Download Chapter 23: The Age of Nation-States I. The Crimean War (1853

Chapter 23: The Age of Nation-States
I. The Crimean War (1853-1856)
• Impetus for change originated in war
• Causes: Crimean War rooted in the desire of Russia to extend its influence over the
Ottoman Empire
• Two disputes led to conflict: 1st- OE declared protective oversight for RCs not
Orthodox Christians, Russia occupied OE to protect Orthodox Christians; 2nd-weak OE
made Russia want to expand influence at the cost of Ottoman demise through the eastern
Mediterranean but opposed by Fr. and Britain who declared war on Russia in alliance w/
the Ottomans to protect their commercial interests
• Austria and Prussia remained neutral
• CW was first war covered by the press, but both sides conducted the conflict ineptly w/
poorly equipped/commanded armies bogged down along the Crimean coast of the Black
Sea
• Finally, the Russian fortress of Sevastopol fell to the Fr. and British
1. Peace Settlement and Long-Term Results
Treaty of Paris required Russia to surrender territory near the mouth of the Danube
recognizing the neutrality of the Black Sea, renounce its claims of protection over
orthodox Christians in the OE
• Russian image of invincibility shattered- Austria forced Russia to withdraw from
Moldavia and Walchavia
• Concert of Europe as a means of dealing w/ IR was shattered, great powers feared
revolution less than earlier in the century and for 25 years after European affairs were
unstable producing a period of adventurism
•
II. Reforms in the Ottoman Empire
• Short-lived Napoleonic invasion of OE province of Egypt sparked a drive for change
• Sultan issued a decree called the Hatt-i Sharif that attempted to reorganize the empire’s
administration and military along European lines and opened the Tanzimat
(reorganization of the era of the OE)
• Reforms liberalized the economy, ended the practice of tax farming, and sought to
eliminate corruption
• Hatt-i Sharif also extended civic equality to OE subjects regardless of religion
• Made it easier for Muslims to enter into commercial agreements with non-Muslims
• Another reform decree called the Hatti-I Humayun promulgated at the end of the
• Crimean War and under the influence of Britain and France spelled out rights of nonMuslims more explicitly giving them equal opportunity for edu., employment, and
military service
• Decree abolished torture and allowed foreigners to acquire some property
• OE tried to copy European legal/military institutions and secular values of liberalism
• Imperial gov’t took these steps to elicit loyalty of Christian subjects at a time when
nationalism was making inroads
• OE broke down the millet system and defined all citizens as subjects rather than as
members of religious communities
• Difficult to implement reforms: local rulers were virtually independent of Istanbul, power
struggles developed among countries and leaders, and the ulema tried to maintain the rule
of Islamic law
• OE failed to achieve genuine political strength and stability –implementation problems,
traditional institutions, nationalism
• Inability of OE to retain power was demonstrated by the Balkan Wars that resulted in
Russian or Austrian dominance over most of the empire’s European holdings
• Response to these defeats was greater efforts to modernize the army and the
economy to build infrastructure
• In 1876, reformers persuaded the sultan to proclaim an Ottoman constitution calling for a
parliament consisting of an elected chamber of deputies and an appointed senate but left
the sultan’s power intact making the arg. that European political arrangements as well as
tech accounted for European strength
• New sultan soon rejected these steps toward constitutionalism-military officers carried
out a revolution against the authority of the sultan
• Young Turks-group of reformist officers came to power w. another program to
modernize the empire, they were in charge when WWI broke out and their decision to
enter the war on the side of the Central Powers led to the empire’s defeat and collapse
• Increasing secularization of the government occurred which south less to question
the Islamic foundations of society than to reduce the influence of the Muslim
religious authorities on the state
III. Italian Unification
• Nationalists had long wanted to unite the small, absolutists principalities of the Italian
peninsula into a single state
A. Romantic Republicans
• After the Congress of Vienna, secret republican societies were founded throughout Italy,
the most famous of which was the Carbonari
• Following failure of nationalist uprisings in 1831, the leadership of romantic republican
nationalism passed to Giuseppe Mazzini-most important nationalist leader in Europe,
declaring “Nationality is the role assigned by God to a people in the work of
humanity.”
