Download A03 The making of the Nation States Notes

A3: The Making of Nation States: Uniting Italy and Germany:
What did Cavour do for Piedmont

Cavour began to introduce modern farming methods on his estates and also
encouraged the development of banking and railways.

He supported the creation of a Piedmontese constitution, which the king granted in
1848.

In 1850 he was the author of a Bill which reduced the power of the Catholic Church
and abolished the Church courts.

In 1850 Cavour became a government minister for agriculture and commerce, but
later also for the navy and finance. He raised taxes to build more railways.

He arranged treaties with Austria, Britain and France and invited foreign banks to
invest money in Piedmont.

In 1852 Cavour became the Prime Minister of Piedmont. His main aim was to make
Piedmont a strong, modern country and he largely succeeded.

In 1848-9, when there had been a revolt against the Austrian in Venice. Piedmont had
declared war on Austria and had tried to drive them out of Italy, but the Piedmontese
army had been disastrously defeated.

It was obvious that if Italy was to be rid of the Austrians, Piedmont would need
foreign help.
How did Cavour defeat Austria?

He offered to support Britain and France in the Crimean War. The Piedmontese did
not do very much and the British and French did not offer much in return.

Cavour’s speech at the peace conference in Paris was reported in French newspapers.
He received a good deal of attention and a great deal of sympathy.

In January 1858 an Italian called Orsini tried to assassinate Napoleon III, the Emperor
of France. Cavour went out of his way to round up anyone who could have been
involved in the plot.

Napoleon III decided that he ought to help and invited Cavour to meet him in July.
Cavour travelled in disguise, so that the meeting could be kept secret.

Napoleon offered to help Piedmont against Austria, providing that Cavour could
come up with a good reason for French intervention. Piedmont would find a way of
provoking the Austrians, France would intervene and would then receive Savoy and
Nice in return for its troubles.

In March 1859 all Piedmontese army reserves were ordered to report for duty. The
Austrians ordered Piedmont to stand down its army. Cavour rejected the ultimatum
and the Austrians invaded Piedmont.

French forces were sent to support the Piedmontese army and won two victories at
Magenta and Solferino. The second battle was so bloody that Napoleon was horrified
at the loss of life and decided to seek an armistice.

When news of the war had spread, the people in the Austrian duchies had driven out
their rulers.

Napoleon was concerned and met the Austrian emperor at Villafranca in July 1859.
Lombardy was handed over, Venetia remained Austrian. In the duchies, the Austrian
rulers would be reinstated.

But when the rulers of the duchies tried to return in August and September 1859, they
were rejected and all four duchies voted to be united with Piedmont.

Cavour managed to persuade Napoleon to accept the decisions. Napoleon agreed, but
demanded Nice and Savoy as a reward.
How did Garibaldi become involved?

In April 1860 there was a revolt against the king of Naples in Sicily. In Piedmont,
Garibaldi decided to go to the support of the people of Naples.

Garibaldi had planning to march to Nice to defend it against the French when he
heard of the revolt in Sicily.

Cavour almost certainly knew what was going on and did very little to stop Garibaldi
sailing for Sicily. He was quite happy to take advantage of Garibaldi. The Thousand
were all volunteers.

Garibaldi soon defeated the king’s forces and by the end of July he had driven them
out of Sicily. In August he decided to follow them onto the Italian mainland.

Within two weeks Garibaldi’s men had taken the city of Naples and the king fled. He
now planned to march north, take control of the Papal States and then possibly attack
the Austrians in Venetia.
Why did Cavour intervene?

Cavour knew that Garibaldi was loyal to the kingdom of Piedmont and so had not
been concerned when he overran Sicily and Naples.

But if Garibaldi attacked Rome, the French would almost certainly intervene.

In September 1860, Cavour ordered the Piedmontese army to invade the Papal States
and march south to meet Garibaldi.

