The Unifications of

GERMANY and

ITALY

NATIONALISM

What is NATIONALISM?Nationalism is loyalty and devotion to a

nation of peopleIt is a sense of national identity exalting

one nation above all others It can be defined as pride in one’s

nation, and it can also be defined as the desire of an ethnic group to have its own country

WHAT FORMS A NATION?

THESE SIX THINGS ARE WHAT GIVE A GROUP OF PEOPLE IDENTITY AS A NATION-STATE

ITALY and GERMANY: TWO DIVIDED NATIONS

While nations like Spain, Russia, France, and England were UNITED under a single government, the German and Italian people were DIVIDED into numerous small states (Germanic people were found in numerous small states like Prussia, Bavaria, and Hanover)

GERMAN STATES

ITALIAN STATES

“Italy” in 1815 was not a unified nation; it was divided into three regions

Parts were controlled by

Austria and France

Parts were controlled by

the Pope

Parts were independent and had their

own kings

In the 1830s, nationalism led to a unification movement as Italians began to see themselves as

having a shared history (ancient Rome, Renaissance), shared territory, shared enemies (Napoleonic Wars)

GIUSEPPE MAZZINI Mazzini was a radical

who established the nationalist group Young Italy in 1831 with the goal of unifying Italy

He led a revolution in 1848, which led to a brief Italian republic (but Italy was not

totally unified)

Mazzini was overthrown and seen as TOO radical

and extreme

COUNT CAMILLO DI CAVOUR

In 1849, the king of Sardinia

named Cavour his Prime Minister

Cavour wanted to make Sardinia very

powerful by increasing industry and reducing the Pope’s influence

COUNT CAMILLO DI CAVOURHe wanted to unify

all Italian states, but ONLY if Sardinia led the unification

movement

Cavour fought wars locally and against Austria (who had claimed parts of Italy) to unite the Northern Italian states under the

kingdom of Sardinia

GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

Meanwhile, radical

nationalists prepared for a revolution in

Southern Italy in an effort to

unite the southern states

Giuseppe Garibaldi was a nationalist who had joined Mazzini’s “Young Italy” and helped in the Latin American independence movements

GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

GARIBALDI: AN ITALIAN HERO

“Let him who loves his country…

follow me.”Garibaldi, who always

wore a red shirt in battle, named his forces

the “Redshirts”He wanted a unified Italy under a republic style of government

ITALY IS UNIFIED

Garibaldi successfully led

the unification of Southern Italy,

while Cavour saw to the unification of Northern Italy; now the goal was

to link the two parts together

Cavour was unhappy with Garibaldi possibly replacing him as the

“unifier of Italy”

Cavour does not want a republic; he wants Sardinia’s king in

charge of a united Italy

Cavour, an experienced politician, convinced

the patriotic Garibaldi to give up his southern conquests to Sardinia’s king in the interest of

the common good

↕By 1871, Italy’s Northern and Southern halves are unified and a new country under a

constitutional monarchy emerges:

ITALY

GERMANYGermany was the

last European country to unify

all of its parts into a single nation

There had been attempts to unify

in the past centuries, but they met with

failure

GERMANYAt one point, Germany had been divided

into nearly 200 independent states (all run

by various kings and

princes who had their little

pieces of territory)

At the time of the Congress of Vienna, 39 Germanic states

were loosely associated (called the German Confederation)

PRUSSIAPrussia was the

most powerful and influential of the

39 German states

Austria was the only other

German-speaking nation that rivaled

Prussia’s power

PRUSSIA

Prussia had a great deal of military and

industrial power

Prussia badly wanted to unify the 39 states into a

new nation, Germany

“Prussia was not a country with an army, but an army with a country.”

PRUSSIA

OTTO VON BISMARCKOtto von Bismarck was the Prime Minister of Prussia in the 1860s

Bismarck’s goal was the unification of the

German states under the leadership of Prussia

He led a conservative political party called the Junkers (wealthy landowners)

OTTO VON BISMARCK Otto was an advocate

of realpolitik: “politics of reality” where there is no room for idealism

Bismarck was ruthless and saw using force, threats, and deceit as ways to achieve Prussia’s political goals

“BLOOD AND IRON”

In 1862, Bismarck makes his intentions known:

“Germany will not be united through speeches and

diplomacy, but through blood and iron.”

“BLOOD AND IRON”

The “blood” Bismarck was speaking of referred

to people of German blood uniting together and the “iron” referred

to the power of Prussia’s industry and military

To unite the German states, Bismarck started wars with Denmark, Austria, and France

Seven Weeks War against Austria led to the North German Confederation (a united northern Germany

under Prussia’s control)

The Franco-Prussian War against France convinces the Catholics in southern Germany that unification with

Prussia was better than unification with France

PRUSSIA IS VICTORIOUS

GERMANY IS UNITED

By rallying the German people

together in these wars, Prussia gains support

from all German states for

unification under one government

In 1871, Wilhelm I (the First) becomes Kaiser (emperor) of the united Germany

Otto von Bismarck

becomes the Chancellor

of Germany

Each German state has a local ruler and army and handles its own domestic affairs, but…the Kaiser heads the German national government

THE BALANCE OF POWER SHIFTS The balance of power in Europe is

disturbed by the sudden emergence of Germany as a military and industrial powerhouse

Germany wants what many European countries already have: a rich and powerful empire

This competition will eventually lead to the bloodiest, most destructive wars in human history

Created by

Christopher Jaskowiak