AP
Eurpean
History
Nationalism
A new breed of conservative leaders, inculding Napoleon III, Cavour, and Bismark, co-opted the agenda of nationalists for the purposes of creating to strengthening the state.
Napoleon III was an admired figure but only for a while. He was looked upon by society mainly because of his uncle who was Napoleon Bonaparte. He was more than expected to exceed new and improved things to France. The people of France believed and hoped that he would create dramatic change but they were only left to wonder. What made Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) last in his reign was his mindset of a positive program for France. One of his beliefs is that the government should represent the people. His widespread support for people and allowing universal male suffrage had given him three times as many votes as the four other presidential candidates running in December of 1848 combined. Napoleon II then created a second empire after he was chosen to be emperor. He succeeded economically as his government built railroads and encouraged new investment banks. His main goal was to reorganize Europe through nationalism.
Count Camillo Benso di Cavour was a brilliant statesman, who led Sardinia from 1850 until his death in 1861. Cavour was a nobleman who presented as a success in business before entering into politics. He had very realistic and limited national goals. Cavour desired unity for the states of northern and perhaps central italy in an enlarged kingdom of Sardinia. He also worked to build up Sardinia as a liberal constitutional state capable of leading northern Italy.
Otto von Bismarck had been one of the most important people of the entire German history. With a strong personality and a major lust for power, Bismarck was looked upon or debated upon. He was " above all a master of practical politics who first honed his political skills as a high-ranking diplomat for the Prussian government," stated by the McKay textbook. Through his outrageous adventure of trying to secure power for himself and for Prussia, he remained very open to new ideas and flexible. He moved towards his goal with determination towards his goal.
In Russia, autocratic leaders pushed through a program of reform and modernization, which gave rise to revolutionary movements and eventually the revolution of 1905.
Russia as well as the Ottoman Empires were experiencing great political crises during the mid-nineteenth century. However these difficulties were different than those of Italy and Germany because unlike them Russia was a vast multinational state that had been made upon traditions of military conquest and absolutist rule. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the governing elites from both empires disagreed a representative government and national independence for ethnic groups, concentrating on absolutist rule and creating a clash against other Great Powers. A relentless power of politics created serious trouble. such as the loss of the Crimean War. It was now that their leaders started to embrace the feel that they were going to have to start modernizing their states. This led to reforms in their military, economy, and politics that might permit a country to compete effectively with leading European powers. Then came the Russian revolution of 1905 that consisted of strikes that were created by workers, peasant unrest, and military uprisings.
The unification of Italy and Germany transformed the European balance of power and let to efforts to construct a new diplomatic order
Cavour and Garibaldi had geat stradegy for italian unification. Cavour at first didn't. As he made this secret alliance with Louis Napoleon against Austria, and Cavour drove Austria into attacking Sardinia, Louis Napoleon came to Sardinias defense, but as the McKay textbook states " napoleon did a sudden about-face," which means that he turned around and left after the victory. This created Cavour to resign in rage. However, Cavour's other allies salvaged his plans for Italian unification. Later on Cavour gained Napoleon III's support by giving up Savoy and Nice to France. Then people of central Italy began to Vote to join a greatly enlarged kingdom of Sardinia under the power of Victor Emmanuel. This was the first step into Italian unification but it was only half done. Then Garibaldi came to finish the other half. Garibaldi started off by leading a corps of volunteers against Austria, and then he emerged as an independent force in Italian politics. Cavour under his power only agreed to Garibaldi's plan to liberate the kingdom of the two Sicilies to use him and to get rid of him. Then Garibaldi went to Sicily with his army of the red shirts and they captured the imagination of the peasantry, which led to a bloody rebellion. Garibaldi's guerilla won and they then wanted to attack Rome and the pope. Cavour knew that if that were to happen, then there would be a war with France, so he sent out his army to intercept Garibaldi's guerilla. Surprisingly Garibaldi did not oppose Cavour and the people of the south then voted to join the kingdom of Sardinia. Cavour had successfully unified Italy with the help of Garibaldi
Bismarck had a few strategies himself to unify Germany. One of his main strategies was allowing male suffrage to all men of all classes this was also seen as weapon to Bismarck because he could use it to scare off other threats . He also reorganized the army. One thing that Bismarck did that wasn't approved by the parliament was he made the Prussian Bureaucracy collect taxes. Bismarck also created a constitution for the Northern German Confederations. All of these things contributed to allow Bismarck to unify Germany.
Socialists called for a fair distribution of society's resources and wealth, and evolved from a utopian to Marxist 'scientific" crtique of capatilaism
Socialist parties or as one could say Marxist groups grew quickly . The growth of the socialist parties were growing without people knowing because neither Bismarck's Anti-Socialist Laws nor his extensive social security system was checking the growth of the SPD. This group mainly pertained to working classes and became one of the largest groups in the Reichstag. Marx himself played a very leading role in this. He founded the socialist International Working Men's Association, also known as the First International, but then that collapsed. Then later on a group of people came together to create the Second International.
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