V. The Age of Nationalism (ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 23)

Time Period: 1850-1914

Grand-nephew of Napoleon I
Popular coup in Dec 1851, took 3 yrs to win
- Bonapartists wanted the return of a strong France, back to Napoleonic years
- President Louis Napoleon → Emperor Napoleon III
- Enormous majority voted him for president for 10 years, 97% voted him emperor a year later
- Coup = overthrow of the government, in this case of the republic, becoming empire
Controlled military, police, civil service
Succeeded domestically, big failure in foreign policy
- Top down; downside
Used government resources as economy stimulant
- Similar to FDR New Deal, socialist ideas; taxpayer funds → stimulate economy, better life
Infrastructure, railway, industry, social welfare revitalized through the government
Reconstructed France for aesthetics and military benefit
- Looks nice and anti-barricades for liberals
Liberalized: trade unions, oppositional candidates, etc.

1864: Installed Manimillian as Mexican emperor; executed in 1867
- Killed by Mexicans
- Failed to exploit American Civil War…
- Blunder!
Ottomans on the verge of collapse = Russia wants Crimea (and maybe the rest of Ottomans)
- FR/GB doesn’t want this to happen since it would upset the balance of power
- They declare war against Russia, igniting Crimean War (1853-56)
Crimean War ramifications
- Russian humiliation → smaller ethnicities breaking away from Russian watchdog
  - Retreat = regrouping themselves to be more Russified
- Ottoman Empire survives
- Closes the Concert of Empire
  - Austria and Russia go to sort out their own problems for a while…
  - Smaller ethnic groups come out to play…
Austria and Russia hate each other, Russia retreated to reform
- Austria and Russia want Ottoman, both fearing the other to upset balance of power
- Russia retreats to focus on themselves…
- Prussia starts fighting Austria
- Both are distracted from keeping conservatism in Europe…

Piedmont-Sardinia northern leader; Two Sicilies southern leader
- Both sides head towards Rome…
- South to kill Pope, north to save Pope
Cavour (P-S) needed Austrians out to unify, asked French for help
France made peace with Austria without telling Piedmont-Sardinia, Cavour furious
Northern states joined Piedmont’s unification movement
Garibaldi (romantic) republicanized from south
Kingdom north and romantic south both heading towards Rome and the pope…
Cavour feared papal attack from romantics, triggering French (cath.) invasion
- Cut off Garibaldi
- Garibaldi turns his troops over
17 March 1861: Kingdom of Italy established under Victor Emanuel II as king

Prussia is the catalyst to German unification
Zollverein (customs union) pushed Austria out economically
- Prussia needs to get Austria out (grossdeutch) to unify
- They make the customs union disadvantageous for Austria
  - As if every state (in the US) had to pay taxes to go through border
- Basically, Zollverein made free trade zones in German states but not Austria
  - Strategic way to indirectly push out Austria out of German affairs
  - Austria can’t afford to join, can’t agree to economic criteria (decaying from within, can’t keep up with industrial Germany)
FW IV death in 1861 = ushers in William I, King of Prussia, military reform focus
- Building up army not to use now, but later
Liberals in Reichstag (German congress) feared stronger army
- Stronger army = Junker more powerful
- Rejected budget who feared erosion of civil liberties
William I appointed Bismarck, diplomatic mastermind, to pass budget by ignoring parliament
- Bismarck was right hand man of the king, not a king
  - Top down
  - Supported by conservatives
  - Handled the mess, keeping the king clean
- Germans wanted the army to unify Germany without liberal revolution
  - Want conservatives in power
Used war w/ Danes, Austrians, and French to unify + stoke nationalism
- Baits Austrians to help them defeat Danes, to turn on the Austrians
- Liberals prefered conservatives over foreign powers
  - Conservatives used this to shut the liberals up

Bismarck’s Goal: Fight one power, isolate them diplomatically
Danes tried to incorporate (annex) S&H, “free zone”; angered nationalists
- Scheswig and Holstein contained ethnic Germans
  - Attempted at making them Danish
  - “Saving fellow Germans from being incorporated as Danes”
Bismarck persuaded Austria to jointly declare war on Danes in the name of balance of power
Danes defeated
Prussia gained Schleswig; Austrian Holstein = automatic friction (border claim enclaves → PrussianAustrianPrussiaAustria)
Prussia turns on Austria…

Bismarck isolated Austria via Russia, France, Italian neutrality
- Making Austria look bad by saying what they’re doing in Holstein
- Diplomatically putting Prussia as a “savior” of the balance of power
- They don’t want Austria getting too big
- Underestimating Prussia…
Prussians defeated in 6 weeks!
- Austria is utterly humiliated
- Ethnicities in Austria begin to erupt, unraveling Austrian empire
  - Decaying from within…
North German Confederation created; south German states remained independent
- Only lasted 4 years
- South stayed independent due to religious disunity (Catholic v. Lutherans)
Nationalism won liberals to his side
- Nationalism could be used by authoritarians, not just liberals!
- Susceptible to manipulation in nationstates

Napoleon III wakes up to powerful Prussian military, and looked to humiliate the Prussians to reset the balance of power
Spanish throne was offered to William’s relative, angering the French
2 Sept 1870 at Battle of Sedan Prussians captured French army and Napoleon III
Terms: France paid $1B (adjusted for inflation), occupied until paid, lost Alsace-Lorraine
18 Jan 1871 in Palace of Versailles, Prussian King William I → Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany
Prussian militarism dominated the continent…