The Age of Nation Building

1
The Age of Nation Building

• Politics, Diplomacy and War

2
Louis Napoleon as President

• Winning Support
• After his election, Louis Napoleon was still
  dismissed by many as a nonentity, whose only
  success was due to his name
• However, Louis Napoleon was a clever politician,
  he understood the popular forces of his time, and
  he was patient
• Seizure of government (1 December 1851) and
  election as president for 10 years
• Election as Emperor
• A year later on 21 November 1852, Louis Napoleon
  again returned to the people to ask for a
  restoration of the Empire
• 97 voted yes, and Louis Napoleon assumed the
  title Napoleon III, instituting the Second Empire

3
Second Napoleonic Empire Government

• The government was clearly authoritarian
• As chief of state, Napoleon III controlled the
  military, police, and the civil service and only
  he could declare war and introduce legislation

4
Second Napoleonic Empire Government

• The Legislative Corps (Parliament) gave a
  semblance of representative government as its
  members were elected by universal male suffrage
  to 6 year terms
• However, they could not initiate legislation nor
  affect the budget

5
Second Napoleonic Empire Government

• Stimulating the Economy
• The first five years of Napoleon IIIs reign were
  very successful as he and France reaped the
  benefits of worldwide economic prosperity as well
  as his own economic policies
• Napoleon believed in using the resources of
  government to stimulate the national economy
• Rebuilding Paris
• One of Napoleon IIIs great contributions was the
  rebuilding of Paris
• Purpose

6
Second Napoleonic Empire Liberalization

• By the 1860s opposition to Napoleon began to
  grow and in response he liberalized his regime
• Her reached out to the working class by
  legalizing trade unions and granting them the
  right to strike
• Reforms to elections and the Legislative Corps
• Napoleon even proposed a new constitution in May
  1870
• However, failures in foreign policy and the war
  with Prussia brought down the Second Empire
  before any reforms could be instituted

7
Foreign Policy and the Crimean War

• Weakening of the Ottoman Empire The Eastern
  Question
• Declaration of war October 1853 and March of
  1854
• Why war? - To protect the balance of power
• Course of the war
• Results of the Crimean War

8
Unification of ItalyThe House of Savoy

• In 1850, Austria was still the dominant power in
  Italy, but many Italian nationalists were placing
  their hopes in Piedmont
• Piedmont, under Charles Albert, had tried during
  1848-49 to unify Italy but had failed
• They would again assume a leadership role under
  King Victor Emmanuel II and his PM Camillo di
  Cavour

9
Camillo di Cavour

• Liberal minded nobleman
• Appointed PM in 1852
• Pursued a policy of economic expansion that would
  strengthen Piedmont and its army
• However, he realized that he could not take on
  Austria alone so he made an alliance with France
  in 1858
• Confident of success, Cavour provoked Austria
  into declaring war in April 1859

10
Camillo di Cavour

• In the subsequent fighting, it was the French who
  were responsible for defeating the Austrians and
  Magenta and Solferino
• However, the French also made peace with Austria
  without telling their Italian ally - why?
• With French withdrawal, Piedmont only got
  Lombardy
• Cavour was furious, but events soon change to the
  benefit of Cavour how?
• Napoleon agreed to the annexations and received
  Nice and Savoy

11
Garibaldi and His Red Shirts

• Meanwhile, a new leader of Italian unification
  came to the fore, Giuseppe Garibaldi
• He was a dedicated Italian patriot who had
  supported Mazzini
• Garibaldi, the Red Shirts, and Sicily (May to
  September 1860)
• At this point, Cavour reentered the stage as he
  knew Garibaldi was marching on Rome

12
End Game of Italian Unification

• Unification (1861)
• Piedmontese forces moved into the Papal States to
  meet Garibaldi, who, as a patriot, yielded to
  Cavour rather than provoke a civil war
• Formation of the new kingdom of Italy centered in
  Piedmont (17 March 1861)
• Rome (1870)
• However, Italian unification was still not
  complete
• Venetia was only added after Austrian defeat in
  the Austro-Prussian War of 1866
• Addition of Rome (20 September 1870)

13
German UnificationPrussia as the model

• German nationalists, in the wake of the failure
  of Frankfurt, soon saw Prussia and the key to
  German unification
• Prussia and the Zollverein (1834)
• Politically, Prussia had a constitution with the
  appearance of a constitutional monarchy with a
  bicameral legislature
• Problem Strong monarchy