Garibaldi was quite happy, however, to hand over all of his conquests to Victor
Emmanuel, the king of Piedmont.

Most of the Papal States broke away from the Pope and voted for union with
Piedmont. Naples and Sicily did the same.

The kingdom of Piedmont was more than twice as big as it had been at the beginning
of the year

Victor Emmanuel became the first King of Italy.
How did Venice and Rome become part of Italy?

In May 1866 Italy signed a treaty with Prussia. The following month the Prussians
declared war on Austria. The Austrians wanted to keep the French out of the war and
so they agreed to hand over Venetia whatever happened in the war.

The Italians also declared war on Austria in support of Prussia. The Prussian army
defeated the Austrian very easily.

The Italians were defeated in battles on land and at sea. Nevertheless, the Austrians
had to hand over Venetia and it became part of Italy. Now only Rome was left.

In 1870 France declared war on Prussia and the French troops were withdrawn from
Rome.

After a short battle, the city was occupied by the Italian army and became part of Italy
in October. It was immediately proclaimed the capital. Italy was now a united country
for the first time since the Roman Empire.
B2: Bismarck’s wars, 1862-71
Why was the Prussian Army reformed?

Between 1820 and the late 1850s the population of Prussia had grown from
10,000,000 to about 18,000,000. But the army had remained the same size.

In 1859, Roon, the Minister for War, introduced a series of changes that were
intended to make the army more efficient.

He wanted to increase the annual intake of conscripts from 40,000 to 63,000.
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Conscripts would still spend three years in line regiments, but would then spend
another four years in the reserve.

The total effect of the changes would mean the creation of thirty-nine new infantry
regiments and ten new cavalry regiments. This would double the size of the Prussian
army to about 400,000 men.

The Prussian parliament refused to pay for the extra cost of the new regiments.

King Wilhelm appointed Otto von Bismarck as Minister-President in the hope that he
could get the reforms through the parliament.

In 1863 Bismarck simply ignored Parliament and began to collect the new taxes
without its approval.

He claimed that when there was a dispute between the government and parliament the
king had the power to decide what was to be done.

The Prussian commanders had observed the battles fought in Italy. They realised that
in future wars, the ability of infantry soldiers to fire quickly and accurately would be
all-important.

The Prussian army introduced a new weapon, the Dreyse needle gun. The bullet was
inserted in the breech at the back of the barrel and not down the muzzle. The Dreyse
was a needle gun. The Dreyse gave the Prussians a big advantage in the wars in 1864
and 1866.

The Prussian army became more much efficient and organised. On the battle-field it
was able to carry out manoeuvres with greater precision and use artillery with much
greater accuracy.
Why did war break out with Denmark in 1864?

Schleswig and Holstein were two tiny provinces between Germany and Denmark.

In the early 1860s King Frederick VII of Denmark was urged to take over Schleswig
by the Danish parliament and the King of Sweden.
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In 1863, Frederick announced that Schleswig was part of Denmark.

The German Confederation met in July and demanded that the two provinces be
retaken by force..

German troops entered Holstein in December 1863, but the key event was an alliance
between Austria and Prussia on 16 January 1864.

On 1 February the Austrians and Prussians invaded Schleswig and Holstein. The
Danes were crushed and they were forced to surrender Schleswig and Holstein

Bismarck wanted the provinces for Prussia. In August 1865, Austria and Prussia met
at Gastein and agreed that they would jointly hold sovereignty of Schleswig and
Holstein.
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Prussia would take control of Schleswig and Austria would take Holstein. Bismarck
expected that this would only be a temporary agreement.
Why did Bismarck attack Austria in 1866?

Bismarck was out to make Prussia the dominant force in Germany. To do that Austria
had to be crushed.

After the Convention of Gastein, Bismarck’s main concerns were to try to isolate
Austria.
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Russia would certainly be on his side because the Russians and the Austrians were
becoming rivals in the Balkans.

