Topic 7.3 Notes – National Unification and Diplomatic Tensions

How Nationalism Reshaped Europe After 1815

The Congress of Vienna tried to restore order after Napoleon by protecting the balance of power and crushing revolution. The Concert of Europe kept the Great Powers cooperating, which mattered because that cooperation helped preserve a divided Italy and a fragmented German Confederation under strong Austrian influence.

Europe after 1815

On the map, focus on the patchwork of Italian states and the loose German Confederation. That political fragmentation is the starting point for the nationalism that follows.

The 1848 revolutions showed that nationalism was powerful, but they failed. Italian revolutionaries were beaten, and the Frankfurt Parliament could not unite Germany. That failure changed the method of unification. Nationalism stayed important, but now monarchs and ministers would use it for their own states.

The Crimean War was the turning point.

• It exposed Ottoman weakness, since the empire needed British and French help against Russia.
• It exposed Russian weakness too, especially military and administrative problems.
• Austria angered Russia during the war but gained no dependable friends in return.
• That broke down conservative Great Power cooperation and weakened the system that had protected Austrian influence.

This exam chain matters a lot: weaker Concert of Europe → weaker Austria → more room for Italian and German unifiers.

Italian Unification and the Risorgimento

Before unification, Italy was a patchwork of separate states, and this map helps you track the pieces that were gradually brought together:

• Piedmont-Sardinia in the northwest under the House of Savoy
• Lombardy and Venetia under Austrian control
• Papal States in central Italy
• Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in the south

Italy during unification

Mazzini

Giuseppe Mazzini spread the dream of a united Italy through Young Italy. He believed in republican nationalism and popular revolution. He mattered because he inspired people, even though his actual uprisings failed.

Cavour

Count Camillo di Cavour, prime minister of Piedmont-Sardinia under Victor Emmanuel II, made unification practical.

• He strengthened Piedmont with railroads, economic growth, army reform, and diplomacy.
• He joined the Crimean War so Piedmont would matter in European diplomacy.
• In the Plombières agreement, he gained French support from Napoleon III.
• He provoked Austria into war in 1859.
• Victories at Magenta and Solferino brought Lombardy.
• Plebiscites added Parma, Modena, Tuscany, and Romagna.
• Piedmont gave Nice and Savoy to France.

Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi represented nationalism from below.

• His Red Shirts led the Expedition of the Thousand in 1860.
• He conquered Sicily and Naples and toppled Bourbon rule.
• At Teano, he handed his conquests to Victor Emmanuel II.

Italy unified through both elite diplomacy and popular military action. On the map, you can see how unification moved from Piedmont's base in the northwest to the south and finally to Venetia and Rome.

• 1861: Kingdom of Italy proclaimed
• 1866: Venetia gained through alliance with Prussia in the Austro-Prussian War
• 1870: Rome gained after French troops left during the Franco-Prussian War

German Unification Under Prussia

Prussia had the tools liberals lacked. It had a strong army, efficient bureaucracy, and growing industry. The Zollverein built economic unity among German states without Austria. The failed Frankfurt Parliament showed that liberal nationalism alone could not beat princes and armies.

Bismarck and Realpolitik

Appointed in 1862 by Wilhelm I, Otto von Bismarck practiced Realpolitik. He cared about power and results, not ideological purity.

• His “blood and iron” speech captured that mindset.
• He ignored the Landtag on army funding, then later used an indemnity bill and an elected Reichstag to legitimize what he had done.
• He used modern war tools like railroads, the General Staff, the needle gun, Moltke, and Roon.

The three wars

1. Danish War (1864)
   Prussia and Austria defeated Denmark over Schleswig and Holstein.

2. Austro-Prussian War (1866)
   Prussia won at Königgrätz, dissolved the German Confederation, pushed Austria out of German affairs, and created the North German Confederation. Italy got Venetia.

3. Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871)
   Bismarck edited the Ems Dispatch to provoke France. Southern German states joined Prussia. After victory at Sedan, where Napoleon III was captured, the German Empire was proclaimed at Versailles in 1871. The Treaty of Frankfurt gave Germany Alsace-Lorraine, which made France want revenge.

German unification, 1867-1871

This was the Kleindeutsch solution, a united Germany under Prussia without Austria.

Bismarck’s Alliances and the Road to Tension

After 1871, Germany was Europe’s strongest state. Bismarck wanted peace now because a united Germany had already been won. His main goal was to isolate France.

Bismarck’s alliance system

At the Congress of Berlin, Bulgaria was reduced, Serbia, Romania, and Montenegro were recognized, and Austria-Hungary got to administer Bosnia-Herzegovina.

After Bismarck’s dismissal in 1890, the system hardened.

• The Reinsurance Treaty lapsed.
• France and Russia allied in 1891-1894.
• Britain moved closer through the Entente Cordiale in 1904 and the Anglo-Russian Convention in 1907.
• Europe split into the Triple Alliance and Triple Entente.

The Balkans became the danger zone because the Ottoman Empire was declining and national groups wanted land and independence.

• Serbia grew as a South Slav nationalist state and leaned toward Russia.
• The Bosnia-Herzegovina annexation crisis in 1908 intensified Serbian and Russian anger at Austria-Hungary.
• The First Balkan War in 1912 weakened Ottoman rule and strengthened Serbia.
• The Second Balkan War in 1913 left Serbia larger and Austria-Hungary more alarmed.

By 1914, you can see both developments on the map: the alliance blocs across Europe and the Balkan flashpoint in the southeast.

Europe on the eve of World War I, 1914

The full chain is the one AP questions love: unification changed the balance of power → alliances hardened after 1890 → Balkan nationalism tied local disputes to Great Power rivalry → Europe moved toward war by 1914.