• In 1831, he founded the Young Italy Society to drive Austria from the peninsula and
establish an Italian republic
• During the 1830s and 1840s, Mazzini and his fellow republican Guiseppe Garibaldi led
the insurrections, involved w/ Roman Republic of 1849
• Throughout the 1850s, they conducted guerilla warfare
• Republican nationalism frightened moderate Italians, who wanted to rid themselves of
Austrian domination, but not establish a republic
• Looked to papacy to sponsor unification, but the solution became impossible after the
experience of Pius IX with the Roman Republic
• By 1860, the Italian peninsula was transformed into a nation-state under a
constitutional monarchy, process carried out not by romantic republican
nationalists, but by Count Camillo Cavour-moderately liberal prime minister of
Piedmont
• His method was force of arms tied to secret diplomacy
B. Cavour’s Policy
• Piedmont (Kingdom of Sardinia) in northwestern Italy was the most independent state on
the peninsula
• Congress of Vienna restored the kingdom as a buffer b/t Fr. and Austria
• King Albert of Piedmont twice unsuccessfully fought Austria and after 2nd defeat he
abdicated the throne in favor of his son, Victor Emmanuel II who chose Count Cavour
as his prime minister
• Cavour begun political life as a strong conservative, but moved toward moderate liberal
position
• Made a fortune by investing in railroads, editing newspaper, and reforming ago
Nationalist of a new breed who had no respect for Mazzini’s ideals rejecting
republicanism
• It was economic/material progress that required a large, unified state on the Italian
peninsula
• Cavour formed the nationalist Society-established chapters in other Italian states to press
for unification under the leadership of Piedmont
• PM believed Italy could be unified only w/ help of France, accession of Napoleon III in
France opened the way for aid
1. French Sympathies
• Cavour used CW to bring Italy into European politics, Piedmont joined the conflict on
the side of France and Britain and sent 10,000 troops to the front
• Small but significant participation in the war allowed Cavour to raise the Italian question
at the Paris conference-left w/o diplomatic reward, but his intelligence/political capacity
impressed everyone, including Napoleon III
• During rest of decade, he achieved further int’l respect for opposing plots of Mazzini,
who was still attempting to lead nationalist uprisings
• Cavour represented a moderate liberal alternative to both republicanism and reactionary
absolutism in Italy
• In 1858, an Italian attempted to assassinate Napoleon III causing the Fr. Emperor newly
concerned about the Italian issue
• Saw himself continuing his more famous uncle’s liberation of the peninsula
• Saw Piedmont as a potential ally against Austria
• In July 1858, Cavour and Napoleon III met in southern France-plotted to provoke a war
in Italy that would permit them to defeat Austria
• Formal treaty in Dec. confirmed the agreement-France was to receive Fr.-speaking Nice
and Savoy from Piedmont for its aid
2. War with Austria
• In early 1859, tension grew b/t Austria and Piedmont as Piedmont mobilized its army
• Austria demanded demobilization, Piedmont used demand as claim that Austria was
provoking a war and France intervened to aid its ally
• Austrians were defeated at Magenta and Solferino and revolutiosn broke out in Tuscany,
Modena, Parma and the Romagna provinces of the Papal States
• With the Austrians in retreat and the new revolutionary regimes calling for union w/
Piedmont, Napoleon III feared too extensive a Piedmontese victory
• He independently concluded a peace with Austria: Piedmont received Lombardy, but
Venetia remained under Austrian control
• Cavour felt betrayed by France, but the war had driven Austria from most of N. Italy
• Later that summer, the other states voted to unite w/ Piedmont
3. Garibaldi’s Campaign
• At this point, forces of romantic republican nationalism compelled Cavour to pursue the
complete unification of N. and S. Italy
• Garibaldi landed in Sicily w/ more than 1,000 troops outfitted in the north
• Garibaldi hoped to form a republican Italy and attacked the mainland controlling the city
and kingdom of Naples
• Cavour rushed Piedmontese troops south to confront Garibaldi, conquering the rest of the
Papal States except the area around Rome, protected from the pope by the Fr.
• Garibaldi’s nationalism won out over his republicanism, and he accepted Piedmontese
domination
C. The New Italian State
• In 1861, Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of Italy-Cavour died 3 months later
• Italy had been more nearly conquered than united by Piedmont
• Republicans resented the treatment of Garibaldi, clericals resented the conquest of the
Papal States. In the south, armed resistance against the imposition of the Piedmontese
administration continued
• Economies of N. and S. Italy were incompatible-S. was rural, poor and backward while
the N. was industrializing and linked to that of the rest of Europe
• Social structures of the 2 regions reflected those differences with large
landholders/peasants dominant in the S. and an urban working class emerging in the N.