In October 1865 Bismarck met Napoleon III at Biarritz. He tried to persuade
Napoleon to remain neutral. He suggested that Venetia would be handed over after a
war and hinted that the Rhineland might be given to France.

Napoleon expected the war to last a long time and both sides to be exhausted at the
end. He foresaw a situation in which he would be in a position to sort out the
settlement between the two sides.
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Bismarck signed an alliance with Italy in April. The Prussians generals wanted a war
on Austria on two fronts and hoped that the Italians would draw troops away from
Prussia.
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Bismarck now needed an excuse for war. As always, he did not want to appear to be
the aggressor and hoped that the Austrians would do something of which he could
make use.
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On 6 June 1866, the Austrian governor of Holstein summoned the Diet (parliament)
to discuss the future of the province.
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The Convention of Gastein said that the two provinces were the joint responsibility of
Austria and Prussia.

Bismarck claimed that the Austrians had broken the agreement On 12 June Austria
and Prussia broke off diplomatic relations.
Why were the Austrians defeated so easily?

Most people at the time expected an Austrian victory after a long war. The Prussians
appeared to be outnumbered.

The Austrians were overwhelmed by Prussian tactics and the needle gun.

The Prussian made very effective use of their new railways and the electric telegraph,
which meant that their forces were more mobile and could communicate much more
easily than their opponents.
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On 26 July an agreement was signed at Nikolsburg. The German Confederation was
dissolved and a series of German states were incorporated into Germany.

Northern Germany was formed into a new Confederation under German leadership
and four southern states remained independent. But they had to sign treaties with
Prussia to support it in case of a war with France.

Napoleon III asked Bismarck to help him get his hands on Luxembourg and Belgium.
Bismarck kept copies of the draft treaty for future use.
What was the Hohenzollern candidacy?

In 1868 there was a revolution in Spain and Queen Isabella was driven out. The
government looked around for a new king.

In early 1870 the Spanish invited Leopold of Hohenzollern to become king. Wilhelm
was not in favour and Leopold was against the move, but Bismarck persuaded both to
change their minds.
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A telegram was sent to Spain agreeing, but only if the Spanish Cortes (parliament)
voted in favour.
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Apparently that message was misunderstood and the Cortes was dismissed with out
any vote. In the meantime the actions of Wilhelm and Leopold became known in
Paris.

On 6 July the French Prime Minister attacked the decision and demanded that
Leopold withdraw. Britain and Russia joined in and the French suggested to the
Spanish that the offer of the throne should be withdrawn, and it was.

The French Prime Minister decided that the time had come to pay back Prussia for all
of the difficulties that France had endured over the last few years.

Benedetti, the French ambassador to Prussia, was ordered to ask Wilhelm for
confirmation of the withdrawal and for a promise that it would never be renewed.

Benedetti visited the king at Ems and was told that the king was very pleased with the
withdrawal. But when he was asked for formal confirmation, he refused until he had
received something in writing from Leopold’s father.
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Wilhelm then sent a telegram to Bismarck informing of the conversations with
Benedetti.
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Bismarck altered the telegram so that instead of sounding like a polite meeting, it
appeared that Benedetti had been insulted by the king.

The amended version was greeted with fury by the press in France. Napoleon and the
government were not keen on war, but the generals were convinced that they could
defeat Prussia and the press wound up public opinion.
On 15 July, France declared war on Prussia.
The Franco-Prussian War

In 1870 France had a population of 36,000,000, but an army of only 270,000.

Prussia could put 384,000 men into the field immediately. The Prussian army was
also able to move much more rapidly.

The railway network had been built under military supervision and the Prussians were
across the French border in days.
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By 2 September France was defeated and Napoleon III had been captured at Sedan.

Paris held out and the French government did not surrender until January 1871.
Why did the Prussians win so easily?

