Ideologies of Change: Europe 1815-1914
Unificationof
Italy&
Germany
Creation of Italy and Germany
Revolutions reverberated throughout Western Europe:
- Failures did not diminish impact:
‘To what extent was urban middle class and some working/peasant class ready to rally to a Strong National
State – even an essentially Conservatist one?’
[paraphrasing Text 728]
Meaning of ‘Nationalism’
Significance: Nationalist = Strong
- Nationalism being associated by peoples of all classes to idea of ‘strong state’
- 1850s – 1860s: ‘Great political question’ : how will this play out ? [text 728]
- Implies both: ‘how will states’ exploit this growing popular impression and ‘how will people’ respond?
Italy
Congress of Vienna: 1814-15|ITALY: “ A Geographical Expression” (Metternich)
- North: rich, industrializing provinces under Austria’s control
- West Piedmont + Island of Sardinia: Kingdom
- Tuscany/Central: huge region, included former Mediterranten commercial capital, Florence
Italy- “Papal States” (central): autonomous
- South: Kingdom of two Sicilies (one island, one mainland)
Various ‘talk’ of Unification with no focus over early 19th century
Italy
1848: new political impetus
- Giuseppe Mazzini: demanding ‘democracy’, led uprising
- immediately crushed by Austria
Response- Pope Fled Rome
- King of Sardinia: allowed for some reforms ‘under duress’
Italy
Sardinia vs ‘the North’:
- Sardinia led by Aristocrat Count Cavour
- Sympathzised with conservative middle-class interests: hope to ‘use them’ to expandsardinia’s influence
- Strategic political thinker: exploited rivalry between Austria (occupier of north) and France
- Provoked short-lived war which did not accomplish his goals: resigned from political position
Count ‘Camille Benso’Cavour(1810-1861)
First Prime Minister ItalyMarch – June 1861
Italy
Strategy Provoked War/Austrian Occupation in North:
- Incited Central Regions, especially urban centres, to rebel
- First wide-spread protest
- Leaders demanded ‘unification’ with Sardinia
Successful: ironically, Cavour’s initial goals achieved through actions popular protest Central Italy – returned to power
Italy
Leaving “The Sicilies”: - Island and Mainland regions under the a Bourbon family remained outside the fray
- Cavour and Austria were concerned with the north and central regions: the ‘Sicilies’ were largely overlookeed
Italy
Giuseppe Garibaldi [Text p.730]
- Described as a Romantic, a Radical, a Revolutionary
- Poor sailor’s son, he naturally moved into the military
- Engaged in several successful battles against Austria
- Catapulted to positon of political visibilty
Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882)
[Photo 1861]
Italy
Envisaged a united Kingdom of Sicily:
- Appealed to peasantry: generated rebellion
- Successful in taking Palermo, moving to mainland
- Goal: Papal States and Rome
Italy
Count Cavour:
- Said to have supported Garibaldi: but goals very different
- Sent his own forces to Papal States: occupied all but Rome itself
- “intercepted” Garibaldi: allowed him victory in Naples but denied him autonomy for Sicily
Italy
“Parliamentary Monarchy”:
- Same form government as seen elsewhere: King Sardinia now ‘King’ of Italy (except for Rome and Venice)
- “neither Radical, as Garibaldi hoped, nor truly Democratic” [Text]
- Small minority males could vote: ‘propertied’ elite
- Most of middle class as disenfranchised as workers
Italy
Watch animated ‘map’: Unification of Italy 1829 -1871
[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Italian-unification.gif]
Italy
Most Significant: regional economies
- North: industrializing (Milan, Turin), growing prosperous middle/business class
- South: agrarian, stagnant – increasingly poor economy
- Created significant social and cultural differences: North looking to industrialized Europe, especially France more than to southern regions of new ‘unified’ country
Germany
German Confederation 1848:
- Austria-Prussia: engaged in ‘balancing act’ – curbing the power of the other
- Shared same range of conservative, liberal ideas
- Critical catalyst: economy more than ideology
Germany
Economy:
- Industry flourishing across northern regions
- 1853: ‘Customs Union’ – facilitating movement raw materials, manufactured goods
- All states but Austria had joined: Austria not as well situated for industrial growth
Germany
“Germany without Austria was becoming an Economic Reality” [Text] before it became a political one
- Growing industrial economy: equally growing middle class
- Sharing ‘business’, laissez-faire values ‘liberalism’
- Increasingly in contrast to Austria’s ‘traditional conservatism’
Germany
Political Situation: 1848
- Prussian monarchy: King Wilhelm I
- Responded to ‘revolutions’, rebellions with reforms permitting limited middle-class voice
- By late 1850s, controlled parliament
Germany
King was political strategist:
- Saw success of Italy vis-à-vis Austria: why not take advantage of moment to launch war?