• Political F/W of united Italy couldn’t overcome problems, constitution provided for a
conservative constitutional monarchy-Parliament consisted of 2 houses: a senate
appointed by the king and a chamber of deputies elected on a narrow franchise
• Ministers responsible to the monarch, not to Parliament
• Political leaders often avoided major problems, in place of efficient, progressive gov’t
such as Cavour had brought to Piedmont, a system called transformismo developedpolitical opponents were “transformed” into government supporters through bribery,
favors, or a seat, Italian ptix=corruption
• Unification was incomplete, many Italians believed other territories should be added
(Venetia and Rome). Venetia was gained in return for Italy’s alliance w/ Prussia in the
Austro-Prussian War. Rome and the papacy continued to be guarded by French troops
until they were withdrawn during the Franco-Prussian War
• Italian state then annexed Rome and made it the capital, papacy confined itself to the
Vatican and remained hostile to the Italian state
• By 1870, only the small province of Trent and the city of Trieste, both ruled by Austria
remained outside Italy
• These areas were not significant, but they fueled the continued hostility of Italian
nationalists toward Austria
• The desire to liberate Italia Irredenta, or “unredeemed Italy,” was one reason for the
Italian support of the Allies against Austria and Germany during WWI
IV. German Unification
• The most important political development in Europe b/t 1848 and 1914
• Transformed the balance of economic, military, and int’l power
• Method of its creation determined the character of the new German state-united by the
conservative army, the monarchy, and the PM of Prussia wanting to outflank Prussian
liberals
• A unified Germany was achieved for the most illiberal of reasons
• During the 1850s, German unification seemed remote-major states traded w/ each other
through the Zollverein (tariff union) and railways linked their economies, Frederick
William IV of Prussia had given up thoughts of unification under Prussian leadership and
Austria continued to oppose the union
• Liberal nationalists had not recovered from the humiliating experiences of 1848 and 1849
• Domestic political changes and problems within Prussia quickly modified this situation
• In 1858 Frederick William IV was judged insane and his brother William I became king,
was less idealistic and more of a Prussian patriot
• In usual Hohenzollern tradition, his first concern was to strengthen the Prussian army
A. Bismarck
• In Sept., William I turned to help for the person who more than any other single
individual shaped the next thirty years of European history: Otto von Bismarck came
from a Junker stock, attended a U, displayed interest in German unification
• During the 1840s, Bismarck was elected to the diet where he was so reactionary as to
disturb even the king
• Bismarck became PM for William I
• Although, Bismarck entered public life as a reactionary, he had mellowed into a
conservative-oopposing parliamentary government, but not a constitutionalism that
provided for a strong monarch
• He understood that Prussia must have a strong industrial base
• Prussian patriot who was pragmatic placing more trust in power than in ideas
• Bismarck immediately moved against the liberal P. upon becoming PM
• Contended that even w/o new financial levies, the Prussia constitution permitted the gov.
to carry out its functions on the basis of previously granted taxes
• Thus, taxes could be collected and spent despite the parliamentary refusal to vote for
them
• The army and most of the bureaucracy supported this interp
• In 1863, new elections sustained the liberal majority in the Parliament-Bismarck had to
find some way to attract popular support away from the liberals and toward the monarch
and the army
• He set about uniting Germany through the conservative institutions of Prussia
B. Danish War
• Bismarck pursued a Kleindeutsch (Small German) solution to unification
• Austria was to be excluded from a united German state
• This goal required complex diplomacy: the Schleswit-Holstein problem gave Bismarck
the handle for his policy
• These 2 northern duchies had long been ruled by the kings of Denmark w/o being part of
Denmark itself
• Mixed population of Germans and Danes, Holstein, where Germans predominated
belonged to the German Confederation
• In 1863, the Dutch moved to incorporate both duchies in to Denmark-the smaller states of
the German Confed proposed an all-German war to halt his move
• Bismarck wanted Prussia to act alone or only in cooperation w/ Austria-Together the two
large states easily defeated Denmark
• Danish defeat increased Bismarck’sz personal prestige and over the next 2 years he
maneuvered Austria into war w/ Prussia
• In August 1865, the two powers negotiated the Convention of Gastein, which put
Austria in charge of Holstein and Prussia in charge of Schleswig
• Bismarck then moved to mend other diplomatic fences by gaining Russian sympathy in
supporting g the suppression of a Polish revolt, and he persuaded Napoleon III to promise
neutrality in an Austro-Prussian conflict
• Bismarck also concluded a treaty w/ Italy promising that Italy would get Venetia if it
attacked Austria in support of Prussia when war broke out
C. Austro-Prussian War and the German Empire
• Constant Austro-Prussian tension had arisen over the administration of S and H
• Bismarck ordered Prussian forces to be as obnoxious as possible to the Austrians
• Austrian appealed to GC to intervene in the dispute-Bismarck claimed this violated the
1864 alliance and the Convention of Gastein
• This Seven Weeks’ War which resulted in the summer of 1866, led to the decisive defeat
of Austria at Koniggratz in Bohemia
• The Treaty of Prague was lenient toward Austria, which only lost Venetia, ceded to
Napoleon III, who in turn ceded it to Italy. Habsburgs were permanently excluded from
German affairs-Prussia had established itself as the only major power among the German
states
• The Prussian Parliament refused to approve the necessary taxes, the liberals who
dominated P. sought to avoid placing additional power in the hands of the monarchy and
for 2 years, monarch and Parliament were deadlocked
D. The North German Confederation
• In 1867, Hanover, Hesse, Nassau, and the city of Frankfurt who had all supported Austria
during the war were annexed by Prussia and their rulers were deposed
• All Germany north of the Main R. now formed a federation known as the North German
Confederation
• Each state retained its own local gov’t, but all military forces were under federal control
• President of the federation was the king of Prussia represented by his chancellor,
Bismarck
• Legislature consisting of 2 houses: a federal council (Bundesrat) composed of members
appointed by the gov’ts of the states, and a lower house (Reichstag) chosen by universal
male suffrage
• Bismarck didn’t fear this broad franchise, because he sensed peasants would vote for
conservatives and the Reichstag had little real power, because ministers were responsible
only to the monarch
• All laws had to be proposed by the chancellor
• The constitution of the confederation which later became the constitution of the German
Empire possessed some of the appearances, but none of the substance of liberalism
• Germany was in effect a military monarchy
• Success of Bismarck’s policy overwhelmed liberal opposition in Prussian P.