The Prussian army was highly organised and disciplined. It had also had the benefit
of two wars for battle experience.
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Prussia was well on the way to completing a successful industrial revolution. Its iron
and steel industries were becoming the most powerful in the world and were well
ahead of their French counterparts.
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Railways led to the points that the army would want to reach in the event of war.

The telegraph allowed control of armies on the battlefield and in several cases the
French were surrounded and forced to surrender in large numbers.
What were the results of the Franco-Prussian war in Germany?

Two of the four southern German states immediately joined the northern
Confederation. Bavaria and Wurttemburg held out.

Bismarck was able to reach a compromise in both cases. On 1 January 1871 the
German Empire was created and King Wilhelm I of Prussia became Kaiser Wilhelm I
of Germany
The Treaty of Frankfurt

The refusal of the French government to surrender and the behaviour of French
guerrillas forced him to agree to a victory parade through Paris on 1 March 1871.

France had to accept the other terms in the Treaty of Frankfurt in February of the
same year.

France had to agree to hand over the provinces of Alsace-Lorraine in north-eastern
France these included contained valuable agricultural land and iron ore fields.

France had to pay an indemnity of 5,000,000,000 francs to Germany. This was to pay
for the cost if the war, although almost all of the fighting had been on French soil.

Some areas of northern France were to be occupied by the German army until the
sum was handed over.
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In fact the sum proved relatively light and had been completely repaid by 1875.
What made Bismarck so successful from 1862 to 1871?

Bismarck was without doubt a great statesman. He was trying to predict what was
likely to happen next and to prepare for the consequences.

During each war he consulted his generals and only acted if they assured him that the
army would be successful.

Bismarck was outstanding at predicting how other people would react. This meant
that he was invariably one step ahead of his rivals and enemies.

Perhaps Bismarck’s greatest strength of all was his determination. His loyalty to
Prussia and its ruler was unquestionable.
Germany 1862-90
What was realpolitik?

In 1862 the plans to reform the Prussian army had run into trouble. The opposition in
the Prussian parliament had blocked the taxes that would be needed to pay for the
changes.

Bismarck’s solution to the problem was to try to arrange a compromise. But when the
opposition refused to reach an agreement, he decided to suspend parliament and go
ahead and collect the taxes anyway.

This action was an example of what has become known as ‘realpolitik’. This is a
difficult word to translate. It is probably best explained as ‘the end justifies the
means’.

Bismarck believed that all Prussians should be prepared to make sacrifices for the
good of their country. He was determined to make Prussia a powerful and united
country

Even more important was the way that Bismarck tried to force France to declare war
in July 1870.

Bismarck was sent a telegram by the king telling him about a meeting with the French
ambassador.

Bismarck deliberately changed the wording of the telegram so that it appeared that
the king had insulted the ambassador.

He then published the telegram in Prussian newspapers. In France people were
furious and the government was almost forced to declare war on Prussia by the
national press.
The creation of the German Empire

The Zollverein was set up in 1834 and eighteen states joined. Seven more states had
joined by the early 1850s. Most of these states were in northern Germany.

The Zollverein was simply an area in which goods could be traded without any
customs duties.

By the 1860s the Zollverein was so important that Austria tried to join. In 1870 only
four southern states remained independent, but they all joined the German Empire
when it was announced in January 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War.
What part did Bismarck play?

The German Empire was created by Bismarck. He persuaded all of the rulers of the
German states to accept King Wilhelm as the Emperor.

He also designed the way in which the Empire was to be run. In practice it was
Prussia that really counted.

Each state retained control over education, justice, agriculture, direct taxation and
local government.

The Empire could only raise income through indirect taxation, such as a sales tax.

Bismarck became Chancellor of the German Empire, but also remained MinisterPresident of Prussia.

He soon realised that it was more important to be Minister-President of Prussia, than
it was to be Chancellor of Germany.

Prussia that supplied the army and much of the finance. Bismarck also made sure that
as many as possible of the senior officials in the Imperial government were Prussian.