- Problem: ‘war’ was in interests of traditional, conservative elites – not new business oriented middle class
- Parliament rejected militaristic budgets
Germany
Count Otto von Bismark:
- 1862 King appointed Bismark head of New Ministry
- Used this power to overlook Parliament
- Famous speech: “great questions of the day will not be decided by speeches and resolutions…[the tools of democracy and parliament] … but by ‘Blood and Iron’ “
- Return to traditional military power/politics
Count Otto von Bismark1815 – 1890
First Chancellor of Unified ‘Germany’1871-1890
Germany
Political Stand-off: 1862 -1866
- Elections continued to put liberal majorities into Parliament
- Bismark continued to ignore Parliament: how?
- Played to ‘lower assembly’: representatives elected by universal male vote – interests different from middle class
Bismark’s Nightmare:
Visited by ‘Death’Who is saying “Thank You”
[by Honore Daumier, Aug. 1870]
Germany
Bismark followed mandate: war
- 1866: attacked Austria
- Prussia’s industrialized economy: permitted investing in modernized, reorganized army
- Austria’s army traditional: no match for Prussian strength
Defeated quickly: forced out of German Confederation
Germany
‘North German Confederation’
- Bismark dissolved remaining confederation, formed new ‘North German’ grouping
- Included most northern states of Austrian empire
- Led by Prussia
Germany
Role of Nationalism:
- Political strategy: Bismark had alienated powerful middle-class by ignoring wishes of parliament
- Went back and asked for ‘retro-active’ support for budget that had supported war
- Parliament could not reject success!
Germany
Benefits:
- War had been ‘success’
- New constitution brought promise of new economic growth
- Middle Class saw interests coincide with rise of ‘strong government’: liberalism found middle ground with conservatism
Germany
1870: war with France
- Much historical discussion about Bismark’s ‘editing’ a telegram to force provoke war
- Reality: France concerned about rise of Prussia, new Confederation – sought opportunity to ‘limit’ power
- Bad Timing: after victory against Austria, nationalist sentiments ruled Prussian parliament – all classes behind Bismark
GermanyFranco-Prussian War:
- Same industrial ‘power’ that divided Prussia from Austria had also pushed it ahead of France
- Efforts continued to develop economy, urbanize etc but France, military no competition for Prussia
- Quick victory: humiliating
- Paris: held out for several months, starved into submission
Germany
Expansion of ‘confederation’:
- Bismark’s military success brought many of southern (former) German Confederation states into new political union
- Defeat of France literally marked Birth of Germany
- [Text speaks of ‘German Empire’ – raises confusion with creation of overseas empire from 1880s]
North German Confederation (red). Southern German states joined 1870 to form the German
Empire (orange). Alsace-Lorraine annexed 1871 (tan).
Germany
Reflections:
- Seeing growing role ‘Nationalism’ in holding together fragile political/ideological coalitions
- Divergent, often contradictory interests could only be overcome in short term
- Political ‘use’ nationalism gave longevity to coalitions
Germany“Rhetoric and Ritual”:
- Important aspects of Nationalism (last day)
- But what pushed full support for Bismark and militarism was longer-term vision of economic gain
- Not everyone supported [cartoons of Honore Daumier] but minority in 1860s, 1870s
- Same alliances would also support building of overseas empire 1880s-1890s
Germany
Bismark and a ‘Unified Germany’:
- Continued to ‘play off’ two levels of representative government: Middle Class Parliament vs ‘popular’ lower chamber (‘Reichstag’)
- Wary of rise ‘socialism’: Germany ‘home’ Marx, Engels (1848 ‘Communist Manifesto’)
- Had become basis for German Social Democratic Party
Germany
1878: party outlawed
- Could control ‘party’ but not its politics: socialist values continued to have followers
- Bismark: ‘appeased’ workers with progressive programmes [as Britain had done earlier in century]
- Went much further: national health programme, old-age pensions – ironic most far-reaching ‘socialist’ policies came from militaristic, conservative government
Germany
1890: King ‘Kaiser’ Wilhelm II took throne
- Conscious of Bismark’s personal power: saw it as competition to his own
- Dismissed him but essentially followed same political strategies: kept influence ‘socialism’ at by continuing to support poor, workers
- Limited political reforms kept ‘moderate’ middle class on side until WWI
Italy & Germany
“How did these developments shape European Politics in the decades before WWI?” [Text p.743]
- Two Significant Issues:
- Emergence of ‘Modern Politics’
- Rise of Anti-Semitism
Rise ‘Modern Politics’
From 1848-1870:
- Era saw overall change in ‘political behaviour’
- Elites, aristocracies: to keep power several different groups either had to be appeased individually or brought together
- Middle Class aware of ‘power’ it could exercise in process
Rise ‘Modern Politics’- France example of what happened when neither policy
successfully followed
- Successful unification Italy, Germany: underscored importance of dealing with emergent ‘class differences’
Showed that ideological differences could be overcome – liberals could co-exist/support conservatives – if nationalism ‘used’ effectively
Rise ‘Modern Politics’
Nationalism in late-19th Century Politics:
- Directed ‘inward’: rise of Anti-Semitism in Western (and Eastern) Europe
- Directed ‘outward’: rise of ‘Colonial Empires’ in ‘non-West’
Rise of Anti-Semitism• To be continued