• Liberals split b/t those that prized liberalism and those who prized unification and in the
end nationalism proved more attractive
• In 1866, P. approved the military budget, Bismarck ahd crushed the Prussial liberals by
making the monarchy and the army the most popular institutions in the country
• The drive toward unification had achieved his domestic political goal
E. The Franco-Prussian War and the German Empire (1870-1871)
• Bismarck wanted to complete unification by bringing the states of southern Germany into
the confederation
• Spain gave him the excuse
• In 1868, a military coup deposed the corrupt Bourbon queen of Spain, Isabella II
• To replace her, Spain chose Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a Catholic
cousin of William I of Prussia
• Leopold accepted the Spanish crown w/ Prussian blessings and Bismarck knew that
France would object to a Hohenzollern Spain
• France reacted by sending its ambassador Count Vincent Benedetti to consult with
William I and Leopold’s father renounced his son’s candidacy for the Spanish throne
• Bismarck wanted war w/ France to complete unification and he edited the king’s
telegram insulting the Fr. ambassador goading France to declare war on July 19
• Napoleon III was sick, but his gov. believed victory over the NGC would give the empire
renewed popular support
• Once conflict erupted, the southern German states honoring the treaties of 1866 joined
Prussia against France and beat the Fr. army at the Battle of Sedan capturing Napoleon
III
• German Empire proclaimed, w/ German princes requesting William to accept the title of
emperor-princes remained heads of their respective states w/I the new federation
• Peace settlement: Germany annexed Alsace and part of Lorraine
• Long-range impacts: powerful new state created in north central Europe rich in natural
resources and military and economically strong, huge blow to European liberalism b/c the
new state was a conservative creation and conservative politics was now backed by the
strongest state on the continent, emergence of the Italy and Germany exposed French and
Habsburg weakness causing each to change
V. France: From Liberal Empire to the Third Republic
• The reign of Napoleon III is divided into the years of the authoritarian empire and those
of the liberal empire
• The year of division is 1860
• Before 1860, Napoleon III had controlled the legislature, censored the press, and harassed
political dissidents-supported by arm, Church and property owners, popular b/c of CW
• From the late 1850s and onward he had relaxed censorship, permitted labor unions, and
concluded a free trade policy w/ Britain
• Napoleon also made liberal concessions by allowing leaders in the legislature to form a
ministry and a liberal constitution that made the ministers responsible to the legislature
• Liberal concessions made to shore up domestic support to compensate for his failures in
foreign policy: lost control of Italian unification, supported disastrous military expedition
against Mexico, and war of 1870 against Germany
• Second Empire came to an end w/ the Battle of Sedan where the emperor was captured
and allowed to go to England to die
• After Sedan, in Paris a republic was proclaimed and a gov’t of national defense
established-Paris was under Prussian siege and the gov’t moved to Bordeaux
A. The Paris Commune
• Division b/t provinces and Paris became sharp after fighting stopped
• Monarchists dominated the new NA elected in February and the assembly gave executive
power to Adolphe Thiers-negotiated a settlement w/ Prussia, The Treaty of Frankfurtparts of Fr. would remain occupied by Prussian troops until a large sum had been paid, Fr.
