Revolutions of 1848

• Revolution from lower classes was a failure

• Governments responded by increasing centralization of power

The Crimean War

• Fought over what great powers would do in response to the decline of Ottoman Empire

• England, France, Austria and Russia al wanted to increase their sphere of influence in the region

• Isolated Russia from European politics

• Aided Prussia in expanding into Central Europe

France was given rights over Roman Catholics in the Ottoman Empire (1852)

Russians claimed right to rule over Eastern Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire (1853)

• Turks rejected the Russian claim

• Russians invaded Danubian Principalities and sunk Turkish fleet at the Battle of Sinope

• Russians tried direct terms of peace with England and france rejecting terms and declaring war on Russia

September 9, 1854: English and French troops arrived in Crimea

• War ended with Peace of Paris 1856

Cost of Crimean War

• 750,000 dead, most being Russians

• Bad medical conditions

Risorgimento was a cultural and political movement meant to reunify Italy

• Failed throughout first half of the 19th Century

• Treaty of Plombieres

1860: Piedmont-Sardinia joined with rest of northern Italy

1866: Prussia defeated Austria

Italy claimed Venetian provinces and Papal States

1870: Prussians defeated the French

Otto Von Bismarck: force behind German Unification

• Believed that traditional elites needed to join nationalists to survive

• Used common ground of nationalism in order to manipulate and weaken liberals

Kaiser Wilhelm I attempted to reorganize the military in 1862

• Traditional elites reacted strongly

Bismarck established alliance with Austria in 1846

Seven Weeks War (1866)

• Started due to administrative disagreements between Austria and Prussia over territory of Schleswig

• Prussian victory

• Peace terms removed Austria from German unification

Franco-Prussian War (1870)

• Southern German states were afraid of unification around Prussian power

• Napoleon III of France was against a strong Prussia per French interests

• French declared war

• Southern German and Prussians united and won

German Unification

• Became greatest industrial empire in Europe

• Shift in balance of power

• Allowed for a yearning for national prestige in German to exist

Ideology and symbolism allowed states t o make new national identities

Nationalism became connected to conflict and violence

Realism appeared through art, literature, science, and history

Paris Commune: continued struggle of people of Paris after Paris fell to Prussia

France: Second Empire 1852-1870

England: Liberal Parliamentary Democracy assisted reform

• England faced many social issues as a result of unchecked industrialization and urbanization

• 1868-1874: Great Ministry

• 1874-1880: Tory Democracy

• 1880: Liberals were back in power

• 1884: Universal Male Suffrage

Russia

• started as unreformed semi-feudal autocracy

• Tsar had absolute power

• Alexander II “Tsar Liberator” ended serfdom and freed serfs and gave them land

• Economic reforms allowed for political reforms