would not be achieved by a nationalistic revolution. The first military
action against the Austrians was Piedmont allied with Papal States and
Tuscany offensive in Lombardy in 1848. Savoy was hoping to capitalise on
the recent riots in the Austrian Empire. Their attack proved unsuccessful.
However, Eleven years later an alliance of France's Napoleon III and the
Prime Minister of Piedmont, Count Cavour, defeated the Austrians in
Lombardy and the region was annexed to Piedmont. Meanwhile nationalistic
uprisings sprung across central Italy which forced the Austrian dukes into
exile, some of whom had left following military defeat in Lombardy. These
provinces of The Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Modena, Parma and some Papal land
in Romagna, had a referendum to be ruled by Piedmont. They then become
annexed with the Kingdom of Sardinia, in exchange for French control of
Nice and Savoy. Momentum had been established and a revolt in Palermo
prompted the Piedmont general Giuseppe Garibaldi to invade Sicily. This was
against the wishes of Cavour who was more than satisfied with the
unexpected acquisition of most of Central and Northern Italy. Garibaldi's
men defeated the Bourbon loyalists in Sicily and went on to claim Naples in
the South. The Kingdom of Italy was declared in 1861 after Garibaldi
formally gave the land to King Victor Emmanuel II. Rome and Venice was
still under foreign influence but due to another European war for the
unification of Germany in 1866-70, troops from France in 1870 (in Rome) and
Austria in 1866 (in Venetia) went to fight the Prussians. Italy quickly
moved in to Rome and Venice, without much resistance in Rome (Italy
eventually acquired the land due to a pact it signed with Bismarck in
exchange for fighting the Austrians, who actually successfully defended the
territory) and acquired them with a plebiscite vote. The state formation of
Italy during this time (Italy eventually acquired Austrian controlled
Trentino and Trieste after WWI in 1919) was a mixture of nationalistic
movement and expansionism. Many Italian's in the North were very happy to
be united if it meant liberalisation from foreign dominance, but when Count
Cavour had decided that he would free Lombardy from Austria he did not
expect to have united the whole Italian peninsula. In fact, despite the
fact that Piedmont secured most of its new territories by plebiscite,
'national sentiment was restricted to a small educated urban minority' (The
Italian Risorgimento, page 96). To conclude 'nationalism' certainly
contributed to the unification of Italy but it was not decisive. Mazzini,
Cavour and Garibaldi have become national heroes for their part in
unification, but only Mazzini and Garibaldi were true 'nationalists'.
Cavour and his government unified Italy by a series of unexpected events
that occurred outside of Italy and were certainly not due to a Piedmont
government incitement of National sentiment. Germany, unified in 1871, has
some parallels with Italy with regards to the nature in which it was done.