also lost Alsace and part of Lorraine
• Parisians resented what they regarded as a betrayal by the monarchist NA sitting at
Versailles
• Parisians elected a new municipal government, called the Paris Commune intended to
administer Paris separately from the rest of France, radicals and socialists participated in
the Commune
• In April, the NA surrounded Paris w/ an army and bombarded the city killing about
20,000 inhabitants
• Impact: PC became a legend throughout Europe-Marxists regarded it as a genuine
proletarian gov’t that the French bourgeoisie had suppressed
• False interpretation-Commune was dominated by bourgeois members who had their
socialist roots in anarchism rather than class conflict-Commune wanted a nation of
relatively independent radically democratic enclaves
• Its suppression represented the triumph of the centralized nation-state
• Just as Piedmont and Prussia had united the small states of Italy and Germany, the Fr. NA
had destroyed the particularistic political tendencies of Paris and by implication those of
any other Fr. community
B. The Third Republic
• NA backed into a republican form of government against its will
• Monarchist majority was divided b/t the House of Bourbon and the House of Orleans
• Problem could have been surmounted, b/c the Bourbon claimant, the Count of
Chambord had no children and agreed to accept the Orleanist heir as his successor
• Chambord refused to become king if France retained the revolutionary tricolor flag
• Even the conservative monarchists would not return to the white flag of the Bourbons
which symbolized extreme political reaction
• By Sep. 1873, the payment was paid and Prussia left
• Thiers was ousted from offices due to republican sentiments and the monarchists wanted
a more sympathetic executive electing as president a conservative army officer Marshal
Macmahon who prepared for a monarchist restoration
• The NA was unable to find a king and decided to regularize the political system by
adopting a law that provided for a Chamber of Deputies elected by universal male
suffrage, a Senate chosen indirectly, and a president elected by the 2 legislatures
• This simple republican system had resulted from the bickering of the monarchists
• After quarrels w/ the Chamber of Deputies, Macmahon resigned-this meant that
dedicated republicans controlled the national government
• Political structure of the Third Republic proved strong surviving challenge from
General Georges Boulanger-who would have imposed stronger executive authority, and
scandals of corruption, b/c the institutions of the republic allowed new ministers to
replace those whose corruption was exposed
C. The Dreyfus Affair
• Greatest trauma of the Third Republic occurred over the Dreyfus Affair
• On Dec. 22, 1894, a Fr. military court found Captain Alfred Dreyfus guilty of passing
secret info to the German army
• Evidence was flimsy and revealed to have been forged
• Someone in the officer corps had been passing docs to the Germans and the army
investigators accused Dreyfus who was Jewish
• After Dreyfus was sent to prison, docs were still leaked and a new head of Fr. CI
reexamined the Dreyfus file and found evidence of forgery
• The affair had provoked a near-hysterical public debate
• The army, Fr. Catholic church, political conservatives, and anti-Semites contended that
Dreyfus was guilty and anti-Dreyfus opinion was dominant at the beginning
• Liberals, radicals, and socialists began to demand a new trial for Dreyfus-Emile Zola
published a newspaper article entitled “I accuse” in which he contended the army and
denied due process to Dreyfus
• Forces of the political left portrayed the conservative institutions of the antion as having
denied Dreyfus the rights belonging to any citizen of the republic and claimed that
Dreyfus had been singled out so the guilty persons in the army could be protected
• Dreyfus case divided France as no issue had done since the PC and by its conclusion the
conservatives were on the defensive-they had allowed themselves to persecute an
innocent person and to manufacture false evidence to protect themselves displaying
violent Anti-Semitism
• The political left used the Dreyfus case to form an informal alliance and realized that
republican institutions must be supported if the political left was to achieve its goals
• Political, racial, and religious divisions hurt France until its defeat by Germany
VI. The Habsburg Empire
• After 1848, the HE remained dynastic, absolutist, and agrarian in the age of national
states, liberal institutions and industrialism
• Francis Joseph reasserted absolutism in response to the 1848 revolutions
• During the 1850s his ministers attempted to impose a bureaucracy on the empire, but the
system amounted to a military and bureaucratic regime dominated by German-speaking
Austrians
• Vienna gov’t abolished internal tariffs in the empire
• It divided Hungary which had been so revolutionary into military districts
• RCC controlled education and national groups who had supported the empire against the
Hungarians received no rewards for their loyalty
• Although this provoked resentment, it was foreign setbacks the caused the HE to flounder
• Austrian refusal to support Russian during the CW meant the new tsar would no longer
help preserve Habsburg rule in Hungary as Nicholas I had in 1849 and an important
external prop of Habsburg power had disappeared
• Austrian defeat at the hands of France and Piedmont and loss of territory in Italy
confirmed the need for a new domestic policy
A. Formation of the Dual Monarchy
• In 1860, Francis Joseph issued the October Diploma which created a federation among
states and provinces of the empire-there were to be local diets dominated by the
landed classes and a single imperial parliament
• The Magyar nobility of Hungary rejected the October Diploma
