12. the Italian and German Unification. The difficult birth of the French Third Republic

Italian and German unification

• both had started out as romantic processes supported by urban elites such as urban patriciates, lawyers, university professors, men of letters etc (young Italy, Parliament of Frankfurt

• their projects would be transformed and ultimately realised by leading politicians of one the states involved (Prime minister Cavour of Sardinia- Piedmont and chancellor Bismarck of Prussia)

Italian Unification

• the leading political groups in the various Italian states, including those in the Kingdom of Sardinia- Piedmont = initially were not very keen on an eventual unification of the whole Italian peninsula = it threatened to affect their position

• The Risogimento = long process (1848- 61/70) => mainly shaped against the tide of three very different figures

The Risogimento

• (resugence or revival)

• long and complex movement for the unification of Italy, 1848 - 61 (with some final steps completed in 1870)

• brought together the fragmented Italian stated into a single nation => despite internal devisions and foreign domination (especially by Austria)

• mainly shaped against the tide of 3 very different figures, each their own vision and method for achieving unification) → Giuseppe Mazzini, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Count Camillo di Cavour

Guiseppe Mazzini

• the idealist and Revolutionary

• believed in a united, democratic, and republican Italy

• founded ‘Young Italy’ → secret revolutionary society

• inspired uprisings, especially among youth and intellectuals

• many of his attempts failed → but his ideals of national unity and republicanism influenced others

Guiseppe Garibaldi

• the soldier and popular hero

• a romantic revolutionary and military leader

• led the ‘expedition of the Thousand’ in 1860: a volunteer army that liberated southern Italy and Sicily from Bourbon rule

• Although a republican at heart => landed his conquests to king Victor Emmanuel II → to serve the greater goal of unity

Count Camillo di Cavour

• The Diplomat and Statesman

• prime minister of Piedmont- Sardinia under King Victor Emmanuel II

• a pragmatic liberal who favoured a constitutional monarchy, not republic

• used diplomacy and military alliances (notably with France) to weaken Austria’s hold on northern Italy

• led to the unification of Northern Italy and the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861

Chronology of the Risorgimento

• 1848 - wave of revolutions, short-lived Roman and Venetian Republics; failure of the Cinque Giornate in Milan, but promulgation of a constitution (The Statuto) in Piedmont

• 1859: in exchange for French support, Sardinia- Piedmont relinquished Savoie and Nice to France. In the ensuing war Austria loses almost all of Lombardy to Sardinia- Piedmont

• 1860-61: Garibaldi leads the ‘Expedition of the Thousand’, in a short campaign his troops conquer the kingdom of the Two Sicilies → Garibaldi hands these territories over to Piedmontese King Victor- Emmanuel II → the Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed

• 1866: The new Kingdom of Italy also acquires the Veneto

• 1870: Italian troops take Rome. The Italian capital is transferred to the Eternal City

The results of the Italian unification

• unexpected outcome → it did not correspond to the ideas that the protagonists had previously made of it; it meant an expansion of the (relatively liberal) kingdom of Sardinia- Piedmont

• Fatta l’Italia, bisogna fare gli Italiani is an aphorism ofter but apocriphally attributed to Massimo d’Azeglio (1798- 1866) a prominent piemontese politician and Cavour’s successor as Italian prime minister

Challenges that the young Italian unitary state had to overcome

• the gulf between the social/ political elites and the popular masses => wide and deep

• the catholic church fiercely opposed the young Italian State. Only in 1929 =>state and church would reconcile (=Lateran Treaty)

• during the 1st half century of the unitary Italian state => the south impoverished (weakened, poorer) compared to the north. It resulted in the south: brigantaggio (=de facto civil war) and mass emigration (especially to Argentina and the US)

What were the main limitations of the liberal- led unification of Italy?

• though unification was achieved formally, few Risorgimento ideals were truly realised

• Italy aspired to be a great power, but this failed:

  • defeated by Ethiopia at Adwa (1896)

  • managed only a limited colonial gain in Libya (1911)

• Many Italians were excluded form the liberal state’s vision and benefits

German unification

• in the wake of the failed revolutions of 1848 it had become clear that German unification would not be realised underneath.

