the Middle Ages). During this
period, Germany adopted its national anthem, Deutshland Uber Allis” or “Germany Over All”.
Facing mass starvation and after butchering all the animals Paris, the Government of National Defense
surrendered to the Prussians on January 28, 1871. In the Treaty of Frankfurt, Bismarck was determined to eliminate
France as a possible threat to Prussian power in Europe. The treaty forced the French to surrender the provinces of Alsace
and Lorraine to Prussia and pay the Prussians 5 billion francs in reparations for the war. The combination of lost territory
and war reparations would remain a point of bitterness for the French until the end of World War One, when France
would have its revenge.
After the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the collapse of the Second Empire, France returned to being a
republic. This republic was built on the government that had developed under Napoleon III in the liberal period of his
rule. However, after the war, France was a bitterly divided society that was caught in never ending political conflict
between the liberals, who supported the Republican ideals that stretched back to the French Revolution, and the
conservatives, who still wanted some form of monarchy. Adolphe Thiers, a French leader in the Republican government
said that this was "the form of government that divides France least".
Back in Germany, the series of Prussian victories and the formation of a united Germany did more than create a
united Germany and embittered France. It destabilized the balance of power in Europe that had existed since the
formation of the Concert of Europe. Prior to German unification, France had been the country whose power threatened
European peace. Now Germany was emerging as a potential new menace. Bismarck recognized the increased risk of
another war and made a series of treaties to secure the future of a united Germany, by diplomatically isolating France. In
1881, Bismarck formed the Three Emperors League of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, which guaranteed the
neutrality of the other nations if any nation was involved in a war with a fourth major power. This treaty was designed to
isolate France and prevent it from forming an alliance with Russia, which would threaten Germany from two sides. The
German fear of fighting a simultaneous war against both France and Russia would be a major factor in the outbreak of
World War One.
For Bismarck, the expansion of Prussia to dominate all of Germany was only one part of the struggle of unifying
Germany. There was still the task of creating a German government. Distrustful of a liberal democracy, which he could
not control, Bismarck formed a government that placed political power in the hands of the Emperor and his top advisors.
Leading the Second Reich was the Emperor. Below the Emperor were two “parliamentary” bodies. The Bundesrat, made
up of representatives of each German state and controlled by the Chancellor (which for the next 20 years was Bismarck),
who was appointed by the Emperor. The second parliamentary body was the Reichstag whose members were popularly
elected. While this gave the impression of democracy, all real political power lay with the Bundesrat and the Reichstag
was little more than a “talking shop”.
In addition, Bismarck worked to suppress any group or idea he felt threatened German unity. For this reason,
Bismarck organized the “Kulterkampf” or “cultural struggle” against Catholics and socialists. In many of these efforts,
Bismarck used invented fears of “foreign” Catholic interference or socialist revolution to manipulate the Reichstag to
support his policies. However, these policies did not work, and true to Realpolitik, rather than waste his efforts in a
struggle against groups he could not defeat, Bismarck adopted policies that would win these groups to his side. He
enacted a series of laws and social programs that assisted the working classes. For example, Bismarck passed laws that
gave workers workplace protection, the elderly social security, and the young compulsory education. However, his
motivation was not to meet socialist demands, but to turn the workers away from supporting the socialists. As he said, “to
create in the great mass of have-nots a conservative frame of mind.”
In 1888, Bismarck’s patron, Emperor Wilhelm I died and was succeeded by his grandson Wilhelm II. The young
Emperor Wilhelm II was vain, impulsive, and militaristic. He resisted Bismarck’s assistance and in 1890, Bismarck
resigned his position of Chancellor. Bismarck had created a powerful united Germany that boasted a strong industrial
base and army. However, it was politically immature and based around the unchecked power of the Emperor.
Furthermore, there was no movement toward developing democracy. Instead, the tendency of the German government
was to increase and extend the power and domain. In addition, the peace of Europe was based on the practice of balance
of power, which was becoming increasingly instable.