• Consequently, in 1861, the emperor issued the February Patent which set up an entirely
different form of government establishing a bicameral imperial parliament (Reichsrat)
with an upper chamber appointed by the emperor and an indirectly elected lower chamber
• Again the Magyars refused to cooperate in a system designed to give power to Germanspeaking Austrians and the Magyars sent no delegates to the legislature
• For 6 yrs. The February patent governed the empire and it prevailed in Austria proper
until WWI-ministers responsible to the emperor and civil liberties not guaranteed w/
armies levied and taxes raised w/o parliamentary consent
• Emperor could rule when Reichsrat was not in session by decree
• Secret negotiations b/t the emperor and the Magyars produced no concrete result until the
Prussian defeat of Austria in 1866 and the consequent exclusion of Austria from German
affairs
• Ausgleich (Compromise) of 1867 transformed the HE into a dual monarchy known as
Austria-Hungary w/ Francis Joseph at the head
• Austria and Hungary became almost wholly separate states and the Magyars had
achieved the free hand they had wanted in Hungary
B. Unrest of Nationalities
• Compromise of 1867 had introduced 2 diff principles of political legitimacy into the 2
sections of the HE
• In Hungary, political loyalty was based on nationality, Hungary was a Magyar nation
under the HE
• In Austria-the principle of legitimacy meant dynastic loyalty to the emperor
• Many of the other nationalities wished to achieve the same type of settlement that the
Hungarians had won including the Czechs, Romanians, and Croations
• These groups had opposed the C of 1867, b/c it allowed Hungarian Magyars and
German-speaking Austrians to dominate the other nationalities w/I the empire
• CZECHS: most vocal critics advocating a policy of trialism-triple monarchy in which
the Czechs would be given a position similar to that of the Hungarians. Francis Joseph
was willing to accept this concept, but the Magyars vetoed it b/c they didn’t want to make
similar concessions to their own subject nationalities. Czechs were placated by generous
patronage and posts in the bureaucracy but by the 1890s Czech nationalism became more
strident and FJ gave the Czechs and Germans equality of language in various localities.
Thereafter, the Germans in the Reichsrat opposed these measures by disrupting
Parliament (playing music loudly), Czechs responded in kind causing chaos in the
Reichsrat
• Nationalism-became stronger during the last quarter of the 19th century-language
became the single most important factor in defining a nation due to expansion for
education, racial thinking became important maintaining there was a genetic basis for
ethnic and cultural groups defined by a common history and culture
• Once language/race became ways to define a group, the lines b/t group became sharply
drawn
• Unrest of various nationalities w/I the HE not only caused internal political difficulties
but also became a major source of political instability for all of central and eastern
Europe
• Out of these tensions emerged much of the turmoil that would spark WWI
• Dominant German population of Austria was generally loyal to the emperor, however a
part of it yearned to join the new GE hating the non-German national groups of the
empire
• Nationality problems touched all 4 of the great central and eastern European empires the
German, the Russian, the Austrian, and the Ottoman
VI. Russia: Emancipation and Revolutionary Stirrings
• Russian changed remarkably during the last ½ of the 19th century
• Gov’t finally addressed long-standing problem of serfdom and undertook reforms
• During the same period, radical revolutionary groups began to org., gov’t responded by
repression
A. Reforms of Alexander II
• Russian defeat in CW and humiliation in the Treaty of Paris compelled change
• Nicholas I had died and his son Alexander II took the throne when the war had made
reform both necessary and possible
• Alexander II instituted the most extensive restructuring of Prussian society since Peter the
Great
B. Abolition of Serfdom
• Profound cultural gap separated Russian from the rest of Europe-most apparent in
serfdom, this institution had changed little since the 18t h century although every other
nation on the Continent and abandoned it
• Serfdom was economically inefficient-threat of revolt, and the serfs forced into army
performed poorly
• Moral opinion condemned serfdom and only Russia, Brazil, and certain portions of the
U.S. retained such forms of slavery
• Actual emancipation law was disappointment-freedom was not accompanied by land,
Serfs immediately received the personal right to marry, rights to purchase/sell property
freely, engage w/ court, and pursuer trades, BUT they didn’t get free title to their land
and had to pay the landlords over a period of 49 yrs for allotments of land that were
frequently too small to support them
• Serfs would not received title to land until debt was paid
• Procedures were so complicated and results so limited that gov’t forced to cancel
remaining debts after widespread revolutionary unrest following Japanese defeat of
Russia in 1905
C. Reform of Local Government and the Judicial System
Abolition of serfdom required reform of local gov’t and judiciary
Authority of village communes replaced that of the landlord over the peasant
The village elders settled quarrels, imposed fines, and collected taxes
Village communes owned the land often
Nobility permitted larger role in local administration through a system of provincial and
country Zemstvos, or councils that oversaw local matters such as infrastructure,
education ,and ag improvement
• Western European legal principles were introduced into Russia: equality before the law,
impartial hearings, uniform procedures, trial by jury and JI
