European History Europe (1848-1871) Brief Overview Timeline People Events & Qs
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Brief Overview
When revolutions erupted throughout Europe in 1848, radicals from Prague to Paris, Naples to Berlin were interested in overthrowing the conservative establishment that had ruled Europe since the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815. Revolution was in the name of change, but every revolt failed. By the end of the year, a strong president was in charge of France, taking dictatorial powers within three years. In Austria, the Austrian army suppressed each and every urban revolt, reasserting the power and rule of the conservative monarchy.
However, where radical revolution failed, nationalism took hold and succeeded. Italian unification, after centuries of disunity, was finally realized in 1861, with the proclamation of Italy under the Sardinian king. By 1870, with the annexation of Rome and its surrounding provinces from France and the Pope, the entire boot of Italy became one united nation-state. Just to the north, the wily political animal that was Otto von Bismarck used everything from war to harsh diplomacy to finally unite the German provinces under the Prussian crown in 1871. Central Europe, previously divided by more powerful interests to the west and east, was finally consolidated into viable and strong states (Germany).
Meanwhile, Great Britain continued its pattern of gradual reform and experienced firsthand an active debate over government intervention in the economy and society. Russia, the most backward of all the European powers, frightened by her defeat in the Crimean War, finally moved to some reforms in society and government; however, these reforms were halfhearted and did not effect lasting change. The period between 1848 and 1871, therefore, can be considered a transition period when most nations focused on domestic matter and where those leaders who understood the interconnection between domestic and foreign affairs succeeded beyond their expectations.
Timeline
1846 Beginning of Europe's last major food crisis and famine throughout the Continent.
1848 Karl Marx publishes the Communist Manifesto.
February 24, 1848 Revolution in France; overthrow of the monarchy of King Louis-Philippe; proclamation of the creation of the French Second Republic.
March 1848 Uprisings in some German states; granting of constitutional reforms in Prussia.
March 1848-June 1849 Revolutions in Italy.
April 1848 Revolutions in Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.
May 1848 Frankfurt Assembly meets and proposes a plan for the unification of Germany; Prussian king refuses to take the crown.
December 1848 Louis Napoleon wins presidential election in France.
1853-1856 Crimean War.
1859 Austria declares war on the Kingdom of Sardinia, allied with France.
1859 Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection.
1860 Sardinia annexes provinces in central Italy after plebiscites; France receives Savoy and Nice.
March 3, 1861 Emancipation of Russian serfs.
March 14, 1861 Kingdom of Italy proclaimed with King Victor Immanuel II as king.
1861-1865 American Civil War.
1863 Maximilian crowned emperor of Mexico; Prussia and Austria at war with Denmark over Schleiswig and Holstein.
1866 Seven Weeks' War between Prussia and Austria; Italy acquires Venetia.
1867 Karl Marx publishes Das Kapital.
July-September 1870 Franco-Prussian War ends with capitulation of French Second Empire.
September 20, 1870 Italy annexes Rome.
January 18, 1871 German Empire proclaimed.
Key People
Alexander II
Russian Tsar 1855-1881; known as a reformer for his Great Reforms program that included changes in education, judicial matters, military readiness, and expression freedom; issued the Emancipation edict of 1861 to free the serfs; but his record only shows him to be a half-hearted reformer, never really interested in compromising any element of his power; assassinated in 1881 by a radical because of his lackluster performance as a reformer.
Otto von Bismarck
1815-1898; German chancellor and architect of German unification under the Prussian crown; ruthlessly used realpolitik in his endeavors; instigated fabricated conflicts with Denmark, Austria, and France to acquire the land he believed should be part of the German Empire.
Camillo di Cavour
1810-1861; Sardinian prime minister and architect of Italian unification under Sardinia's crown; skillfully used realpolitik and his understanding of international relations to enhance Sardinia's stature as a European power and use the French-Austrian conflict to his advantage.
Charles Darwin
1809-1882; scientist, biologist. visited to the Galapagos Islands on the HMS Beagle, Darwin published On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection in 1859. Darwin's ideas dramatically affected societal self-conception, challenging the uniqueness of man and the relation of man to God, spurring the development of the scientific field of evolution and less scientific ideas such as Social Darwinism.