The unification of Germany, like Italy, was propelled by one dominant
state- Prussia (in the case of Italy Piedmont). Before the French
occupation of German states during the Napoleonic Wars there were hundreds
of independent communes. After the defeat of Napoleon there were only 39
states, the largest of these was Prussia. Prussia had become the strongest
of all the German states and was present at the congress of Vienna in 1819,
thus making it a 'great power'. The German Confederation had been
established after the Congress of Vienna which comprised of all the states
in the German area including parts of the Austrian Empire another 'great
power'. The two 'great powers' had constantly clashed over dominating the
smaller German states and this did not resolve itself until 1866. Relations
had been soured when Prussia repeatedly excluded Austria from the
Zollverein, a custom union involving many of German states. With this
Prussia gained economic strength over Austria. Prussian national income
increased at twice the rate of Austria between 1780s and 1850s. By 1865
Prussia possessed 15,000 steam engines, Austria only 3400 (The Fontana
history of Germany, Pg 250). The exclusion of Austria to the Zollverein
Prussia integrating itself with smaller German states and at the same time
marginalising Austria from the rest German Confederation. In 1862 Prussia
appointed Otto Von Bismarck as Prime Minister, who would by a mixture of
diplomacy and military strength would unify Germany. When the Danish king
died in 1863 it left questions over the North German regions of
Schleswig-Holstein which lead to the intervention of Austro-Prussian troops
who secured the area in 1864 (243). These provinces were split amongst
Prussia and Austria. Bismarck used various treaties to weaken Austria's
position and after he proposed 'radical changes to the German
Confederation' this provoked war in 1866. The Prussian won the war and
various Northern German territories were annexed to Prussia and Austria
signed a peace treaty in Prague that meant it couldn't interfere with
German affairs. After the creation of North German Confederation a
constitution was established by Bismarck which proclaimed universal male
suffrage. Germany was not quite united as many Southern states remained
independent. To complete unification it would take another vacant throne to
catalyse the movement. In this case the empty Spanish throne brought up by
which had been offered to Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern. This was a
candidature to which France objected and subsequently was withdrawn. The
French Empire wanted a written guarantee that no member of the Hohenzollern
would adopt candidature of the Spanish throne. The Prussian king Wilhelm I
refused to give his guarantee to the French ambassador and Bismarck
released a report of the event to the press. France promptly declared war
on Prussia but they were dispatched by Prussia and the allies of the
Southern German states. This victory over the French 'strongly aroused
German national sentiment' and the union was completed with the
proclamation of the German Empire with the Prussian King Wilhelm I as its
sovereign in Versailles in 1871. Bismarck much like Count Cavour was
credited for the unification of their respected countries via diplomacy and
military success, and also like Cavour, Bismarck's aim was not to
necessarily united Germany 'only to secure Prussia's position in north
Germany' in the Same way that Cavour wanted to expand Piedmont One,
therefore, could argue the ideology of the state formation of Germany was
not exactly nationalism as the main protagonists had no nationalist goals
in doing so. However it may be true to say that Bismarck used the
influential nationalist sentiment in German states to legitimise Prussian
control of the German states. This claim that Prussia merely expanded
itself should not be rejected, 60% of land and population of the unified
German Empire was Prussian and it was the Prussian King who became Emperor
and Prime Minister who became Chancellor. It would be fruitless to ignore
nationalism being the main ideology of the state form nation of Germany.
The events of the revolutions of 1848 clearly demonstrate strong national
unity amongst the German states. Many poems were written about Germany
during the 1840s including Germany's current national anthem
'Deutschlanlied' written in 1841. In fact Germany may have been unified
then when the ruler of Prussia Frederick William IV was offered the throne
of Germany but refused it without approval of the other German princes .
The Frankfurt Parliament's debates on the 'large or small German' question
was one of the main issues that were being considered. It was these
sentiments, along with support for a German nation backed up buy
businessmen, bureaucrats, professors and professionals and the popularity
of organisations such as the National association, which allowed Bismarck
to use Prussia's economic, military and political power to secure its
position of the leader of German states and unifying Germany. During
1790-1919, Three Empires dominated Eastern and Central Europe; Austrian,
Russian and Ottoman. All of these Empires were multiethnic and by the end
of WWI they had all been dissolved (Ottoman Empire was dissolved in 1922).
During the alter part of the period in question these Empires slowly lost
territory to National movements, most of which resulted in bloody conflict.