• Courts were more efficient and less corrupt than the old system
•
•
•
•
•
D. Military Reform
• Russia possessed the largest military force, but it had floundered badly during the CW
• Period of service was overwhelming at 2 yrs, villages had to provide quotas of serfs, life
in the army was harsh
• Army lowered period of service to 15 yrs and eventually 6 yrs
E. Repression in Poland
• In 1863, Polish nationalists attempted to overthrow Russian dominance
• Once again the Russian army suppressed the rebellion
• Alexander II moved to “Russify” Poland-he emancipated the Polish serfs, imposed
Russian law, language and administration
• Poland was treated as merely another Russian province
• Polish suppression demonstrated that Alexander II was a reformer only w/I the limits of
his own autocracy
• Changes in Russian life failed to create new loyalty to the gov’t-serfs felt emancipation
had been inadequate, nobles resented tsar’s refusal to allow the meaningful role in policy
making
• Alexander II was never popular, after an attempt was made on his life Russia increasingly
became a police state and the new repression fueled the activity of radical groups w/I
Russia
F. Revolutionaries
• Tsarist regime had long had its critics-one of the most prominent was Alexander Herzen
who lived in exile in London publishing a newspaper called The Bell in which he set
forth reformist positions
• Intellectuals and students became discontented w/ the limited character of the reforms
and drawing on the ideas of Herzen and other radicals, these students formed a
revolutionary movement known as populism
• Sought a social revolution based on the communal life of the Russian peasants
• Chief radical society was called Land and Freedom
• In the early 1870s, hundreds of young Russians took their revolutionary message into the
countryside to live w/ the peasants, gain their trust ,and to teach them about their role in
the coming revolution
• Peasants turned most of the youths over to the police where students were tried but most
were acquitted or given light sentences, b/c the court believed a display of mercy might
lessen public sympathy for the young revolutionaries
• Tsar publicly let it become known that he favored harsher sentences
• Thereafter, the revolutionaries decided the tsarist regime must be attacked directly and
developed a policy of terrorism
• Vera Zasulich attempted to assassinate the military governor of St. Petersburg
• Land and Freedom split into 2 groups: Land advocated educating the peasants and it
soon dissolved, the other known as the People’s Will was dedicated to the overthrow of
the autocracy and attempted to assassinate the tsar itself
• On March 1, 1881 a bomb hurled by a member of the PW killed Alexander II
• Emergence of such dedicated revolutionary opposition was as much a part of the reign of
Alexander II as were his reforms-the limited nature of his reforms convinced many
Russians that the autocracy could never truly redirect Russian society
• The reign of Alexander III strengthened that pessimism possessing all the autocratic and
repressive characteristics of his grandfather Nicholas I
• Alexander III sought primarily to roll back his father’s reforms
• Favored the centralized bureaucracy over the Zemstvos, strengthened the secret police
and increased censorship of the press
• Confirmed all evils that the revolutionaries saw in autocratic government
• His son, Nicholas II would discover that autocracy would not survive the pressures of the
20th century
VII. Great Britain: Toward Democracy
• While the continental nations became unified and struggled toward internal political
restructuring, GB continued to symbolize the confident liberal state
• GB dealt w/ difficulties and domestic conflicts through existing political institutions
• Prosperity in 3rd quarter of century mitigated social hostility of the 1840s as all classes
shared a belief in capitalism
• Leaders of trade unions asked mainly to receive more money and to be respected
• P. remained an institution through which new groups and interests were absorbed into the
existing political processes
• Britain did not have to create new liberal institutions
A. The Second Reform Act (1867)
• Prosperity and social respectability of the working class convinced many politicians that
the workers deserved an expansion of franchise in the 1860s
• Org. such as the Reform League led by John Bright moved for P. action
• In 1866, Lord Russell’s liberal ministry introduced a reform bill that was defeated by a
coalition of traditional Conservatives and antidemocratic Liberals
• Russell resigned and the Conservative Lord Derby replaced him
• Surprisingly the Conservative ministry led by Benjamin Disraeli introduced its own
reform bill in 1867-Disraeli accepted one amendment after another to the bill and
expanded the electorate well beyond the limits proposed earlier by the Liberals
• When the final measure was passed the number of voters had almost been doubled-large
numbers of male working-class voters had been admitted
• Disraeli hoped that by sponsoring the measure the C. would receive the gratitude of the
new voters, he realized reform was inevitable but that the C. needed to enjoy the credit
for it
• The C. dominated British politics in the 20th century because of this
• Immediate election of 1868 of William Gladstone as Prime Minister dashed Disraeli’s
hopes as he was a strong liberal who had supported Robert Peel
• As finance minister during the 1850s/1860s he had lowered taxes and government
expenditures
• He continued to oppose a new reform bill until the early 1860s and had been Russell’s
spokesperson in the House of Commons for the unsuccessful Liberal reform bill
B. Gladstone’s Great Ministry
• Ministry of 1868 to 1874 was the culmination of classical British liberalism
