Chapter 23: State Building and Social Change in Europe, 1850-1871

  • Revolutions of 1848   * Revolution from lower classes was a failure   * Governments responded by increasing centralization of power
  • The Crimean War   * Fought over what great powers would do in response to the decline of Ottoman Empire   * England, France, Austria and Russia al wanted to increase their sphere of influence in the region   * Isolated Russia from European politics   * Aided Prussia in expanding into Central Europe
  • France was given rights over Roman Catholics in the Ottoman Empire (1852)
  • Russians claimed right to rule over Eastern Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire (1853)   * Turks rejected the Russian claim   * Russians invaded Danubian Principalities and sunk Turkish fleet at the Battle of Sinope   * Russians tried direct terms of peace with England and france rejecting terms and declaring war on Russia
  • September 9, 1854: English and French troops arrived in Crimea   * War ended with Peace of Paris 1856
  • Cost of Crimean War   * 750,000 dead, most being Russians   * Bad medical conditions
  • Risorgimento was a cultural and political movement meant to reunify Italy   * Failed throughout first half of the 19th Century   * Treaty of Plombieres
  • 1860: Piedmont-Sardinia joined with rest of northern Italy
  • 1866: Prussia defeated Austria
  • Italy claimed Venetian provinces and Papal States
  • 1870: Prussians defeated the French
  • Otto Von Bismarck: force behind German Unification   * Believed that traditional elites needed to join nationalists to survive   * Used common ground of nationalism in order to manipulate and weaken liberals
  • Kaiser Wilhelm I attempted to reorganize the military in 1862   * Traditional elites reacted strongly
  • Bismarck established alliance with Austria in 1846
  • Seven Weeks War (1866)   * Started due to administrative disagreements between Austria and Prussia over territory of Schleswig   * Prussian victory   * Peace terms removed Austria from German unification
  • Franco-Prussian War (1870)   * Southern German states were afraid of unification around Prussian power   * Napoleon III of France was against a strong Prussia per French interests   * French declared war   * Southern German and Prussians united and won
  • German Unification   * Became greatest industrial empire in Europe   * Shift in balance of power   * Allowed for a yearning for national prestige in German to exist
  • Ideology and symbolism allowed states t o make new national identities
  • Nationalism became connected to conflict and violence
  • Realism appeared through art, literature, science, and history
  • Paris Commune: continued struggle of people of Paris after Paris fell to Prussia
  • France: Second Empire 1852-1870
  • England: Liberal Parliamentary Democracy assisted reform   * England faced many social issues as a result of unchecked industrialization and urbanization   * 1868-1874: Great Ministry   * 1874-1880: Tory Democracy   * 1880: Liberals were back in power   * 1884: Universal Male Suffrage
  • Russia   * started as unreformed semi-feudal autocracy   * Tsar had absolute power   * Alexander II “Tsar Liberator” ended serfdom and freed serfs and gave them land   * Economic reforms allowed for political reforms