Download chapter 4, section 3 “lecture notes”

CHAPTER 4, SECTION 3 “LECTURE NOTES”
*Crimean War: 1. Changed balance of power in Europe, 2. Gave Germany & Italy opportunity to unite!
-Ottoman Empire (Turkey) was considered the “sick man of Europe.”
-Ottoman control weakened in the Balkan Peninsula. Russia began to exploit Ottoman weakness.
-Russia had few warm-water ports and coveted territory in “the Balkans.” It wanted to control straits between
Black & Mediterranean Seas.
-Britain & other European powers feared that Russian control in Balkans would upset balance of power.
-In 1853 Russia invaded the Balkans. The Turks (plus British & French) declared war on Russia.
-Austria also wanted Ottoman lands, so Austria quit its alliance with Russia and became its rival.
-Russia lost many troops & asked to end war, resulting in Treaty of Paris.
-Crimean War ended the Concert of Europe.
-Russia humiliated by loss, withdrew from European affairs.
-Austria was now without friends among Great Powers.
-Nationalists exploited “isolation of Russia & Austria” by unifying Italy & Germany.
* Italian peninsula dominated by Austrian Empire by family ties between emperor & royalty in Italian states.
-Italian nationalists supported northern state of Piedmont.
-Piedmont king Victor Emmanuel II did not have ties with the Austrian emperor’s family.
-King Emmanuel II appointed Camillo di Cavour as his prime minister.
-Cavour wanted Italian independence. He made an alliance with Louis-Napoleon of France to defeat Austria.
-Cavour provoked Austria into war. Austria was defeated. Piedmont earned independence & also gained
northern Italian state of Lombardy.
-This encouraged Italian nationalists living in other states to also revolt. They joined their newly independent
states to Emmanuel II’s northern kingdom.
-Giuseppe Garibaldi, nationalist leader in southern Italy very popular w. people: “The popular idol… was
walking on foot among those cheering, laughing, crying, mad thousands… who threw themselves
forward to kiss his hands, or to touch the hem of his garment”
-Italians in southern island Sicily revolted against foreign monarch.
-Garibaldi’s “Red Shirts” joined victorious revolution.
-Garibaldi’s forces defeated Naples. The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies became independent.
-Garibaldi turned over his southern conquests to northern Piedmont!
-March 17, 1861, new united Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed under King Victor Emmanuel II.
-Italy exploited war between Austria & Prussia. Italy supported Prussia & was rewarded the region of Venetia.
-Italian army marched on papal states & Rome. Rome was annexed & became Italy’s new capital.
*German states looked to strong state of Prussia for leadership in unification.
-Prussia was authoritarian & militaristic.
-Prussian King William I appointed Count Otto von Bismarck as prime minister.
-Bismarck practiced realpolitik & expansionism. Bismarck ignored legislative opposition to military growth:
“The great questions of the day are decided… by blood & iron!”
-Bismarck’s aggressive foreign policy led to war. He defeated Denmark, with help of Austria.
-Bismarck then turned on & defeated Austria! Bismarck created North German Confederation.
-South German states allied with Prussia for protection vs. France.
-Bismarck goaded French into the Franco-Prussian War.
-German armies advanced into France, captured entire French army & Napoleon III.
-Paris surrendered Jan, 1871. France paid $1 billion to Germans and lost provinces of Alsace & Lorraine.
-Germans met at Palace of Versailles Sept. 1870, to proclaim William I the kaiser of Second German Reich.
-Germany’s military & industrial strength made it strongest state in Europe.
*Britain avoided revolutions of first half of nineteenth century, due to laws giving suffrage to industrial
middle class & Parliament’s reform laws to protect industrial working class.
-Continued economic stability (Crystal Palace Exhibition.) Working class real wages increased 25%
-Height of British Empire during reign of Queen Victoria. “The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire”
*France elected Louis Napoleon president of France in 1848. In 1852 he held a plebiscite, 97% voted to
make him Napoleon III, emperor of France!
-Napoleon III controlled military, police & civil service.
-Legislative Corps gave “appearance” of representative government, but only Napoleon III held real
legislative power.
-Napoleon III limited civil liberties, but his first 5 years were still “successful” because he expanded
economy, subsidized construction of railroads, harbors, roads, canals and completely rebuilt Paris.
-Napoleon III lost his title, after France lost the Franco-Prussian War.
*Austria’s defeat by the Prussians forced Austrians to make concessions to Hungarians.
-Compromise of 1867 created Austria-Hungary (two govts. with one emperor, Francis Joseph) but other
ethnic minorities not happy because Austria did not compromise with them.
*Russia in early 19th century, was mostly rural & autocratic and was falling behind the “industrialized West.”
-Russia ruled by divine-right czar with unlimited powers.
-Czar Alexander II chose to make reforms, including emancipation of the serfs. Many reformers wanted
faster change but autocrats feared traditions were being destroyed.
-Radicals assassinated czar, so his son & successor, Alexander III returned to repression!
*United States Constitution committed to liberalism & nationalism.
-Two factions (political parties) split over division of power.
-Federalists favored a stronger central govt.
-Republicans feared central power & wanted federal govt. to be subordinate to stronger states.
-Early U.S. divisions disappeared after War of 1812 (wave of U.S. nationalistic feelings vs. Britain.)
-By election of Andrew Jackson in 1828, almost all adult white males had suffrage.
-By mid-1800’s slavery was threat to American national unity.
-South’s economy based on growing cotton using slave labor.
-Eli Whitney’s cotton gin greatly increased cotton production. Southerners determined to keep status quo!
-Northern states had more resources, industrialization & people. Abolitionism spread throughout the North.
-North vs. South became more divided with election of Abraham Lincoln!
-December, 1860 S. Carolina voted to secede from the U.S. In Feb. 1861 six more states seceded.
-The Confederate States of America was formed & fighting erupted in April.
-Civil War was bloodiest war in American history!
-Jan. 1, 1863 Emancipation Proclamation issued.
-April 9, 1865 Confederate forces surrendered. U. S. survived as one nation, indivisible.