14
German UnificationWilliam I

• Came to the thrown in 1861 and began a policy of
  strengthening the army
• Conflict with the legislature and rejection of
  Williams budget

15
Otto von Bismarck and Realpolitik

• In response, William appointed Otto von Bismarck
  as PM and he would remain so until 1890,
  dominating both German European politics
• Characteristics of Bismarck
• In 1862, he resubmitted the budget, but it was
  again defeated

16
Otto von Bismarck and Realpolitik

• He then went ahead and collected the taxes and
  reorganized the army blaming the liberals for the
  breakdown
• Parliament did nothing and because of their
  opposition, Bismarck pursued an active foreign
  policy that resulted in three wars and German
  unification under the auspices of Prussia

17
Wars of UnificationDanish War (1864)

• Arose over the Danish annexation of the duchies
  of Schleswig Holstein
• Bismarck persuades Austria to join Prussia in
  declaring war and quickly defeat the Danes
• Bismarck realizes that Prussia cannot expand its
  power with Austrian interference
• He creates a friction over the duchies and with
  Austria politically isolated goads her into war

18
Austro-Prussian War (1866)

• Many expected a quick Austrian victory, but after
  only six weeks of fighting, the Austrians are
  defeated at the battle of Königgratz
• Results and consequences of the war
• More importantly, Prussian success brings the
  liberals to Bismarcks side and they pass a bill
  of indemnity legalizing all that Bismarck had done

19
Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871)

• The final step was France
• Bismarck knew he would have to deal with her as
  Napoleon III would not be willing to see a strong
  Germany on her borders
• The fuse was over the succession to the vacant
  Spanish throne
• The Ems Telegram
• Course of the war
• Battle of Sedan (September of 1870)
• Fall of Paris (January 1871)
• Peace Treaty, May of 1871

20
Unification (1871)

• Before the war had ended, the south German states
  agreed to join the NGC
• On 18 January 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors at
  Versailles, William I is proclaimed Kaiser of the
  Second Reich

21
Unification (1871)

• German unity had been achieved through Prussia
  and its army, and in reality Germany had been
  merged into Prussia
• Germany was now the strongest nation in Europe
  and a new European balance of power was at hand

22
Nation Building and Reform Austria

• Francis Joseph and Dual Monarchy
• After the Revolutions of 1848-49, Austria
  dismantled the liberal gains and resorted to
  authoritarian government
• However, with each Austrian defeat, changes were
  made to the government
• The greatest came in 1866 after defeat against
  the Prussians - the Ausgleich
• Domination by Germans and Magyars
• The Ausgleich only enabled each of the dominant
  groups (German Magyar) to dominate the
  minorities, especially the Slavs, in each state

23
Imperial Russia

• Alexander II and the Emancipation of the Serfs
• Defeat in the Crimean War forced her to look at
  her deficiencies
• Alexander II turned his energies to reforming
  Russia and Russian society
• Emancipation of the serfs (3 March 1861)
• Other Reforms
• Zemstvos Assemblies
• However, Alexander was not able to control all
  the forces unleashed by his reforms as he is
  assassinated in 1881
• His successor, Alexander III resorted to more
  autocratic means

24
Britain's Victorian AgePalmerston's
Conservatism

• Britain was able to escape most of the tumult of
  1848 because of her stability, especially in the
  person of Queen Victoria (1837-1901)
• The major figure of the period was Henry John
  Temple, Lord Palmerston
• PM from 1855-1865
• Although a Whig, he crossed party lines regularly
  and thus could make political compromises
• However, he was no reformer and resisted any
  extension of the franchise

25
Move to Reform

• With Palmerstons death in 1865, the movement to
  increase the franchise only intensified
• Although the Whigs (now the Liberals) talked
  about increasing the franchise, it was the Tories
  (now the Conservatives) who actually carried it
  through

26
Disraeli and the Reform of 1867

• Benjamin Disraeli and the Conservatives
• Reform Act of 1867
• Lowered the monetary requirements for voting,
  enfranchising nearly all urban male workers
• However, the new voters favored the Liberals and
  produced a huge victory for them in 1868

27
Gladstone and the Liberal Party

• Liberal victory in 1868 brought William Gladstone
  to power, and during this first Liberal
  administration instituted many reforms
• Legislation and government orders opened civil
  service positions to competitive exams rather
  than patronage, introduction of a secret ballot
  for voting, and abolished the practice of
  purchasing military commissions
• The Education Act of 1870 attempted to make
  elementary schools available for all children