German and Italian Unification

1
German and Italian Unification

• Key Personalities
• The King of Piedmont Victor Emanuel II and prime
  minister Count Camillio di Cavour
• King William I and Otto Eduard von Bismarck
• Emperor Francis Joseph and Count Beust and
  Hungarian Ferencz Deak

2

• Tools
• Machiavellian methods
• Use of diplomacy and war
• Plebiscites
• Federal schemes
• Personalities
• Piecemeal incorporation

3
Italy
4

• Unification of Italy 1859-1870
• http//www.wadsworth.com/history_d/special_feature
  s/ext/duiker_maps/swfs/ds18_4.html

5

• Piedmont Lombardy 1859,
• Parma, Modena, Tuscany, Umbria 1860,
• Naples and Sicily 1860,
• Venice (1866),
• Papal State and Rome (1870),
• San Marino stays out.

6
Germany
7

• Unification of Germany 1862-1871
• http//www.wadsworth.com/history_d/special_feature
  s/ext/duiker_maps/swfs/ds18_5.html

8

• Northern German Confederation 1867
• German Empire with the incorporation of southern
  states 1871.

9
Economic and Social aspects

• Germany
• economically much more developed, (zollverien,
  common currency, banking system, expanding coal
  and steel production)
• socially very strong common culture and language,
  
• strong civil society linking professional classes
  across the German Bund,
• common national cause including liberals united
  behind Prussian leadership

10

• In contrast Italy
• culturally and geographically very disperse,
• economically not very integrated,
• Piedmont modernizing while the South very
  underdeveloped,
• no strong bond across the different Italian
  states,
• financial difficulties

11
Wars

• Italy
• Pact of Plombieres 1858 between Napoleon II and
  Cavour
• intermarriage to ling the two state between King
  Emanuels daughter princess Clotilde (15 years
  old) and Jerome cousin of Napoleon III,
• France and Piedmont would go to war against
  Austria,
• Piedmont would get Lombardy and Venetia to form
  Kingdom of Upper Italy linked to Duchies of
  Parma, Madena and Papal legations,
• In turn Piedmont would cede Nice and Savoy to
  France

12

• Piedmont/France vs Austria War and the Treaty of
• Villafranca, July 1859
• Only Lombardy given up and an Italian confederacy
  under the Pope advocated,
• Piedmontese ignored the treaty and maintained
  occupation of central Italian states,
• The next year with British and French approval
  the states of Parma, Madena, Tuscany, Papal
  legations thru plebiscites would join the Kingdom
  of Sardinia and Piedmont,
• France receives Nice and Savoy,
• Giuseppe Garibaldi and his irregulars conquer
  Sicily and Naples,
• Makes it on to Rome when Piedmontese forces stop
  him,
• He turn his gains over to King Emanuel in
  September 1860,
• Victor Emanuel of Savoy crowned as King of Italy
  in March 1861.

13

• Italy vs Austria War of 1866
• Battles inconclusive but Italy under Prussian
  pressure receives or redeems territories under
  Austria occupation thru plebiscites including
  Venice via France

14

• Franco-Prussian war of 1870
• French troops left Rome and Italy invades and
  completes unification
• The Pope would accept this new state of affairs
  until the Lateran Treaty of 1929

15
Germany

• Austria/Prussia vs. Denmark 1864
• Joint army claiming to act on behalf of the Bund
  defeated the Danes,
• Treaty of Vienna of October 1864,
• Denmark renounced claims over the two duchies.
• Convention of Gastein in August 1865 signed,
• Prussia got Schleswig and Austria got Holstein.

16

• Prussia vs Austria 1866
• Bismarck in June 1866 proposes to abolish the
  Bundestag and the German Bund instead hold a
  German Assembly to draft a new constitution,
• Austria objects,
• War breaks out at Sadowa and Austria defeated,
• Treaty of Prague signed,
• Austria to give Venice to France and then France
  to Italy,
• loss of Austrian role in German affairs,
• Bismarck leads of a new confederal constitution
  for Germany north of the Main composed of 22
  states led by Prussia alongside an association of
  southern states (Baden, Bavaria and Wurttemberg),
• Prussia annexed Schleswig and Holstein, Danish
  populated part in the north would be subjected to
  a plebiscite that would not take place until
  1919.

17

• Prussia vs. France 1870
• Bismarck began to plot his next major move
  against France,
• Employed very unscrupulous Machiavellian tactics
  to trap Napoleon III,
• Embarrasses Napoleon III over annexation of
  Wallonia but first supporting then ensuring thru
  British mediation independence of Belgium and
  Luxembourg re-confirmed,
• Bismarck in July 1867 incorporated Hannover,
  Nassau and Frankfurt having defeated them on
  battle ground,
• Severe blows to Napoleons prestige,
• shock came over succession to Spanish throne in
  July 1870,
• Bismarck edits Prussian Kings telegram over
  encounter with French ambassador,
• French hysteria provoked ensures withdrawal of
  candidate,
• France declares war,
• Prussian army commanded by Moltke defeats the
  French captures Napoleon at the Battle of Sedan,
• Third Republic formed and continues war but
  eventually Paris falls,
• Bismarck uses the occasion to unify rest of
  Germany as the three southern states induced to
  join the German Confederation.

18

• Treaty of Frankfurt signed in May 1871
• Confirmed the frontier between the French Third
  Republic and the German Empire - involving the
  annexation of most of Alsace and the Lorraine
  departement of Moselle,
• Gave residents of the annexed Alsace-Lorraine
  region until October 1, 1872 to decide between
  keeping their French nationality and emigrating,
  or to remain in the region and become German
  citizens,
• Set a framework for the withdrawal of German
  troops from certain areas,
• Regulated the payment of France's war indemnity
  of five billion francs (due within three years)
• Recognized the acceptance of William I of Prussia
  to be German Emperor,
• Required military occupation in parts of France
  until the staggering indemnity was paid (to the
  surprise of Germany, the French paid the
  indemnity quickly)

19
Consequences

• Compared to Metternichs system and balance of
  power
• Nationalism and populism rises,
• Media, print media, impact on populism massive
  especially in the Franco-Prussian war and
  subsequently colonial expansion,
• Flexible alliances disappear and major
  realignments,
• General geo-strategic situation,
• French-German rivalry grows,
• Balkans become a powder-keg,
• British aloofness,
• Five-power dynamism, desire not to be left in a
  minority accompanied by Bismarcks concern not to
  be sandwiched between two enemies.
• Outcomes
• secrecy, insecurity and fear,
• new patterns of alignments,
• British-German naval rivalry,
• Weakness of Concert of Europe,
• The Eastern Question and weakening of the Ottoman
  Empire,
• Sarajevo incident