Benjamin Disraeli
1804-1881; leader of the Conservative Party, dedicated to government intervention and the maintenance of traditional institutions of privilege for tradition and stability purposes; his government passed the Factory Act of 1875, setting a maximum of a fifty-six hour work-week; the Public Health Act, establishing a sanitary code; the Artisans Dwelling Act, defining minimum housing standards; and the Trade Union Act, permitting picketing and other peaceful labor tactics.
Giuseppe Garibaldi
Italian patriot, democrat, and freedom fighter; once Italian unification seemed possible, after the defeat of Austria, he led a legion of Italian fighters through the Kingdom of Naples, liberated province after province to create a unified Italian state; forced to relinquish his territory to Camillo di Cavour's Sardinian lands in the name of unification.
William Gladstone
1809-1898; leader of the Liberal Party in Great Britain, though he began his career as a Tory; main advocate of the liberal approach to government--no tariffs, free trade, no government intervention; his government abolished tariffs, cut defense spending, lowered taxes, kept budgets balanced, reformed the civil service into a merit-based promotion system, and made elementary education available to and mandatory for everyone.
Georges Haussmann
1809-1891; chief architect of the redesigned Paris under Napoleon III; known for his utter disregard for established neighborhoods when he redesigned Paris as a home for the upper and middle class bourgeoisie of France; Haussman's redesigned Paris, known for its wide boulevards, straight roads, museums, and pristine arrangement, thus served as the model for countless other cities throughout the world.
Abraham Lincoln
American president, elected 1860; led Union during the American Civil War and dedicated himself to the forcible reunification of the United States.
Karl Marx
1818-1883; German political philosopher and founder of scientific socialism; published the Communist Manifesto in 1848 and Das Kapital in 1867.
Giuseppe Mazzini
Italian patriot and democrat committed to the unification of Italy under a liberal democratic government; leader of the Young Italy organization, a group of mostly Italian youths and democrats who pledged to work toward a united democratic Italy.
Napoleon III
1808-1873; formerly Louis Napoleon and nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte; won in the presidential election in France in December 1848, but took dictatorial powers on December 2, 1851 and took the monarchical title; can be considered the first modern politician due to his mastery of communication and appearances to maintain the grandeur of France; known for his economic prosperity, rejuvenation of Paris, and support of Italian unification; defeated in Franco-Prussian War.
Terms
Classical liberalism
The economic and political philosophy that opposed state intervention in economic affairs, supported free trade, competition, and individual initiative as the key to success; this philosophy was, above all, an attack on privilege, on the aristocrats, on the Anglican Church; liberals believed that talent alone should dictate a man's advancement in the world; supported in England by William Gladstone.
Conservatism
A political and economic philosophy that supported state intervention in the economy on behalf of the disadvantaged; supported the maintenance of traditional institutions of privilege in the name of preservation of tradition and custom that worked in the past; supported in England by Benjamin Disraeli.
Frankfurt Assembly
May 1848-June 1849. German national parliament that tried and failed to create a united German state during the 1848 revolutions. First meeting in May 1848, the convention was populated by middle class civil servants, lawyers, and intellectuals dedicated to liberal reform. However, after drawing the boundaries for a German state and offering the crown to Friedrich Wilhelm, the Kaiser refused in March 1849, dooming hopes for a united, liberal Germany, and the Frankfurt assembly dissolved soon after.
Peace of Paris
1856; ended the Crimean War; Russia relinquished its claim as the protector of Christianity in the Ottoman Empire and the Black Sea was neutralized among all powers; solidified a complete defeat for Russia.
Plebiscites
Popular votes on one question or issue on the ballot; Camillo di Cavour used these to legitimize Sardinia's role as the central nation in unification as he arranged these votes in every province to be annexed by Sardinia into the Italian state.
Realpolitik
The notion that politics must be conducted in terms of the realistic assessment of power and the self-interest of individual nation-states, and the pursuit of those interests by any means, often ruthless and violent ones; used skillfully by Camillo di Cavour and Otto von Bismarck in their policies toward national unification.
Risorgimento
Literally, "resurgence"; the name given to the movement for Italian unification because the movement hoped to bring Italy back to its former ancient glory through unification into one political entity; succeeded with proclamation of Italian state in 1861, finally completed with annexation of Rome in 1870.
Serfdom
An institution in Russia and many eastern European states in which peasants were legally tied to the land that they farmed and could not leave that land without expressed permission from the baron or landowner; created an immobile peasantry and a form of slavery; ended with the Emancipation of 1861.