• Institutions that remained the preserve of the nobility and the church were opened to
people from all classes and religious denominations
• IN 1870, competitive exams replaced patronage for civil service
• In 1871, the purchase of officer’s commissions in the army was abolished
• Anglican religious requirements for the faculties of Oxford and Cambridge Universities
were removed
• Ballot Act of 1872 introduced voting by secret ballot
• Most momentous measure of Gladstone’s first ministry was the Education Act of 1870for the 1st time in GB history the gov’t assumed the responsibility for establishing and
running elementary schools
• Previously GB education had been a task relegated to the religious denominations w/
state support
• Henceforth, the gov. would establish schools where the efforts of religious denominations
proved inadequate
• Reforms were typically liberal-sought to remove abuses w/o destroying institutions and
to permit all able citizens to compete on the grounds of ability and merit
• Tried to avoid the potential danger to a democratic state of an illiterate citizenry
• Reforms constituted a new mode of state building, because they created new bonds of
loyalty to the nation by abolishing many sources of discontent
C. Disraeli in Office (1874-1880)
• Liberal policy of creating popular support by extending political liberties and reforming
abuses had its conservative counterpart in concern for social reform
• Disraeli succeeded Gladstone as PM in 1874 when the election produced sharp divisions
among Liberal Party voters over religion, education and alcohol
• Two men differed on most issues: Gladstone looked to individualism, free trade, and
competition to solve social problems, while Disraeli believed in paternalistic
legislation to protect the weak and alleviate class suffering
• Disraeli had few specific programs or ideas
• Significant social legislation of his ministry stemmed primarily from the efforts of his
home secretary Richard Cross who did The Public Health Act of 1875 that
consolidated previous legislation on sanitation and reaffirmed the duty of the state to
interfere w/ private property on matters of health and physical well-being
• Artisan Dwelling Act- the gov’t became actively involved in providing housing for the
working class
• Conservative majority in P. gave new protection to British trade unions and allowed them
to raise picket lines
D. The Irish Question
• In 1880 a 2nd Gladstone ministry took office after an ag depression and unpopular
foreign policy undermined the Conservatives
• In 1884, a third reform act gave the vote to most male farm workers
• Major issue of the decade was Ireland
• From the late 1860s and onward, Irish nationalists sought home rule for Ireland, by
which they meant Irish control of local government
• During his 1st ministry, Gladstone had addressed the Irish question through 2 major
pieces of legislation
o 1. he had disestablished the Church of Ireland, the Irish branch of the Anglican
church and Irish Roman Catholic would not pay taxes to support the hated
Protestant church to which few of the Irish belonged
o 2. the liberal ministry sponsored a land act that would compensate those Irish
tenants who were evicted and loans for those who wished to purchase their land
• Throughout the 1870s the Irish Question festered as land remained the center of the
agitation
• The org. of the Irish Land League led to intense agitation/intimidation nof landlords
who were often English
• Leader of the Irish movement for a just land settlement and for home rule was Charles
Stewart Parnell
• In 1881, the 2nd Gladstone ministry passed another Irish land act that strengthened tenant
rights but it was accompanied by a Coercion Act to restore law and order
• By 1885, Parnell had org. 85 members of the House of Commons into a tightly
disciplined party that often voted as a bloc
• They frequently disrupted P. to gain attention for the cause of home rule
• They bargained w/ the 2 English political parties and in the election of 1885, the Irish
Party emerged holding the balance of power b/t liberals and conservatives
• Irish support could decide which party took office
• In Dec. 1885, Gladstone announced support of home rule for Ireland and Parnell gave his
votes to a liberal ministry
• The home rule issue split the Liberal Party and in 1866, a group known as the Liberal
Unionists joined the conservatives to defeat home rule
• Gladstone called for a new election, but the Liberals were defeated they remained divided
and Ireland remained firmly under the English administration
• The New Conservative ministry of Lord Salisbury attempted to reconcile the Irish
through public works and administrative reform tied to further coercion w/ only marginal
success
• IN 1892, Gladstone returned to power, a 2nd Home Rule Bill passed the H of C but was
defeated in the H of L
• The Irish question stood until after the turn of the century
• Conservatives sponsored a land act in 1903 that carried out the final transfer of land to
tenant ownership
• Ireland became a country of small farms
• In 1912 the Liberal ministry passed the Home Rule Bill, under the provisions of the
House of Lords Act of 1911 which curbed the power of the Lords, the bill had to pass
the Commons three times over the Lord’s veto to become law
• The 3rd passage occurred in the summer of 1914, but the implementation of home rule
was suspended for the duration of WWI
• The Irish question affected British politics, b/c normal British domestic issues could not
be resolved due to political divisions created by Ireland, the split of the Liberal Party
proved harmful to the cause of further freeform, and people who could agree about
reform couldn’t agree about Ireland
• B/c the two traditional parties failed to deal w/ social questions, a newly organized
Labour Party began to fill the vacuum