The Ottoman Empire was one of the oldest Empires in world. It once
encompassed all of the Eastern Mediterranean, Most of the North African
coast, some of the Middle East and Eastern Europe, but in 1790-1919 the
Empire was in a state of decline. Two European nations which gained
independence in nationalist movements during the 19th Century were Serbia
(1804-1817) and Greece (1822-29). Serbia fought against the Ottoman Empire
in a bloody revolution triggered by a massacre of Serbian noblemen who had
fought for independence late in the 18th Century. The fighting proved very
brutal and after two separate revolts Serbia was recognised as an
independent state. The national sentiment was observed as the Serbs, as a
traditionally Christian Orthodox nation, wanted autonomy from the
non-secular Muslim rule, a constitution, recognition of their royal family
and to stop paying taxes to the Ottomans. It achieved all this by resisting
the Ottomans and revolting against them, it gained international
recognition in 1878. Greece independence differs slightly from Serbia as it
gained the help of the great powers to secure its independence. But like
Serbia, Greece wanted its own national state for Greek speakers and to
practise their Christian Orthodox religion. These two states were formed
between 1790-1919 by nationalist means and by violent conflict. The
Austrian Empire which had ruled central Europe for many years and by 1866
had lost its influence on Germany and Italy was a multi-ethnic Empire which
consisted of many different races. After the unification of both Italy and
Germany, two events that outlined the weakness of the Hapsburg Empire, the
Empire started to crack. It was under pressure from all its different races
and at the end of WWI and the treaty of Versailles the Empire had dissolved
and in its place were several new nation states. Austrian Empire in 1866
was a mixture of ethnic Germans (Austrians), Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks,
Poles, Croats, Italians, Serbs, Slovenes, Bosnians, Montenegrins, Romanians
and Ukrainians. It certainly was not under the nationalistic view of one
nation one states the Empire encompassed over 10 different languages and
people with very different cultures. The effects of this Empire and the
diversity of the different nations can still be seen today as even now some
people are fighting for independence in the Balkans. In 1867 Austria gave
Hungary dual power in governing of the Empire, during the revolutions of
1848 Hungary had tried to gain independence from Austria and a war was
fought. The Hungarians were repressed and many Hungarian military leaders
were executed. After Austria had lost the War for Germany against the
Prussians it looked to quell the fires of nationalism in the Empire. They
approached Hungary about the idea of dual monarchy and they accepted.
Austria had gained an ally with its multiethnic empire to suppress and
dishearten Slavic nationalists. Balkan nationalism was the main problem for
the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the Hungarian compromise in 1867. After
Serbia had gained its independence which was finally recognised in 1878,
the Slavic people of the Austro-Hungarian Empire wanted independence. In
the early 20th century, Serbian government had a strong nationalistic
ideology. They were seeking expansion into the Balkan areas. They had
fought military campaigns in 1912-13 against the Ottoman Empire for control
over Moldova and Macedonia. However their main aim was to unite all the
Slavic people under one Serbian crown, many of these people were located in
the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Various national youth group had tried and
failed to secure an assassination of an Austro-Hungarian official in order
to spark a National movement. Serbian officials organised the assassination
of the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbian
nationals in Sarajevo in 1914. The attempt was successful and a month later
Austrian had declared war on Serbia and due a secret agreement between
Serbian and Imperial Russia, they had declared war on Russia, shortly
afterwards WWI began. The consequences of the WWI completely changed the
map of Europe and created many new sovereign states. The Austrian Empire
was destroyed leaving a new state of Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia (a nation
under which laid a multiethnic group of Slavs) and Czechoslovakia. The
Russian Empire was abandoned during the communist revolution of 1917 making
a new state of Soviet Russia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and
Poland. In conclusion I would agree that the main ideology in state
formation in Europe between 1790 and 1919 was nationalism. After the French
revolution which established a constitution and the rights of man in a
republic. Many nations within absolute monarchies used these principles to
form nations of their own by culminating all the people of their own
culture, language, common history and immediate geography under the one
nation one state policy. Break down of the great European Empires and the
unification of Germany and Italy show testimony to this.
Bibliography g David Blackbourn, 'The Long Nineteenth Century', Fontana
Press, 1997 g Macartney, 'Hapsburg Empire 1790-1918', London, 1968 g Martin
Clark, 'The Italian risorgimento', Addison Wesley Longman Limited, 1998 g
Ernest Gellener, 'Nationa and Nationalism', Basil Blackwell Publisher
Limited, 1983
