German and Italian Unification

Divided Italy

 Following the Revolution of 1848, the

Risorgimento

seemed a distant dream.

 Italy remained divided into three main parts:    Kingdom of the Two Sicilies – ruled by Bourbon monarch.

Pope ruled the Papal States.

In the North, Sardinia-Piedmont was ruled by the House of Savoy; Tuscany, Modena and Parma were dominated by Austria while Venice and Lombardy were part of the Austria Empire.

Count Camillo Cavour (1810-1861)

 Born of nobility, he became a liberal early in his career.

 In 1848, he was elected to the new Piedmontese Parliament and rose through the ranks.



King Victor Emmanuel II

(r. 1849-1878) appointed him premier in 1852.

Count Camillo Cavour

 Cavour quickly instituted a program of liberal reforms, hoping to discredit Austrian tyranny and creating a united North Italian state.

 He reformed the currency and finance systems.

 Balanced the state budget.

  He modernized railroads and factories.

He established banks.

Piedmont – Austrian War

 Cavour sought alliance with France to help deal with Austria.

  Piedmont sends troops to the Crimea.

Napoleon III agrees to deal with Cavour.

 Provides French troops to fight against Austria.

 Piedmont would gain Lombardy and Venetia.

 France would gain Savoy and Nice.  Cavour provokes Austria into war in April 1859.

Piedmont – Austrian War

 Austria attacked, but were turned back by the Piedmontese and the French at the

Battles of Magenta and Solferino

.

 Napoleon III made a separate peace with Austria (Peace of Villafranca), giving Lombardy to Piedmont but retaining Venice.

 Cavour resigned in disgust, but returned in 1860 when revolutionary assemblies across northern Italy moved to join with Piedmont.

Revolution in Southern Italy

 Revolution broke out in Southern Italy in 1860 against Bourbon

Francis II

.

 Guiseppe Garibaldi sailed south with 1000 Red Shirts to Sicily to support the revolt, taking Palermo.

 In August, they crossed to the Italian mainland, Francis II fled.

 On Sept. 7, Garibaldi took Naples.

The Kingdom of Italy

    Cavour then sent troops to take control of the Papal States before Garibaldi moved against Rome.

Garibaldi allowed the annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

On March 17, 1861 an Italian parliament proclaimed the Kingdom of Italy with Victor Emmanuel II as king.

Wars between Prussia and Austria and France allowed Venetia and Rome to be incorporated into Italy by 1870.

Divided Germany

 After 1848, liberal nationalists were in a weak position politically.

 The German Confederation was reestablished as a loose union of 39 states (including the powerful Prussia and Austria).

 The union was dominated by Austria, which held the presidency.

Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898)

    Bismarck was born on Prussian Junker aristocracy.

Worked unhappily in civil service and became a farmer.

Elected to the 1847.

Landtag

(Prussian Parliament) in Here he would begin his practice of

“realpolitik”

Otto von Bismarck

Wilhelm I    In 1852, he became Prussia’s rep. at the Confederation (later he became ambassador to Russia and France).

Wilhelm I

(r. 1861-1888) named him minister-president to push forward expansion of the military.

Despite liberal opposition, he raised taxes to do so, claiming change would come through “blood and iron.”

The Schleswig-Holstein Affair

 1863 annexation by Denmark infuriated German nationalists.

 Prussia and Austria allied to defeat Demark in 1864.

 The

Convention of Gastein

provided for joint Austrian-Prussian rule of the duchies.

 Bismarck began making deals with France, Italy and Russia for neutrality in dealing with Austria.

The Seven Weeks War

   In 1866, Prussia accused Austria of violating the Convention of Gastein.

In June, they went to war.

Austrians were soundly defeated at the

Battle of Königgrätz

(Sadowa) on July 3.

 In the Treaty of Prague, Prussia gained several states in northern Germany, the German Conf. dissolved and Italy received Venetia.

The North German Confederation

 Prussia established the

North German Confederation

in 1867.

 South German states of Bavaria, Wurttemburg, Baden, and Hesse remained independent.

 Bismarck wanted to absorb them, but differences (south was Catholic and liberal) and French opposition made this difficult.

The Hohenzollern Candidacy

     An 1868 Spanish revolution resulted in the nomination of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern as king.

The French protested and the Prussians acquiesced.

At Elms, French Count Benedetti demanded further Prussian concessions, Wilhelm I refused.

Bismarck had notes of the meeting (known as the

Elms Dispatch

) released. Napoleon III was enraged and declared war on July 19, 1870.

The South German states allied with Prussia.

The Franco-Prussian War

    The German armies quickly mobilized and invaded France.

On Sept. 2, the Napoleon III was captured and a large part of the French Army surrendered at Sedan.

In Paris, rebels proclaimed the

Third French Republic

and continued the war.

On May 10, the Treaty of Frankfurt ended the war.

 Germany got the provinces of

Alsace and Lorraine

and 5 billion francs.

 The French greatly resented their defeat.

The German Reich

 During the war negotiations continued in Germany.

 As a result, on Jan. 18, 1871 Wilhelm I was proclaimed Kaiser before an assembly of German princes in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.

 The unification of Germany was complete, Bismarck became Chancellor.

Lessons and Impact

    Liberal nationalists had failed to unify Germany and Italy from below in 1848 .

Where they failed, conservative nationalists were able to succeed from above in the 1860s.

The unification of Germany and Italy changed the balance of power established at the Congress of Vienna (1815) at the expense of Austria and France.

Immediately, Germany became the most powerful nation on the European continent.