The German Empire had a parliament, the Reichstag, which was elected on universal
suffrage.

Imperial ministers did not have to do what the Reichstag wanted and the Reichstag
could not propose laws. It did, however, have to pass laws put forward by the
Chancellor.
Why did Bismarck come into conflict with the Catholics?

From 1871 almost 40% of the people of the Empire were Catholics. Universal
suffrage allowed Catholic voters to create the Centre Party.

Bismarck tried to get the Catholic Church to withdraw support from the Centre Party,
but when it refused, he decided to try to limit the influence of the Church.

Bismarck was not really being anti-Catholic. He wanted to make sure that the Empire
survived. He was prepared to take action against any groups that were attacking it.

At first all schools in Prussia were removed from the control of churches placed under
the supervision of the state.

In 1872 the Reichstag banned the Jesuits from setting up any institutions in the
Empire.

In 1873 the Prussian parliament passed the May Laws. Men who wanted to become
priests to attend university for three years before they began their training. All church
appointments could be vetoed by the state.

In 1874 Prussia introduced civil marriage.

In 1875 these laws were extended to all of the other German states.

In 1875, the Prussian government began to stop paying subsidies to the Church where
the new laws were ignored.

The laws were opposed by Catholics all over Germany.

But Bismarck soon needed support in efforts to sort out problems in the German
economy.

In 1879, when Bismarck did a deal with the Pope and the Church. The controls on the
clergy and loss of subsidies were abolished, but civil marriage and the ban on the
Jesuits were retained.
How did Bismarck deal with the Liberals?

In the 1870s Bismarck relied on the support of the Liberals in the Reichstag. They
were mostly wealthy, middle class businessmen and lawyers, who had made money
out of the Zollverein.

In the Empire the Liberals wanted power to lie in the hands of the people who made
Germany wealthy and who provided the income of the state.

In the early 1870s the Liberals helped Bismarck to centralise the Empire. A uniform
currency was set up. A Reichsbank was created.

In Prussia, some people objected very strongly to what was going on. In Prussia the
ruling class was called the Junkers. To them, the reforms seemed to be undermining
their influence and handing power over to the middle class.

In the late 1870s, the German economy began to suffer. Free trade had meant that
imports could come into Germany freely and without any duties.

Bismarck wanted to set tariffs that would have to be paid on foreign goods when they
came into Germany.

A Tariff Law was passed by the Reichstag in 1879. The Liberals opposed it.

In future Bismarck became more conservative. He appointed conservative ministers
and relied on the support of his fellow Junkers.
5: Bismarck and the Socialists

In May 1878, there was an attempted assassination of Kaiser Wilhelm. Two shots
were fired, both of which missed, and the man was arrested.

Bismarck used this as an excuse to deal with the Socialists. The fact that the man was
mentally unstable made no difference to Bismarck. This was an example of
realpolitik.

In 1879 Bismarck put an anti-Socialist Bill before the Reichstag

All socialist and communist meetings, organisations and publications were banned.

The police could arrest and expel anyone who they considered to be a socialist
agitator.

The number of votes for socialist candidates in the Reichstag fell from 493,000 in
1877 to 312,000 by 1880.

But by 1884 it had risen to 550,000 and by 1890 it stood at well over 1,000,000. The
number of deputies in the Reichstag rose continuously from 1880 to 1890.

Bismarck had given the Socialist Party a new lease of life. The Party also began to
work from outside Germany. Bismarck had actually made it stronger.

Bismarck then gave medical insurance to 3,000,000 workers and their families. The
cost would be met out of weekly payments by workers and employers.

In 1883 accident insurance was introduced and was paid for entirely by employers.

In 1886 accident and sickness benefit was introduced for 7,000,000 agricultural
workers.

In 1889 pensions were introduced at the age of seventy. Germany had the first
welfare state anywhere in the world.

Bismarck had done exactly what the socialists had wanted.