Chapter 23 Nationalism Triumphs in Europe

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Chapter 23 Nationalism Triumphs in Europe

• Section 1
• Building a German Nation

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• Setting the Scene
• The Prussian legislators waited restlessly for
  Otto von Bismarck to speak. They knew he wanted
  them to vote more money to build up the Prussian
  army. Liberal members of the parliament, however,
  opposed the move. At last, Bismarck rose and
  dismissed their concerns
• "Germany does not look to Prussia's liberalism,
  but to her power. . . . The great questions of
  the day are not to be decided by speeches and
  majority resolutionsthat was the mistake of 1848
  and 1849but by blood and iron!"
• Bismarck delivered his "blood and iron" speech in
  1862. It set the tone for his policies in the
  years ahead. Bismarck was determined to build a
  strong, unified German state, with Prussia at its
  head.

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I. Steps Toward Unity

• In the early 1800s, German-speaking people lived
  in a number of kingdoms, Prussia, and the
  Austrian Hapsburg empire

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I. Steps Toward Unity

• Between 1807 and 1812, Napoleon organized many
  German states into the Confederation of the Rhine

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I. Steps Toward Unity

• 1815 - The Congress of Vienna created the German
  Confederation, a weak alliance headed by Austria

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I. Steps Toward Unity

• In the 1830s, Prussia created an economic union
  between German states called the Zollverein

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I. Steps Toward Unity

• 1848 The Frankfurt Assembly demanded a united
  Germany under Prussia, but were turned down by
  Fredrick William IV

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II. Bismarck and German Unity

• 1862 - Otto von Bismarck, a diplomat from
  Prussia's Junker class, was named as chancellor

Chancellor of Germany Period in office
18711890 Date of birth 1 April 1815 Date
of death 30 July 1898
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II. Bismarck and German Unity

• As Chancellor, Bismarck succeeded in uniting the
  German states under Prussian rule

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II. Bismarck and German Unity

• Bismarck was a master of Realpolitik realistic
  politics based on the needs of the state

This 1887 American political cartoon depicts
Bismarck balancing the figures of war and peace
on a teeter-totter made up of a powder keg and a
board named "European politics". At the same
time, he is juggling the great powers of Europe.
An artillery piece lies in the foreground.
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II. Bismarck and German Unity

• Bismarck built up the army and fought three wars,
  increasing Prussian power and paving the way for
  German unity

Franco-Prussian War
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II. Bismarck and German Unity

• 1864 - Bismarck formed an alliance with Austria
  and seized the provinces of Schleswig and
  Holstein from Denmark

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II. Bismarck and German Unity

• 1866 - Bismarck attacked Austria annexed several
  other north German states

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II. Bismarck and German Unity

• Bismarck dissolved the German Confederation and
  created a Prussian dominated confederation

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II. Bismarck and German Unity

• A growing rivalry between France and Prussia led
  to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870

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II. Bismarck and German Unity

• Napoleon III declared war on Prussia after the
  Ems dispatch but was defeated within a few weeks

Stone of Benedetti - Ems dispatchA memorial
stone reminding of the fatal correspondence
between King Wilhelm I of Prussia and the french
ambassador Earl Benedetti. The telegraphic
message of the prussian king to Berlin, which
entered history books  under the name of "Ems
Dispatch" and the shortened version of the
contents, which was published in the press by
Otto Graf of Bismarck on July 13, 1870, led to
the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War
1870/1871.
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III. The German Empire

• January 1871 - William I of Prussia took the
  title Kaiser and German nationalists celebrated
  the birth of the Second Reich

On the 18th January 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors
at Versailles, King William I of Prussia was
proclaimed by all the states of Germany to be
their emperor.
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III. The German Empire

• A constitution drafted by Bismarck set up a
  two-house legislature - the appointed Bundesrat,
  and the elected Reichstag