• ‘small Germany solution’ (under the guidance of authoritarian, centralised and predominantly protestant Prussia)or the ‘big German’ ideal (including multi-national Austrian where Catholicism was the dominant religion?

• the combination of an efficient bureaucracy, a well equipped army under the command of the Prussian junkers and the industrialised Rhineland offered Prussia advantages → its population was mostly German speaking

• the Austrian Habsburg ruled over more people and controlled larger territory, but they faced more resistance from ethnically and linguistically different groups political and military dominance by the German speaker was widely resented

Otto von Bismarck

• 1862 appointed by the King William I as chancellor

• the ‘iron chancellor’ → a proponent of Realpolitik, seizing opportunities whenever they presented themselves

What events led to the 1866 war between Prussia and Austria, and what was its outcome?

• efforts of the Danish King to integrate the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein into his kingdom, offered him such a pretext

• in 1864 → Prussia and Austria defeated Denmark, gaining control over Schleswig (Prussia) and Holstein (Austria)

• Tensions rose over the joint administration

• Bismarck secured Italian support and French neutrality

• in 1866 → he Prussia declared war on Austria and its German allies

• Decisive Prussian victory at Sadowa/ Koniggratz market Austria’s exclusion from German affairs

How was German unification achieved and what role did Bismarck play?

• after defeating Austria in 1866 (Austro- Prussian war), Prussia dissolved the German Confederation and formed the North German Confederation

• Prussia annexed multiple territories, ending its east- west devision

• In 1870, French Emperor Napoleon III went into a provocation of Bismarck, regarding the Spanish succession- in the war that ensured, led to a French defeat at Sedan

• Alsace- Lorraine was annexed by Prussia

• on 18th January 1871, William I was proclaimed German Emperor in Versailles

• Bismarck used economic liberalism to serve political nationalism; post- unification, liberals had limited power

• Imperial Germany became a Prussian- dominated federation with regional autonomy → the different member states retained administrative autonomy

Assestment of the German unification

• just as in the Italian case → German unification had been realised under the aegis of the strongest state.

• Otto von Bismarck → harnessed economic liberalism to the goal of political nationalism

• in unified Germany → liberals had relatively little influence

The Advent of the French Third Republic

• after Napoleon III had gone into exile → a provisional government that continued the war against Prussia was installed

• During the winter of 1870- 71→ German troops besieged Paris, without being able to take the city

• at the end of January → the provisional government concluded a truce with Bismarck → German troops occupied large parts of the country →

• later that spring (under pressure) the government accepted humiliating peace treaty (loss of Alsace- Lorraine, payment of a huge war tribute)

• The Parisians → felt betrayed by the provisional government

The Parisian Commune

• in the elections of 8 feb 1871 → Parisians mainly sent republicans who wished to continue the war to parliament → but still they were the minority there (conservative = national majority)

• too much social unrest → the newly elected parliament moved to Versailles on March 10

• The provisional government decided to disarm the ever- rebellious Parisians and under the approving eye of the Prussian occupier → sent troops to Paris; but those troops did not get into the city

  => when government troops tried to disarm Paris → resistance led to the formation of the Paris Commune

• on 21 Mat, troops re-entered Paris, under PM Adolphe Thiers

• the communards (including many women) resisted fiercely with barricades

• the rebellion crushed on the 28 May at Père Lachaise Cemetery

• Many communards → executed without trial; during the ‘bloody week’,

  10 000- 20 000 were killed, over 43 000 arrested while half of them locked up in camps for months

• monuments such as Palais des Tuileries and the original medieval town hall of Paris were destroyed and went up in flames

why did France become a republic after the 1871 elections, despite a monarchist majority?

• the 1871 National Assembly had a monarchist majority, but monarchists disagreed on who should be king

• the leading candidate, Henry V of Bourbon, was considered too conservative/ reactionary even by supporters

• as a result => France became a Republic by default

• the Third Republic’s constitution was adopted in 1875, and by the 1880s it firmly shaped modern France, as we still know it today