Events
American Civil War
1861-1865; conflict between the North and the Confederate South over states' rights, federalism, economic rights, and, to some extent, slavery. The Civil War was an example of the forcible unification of a union using realpolitik.
Crimean War
1853-1856; war that pitted Russia against the alliance of Britain, France, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia; Russia wanted warm water ports on Black Sea and thus hoped to take advantage of weakening Ottoman Empire; France and Britain feared an upset to the balance of power in Europe; emerged as an absolute military defeat for Russia.
Emancipation of the serfs
1861; by the Emancipation Edict offered by Alexander II; ended the institution of serfdom in Russia after centuries of its use; most probably done because the government needed an effective pool of men from which it could conscript thousands into the army; after the defeat in the Crimean War, this was one of the efforts taken to strengthen the weak Russian military.
Franco-Prussian War
July-September 1870; conflict between France and Prussia over a fabricated insult allegedly made by the French ambassador to the Prussia king; Prussia defeated France and her own territory and took Alsace-Lorraine from France and laid siege to Paris until the country gave in; overthrew the government and set up a parliamentary system in Paris.
Great Reforms
Tsar Alexander II's changes that he directed from above; changes in education, the judiciary, the military, expression rights, etcetera all seemed to follow an enlightened, liberal perspective; however, upon careful review of these reforms, it is obvious that these were grudging reforms with little real change.
Sevastopol
1854-1855; Russia's heavily fortified chief naval base in the Black Sea, lying on the Crimean peninsula; after just under one year of constant battle and being under siege by French an British, the Russian abandoned the fortress, blowing up their fortifications and sinking their own ships; one example of the harsh battles of the campaign.
Seven Weeks' War
1866; war between Prussia and Austria, named for its very short duration; was a fabricated conflict over administration of Holstein; complete victory for Prussia; Prussia gained Holstein and put an end to all Austrian involvement in German affairs, clearing a major obstacle to German unification.
Study Questions
After the revolutions of 1848 failed throughout Europe, conservative forces were able to reassert their dominance throughout the Continent. Why was it so easy for them to do so?
The reassertion of conservative and "law and order" stability throughout Europe was probably due to the support the members of the middle class gave to those conservative elements in government. The revolutions of 1848 had changed, since the beginning of the uprisings in Paris, to those of a more radical bent, led by workers and students with radical ideas and leftist leanings. The middle class--lawyers, civil servants, doctors, other professionals, merchants--was frightened of the instability and uncertainty that developed from radical leadership of the waves of change. Therefore, in response to that uncertainty, the middle class put their trust in conservative elements that promised to return order and stability to a previously dangerous European situation.
Did the Crimean War mark the end of Russian military dominance on the Continent? Discuss arguments for both sides of the question before coming to your own conclusion.
Some historians argue that due to the utter defeat Russia experienced in the Crimean War, the charade that Russia was strongest power on the Continent, a notion maintained since the defeat of Napoleon, finally ended. Soldiers were poorly led, the navy was antiquated, and the armed forces could not succeed against a smaller British and French force. However, an argument can be made that the Crimean War brought about an improvement in the Russian military. Military reforms and the emancipation of the serfs freed up millions for military service, and the army and navy were reorganized for the future. One can say that the defeat was a wake-up call that pushed Russia out of its complacency and forced it to make sure it really did have the strongest army in the world. However, that argument is based only on a theoretical approach. History tells us that the Russia army was quite weak, defeated by the Japanese in 1905 and destroyed by the Germans in 1914.
What were the effects, in terms of European international relations, of the creation of a unified German Empire in the center of Europe? Assess the effects from the perspectives of various other nations in Europe.
The unification of Germany was a revolution in international relations, overturning centuries of foreign policy perspectives since the days of Henry IV of Navarre in France. Traditionally, France had dedicated itself to the maintenance of Germanic division in central Europe for fear of the awesome power one nation could wield in the strategically important and resource-rich center of Europe. With that tradition gone, the European balance of power was upset. From France's perspective, it marked a real danger to security. From Austria's view, it marked the end of Austrian power in the Germanic provinces and the lasting dominance of Prussia-Germany in foreign policy. From Russia's view, the organization of Germany into one powerful nation should have been received with some fear, since the nation stretched from Russian lands to France. No one can really tell how England may have viewed it, since the country was still enforcing its "splendid isolation" from European affairs.
