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| 1. |
Briefly explain how italy and germany unified as a nation |
| Answer» Germany:After 1848, nationalism in Europe moved away from its association\xa0with democracy and revolution. Nationalist sentiments were often\xa0mobilised by conservatives for promoting state power and achieving\xa0political domination over Europe.\xa0This can be observed in the process by which Germany and Italy came\xa0to be unified as nation-states. As you have seen, nationalist feelings were\xa0widespread among middle-class Germans, who in 1848 tried to unite\xa0the different regions of the German confederation into a nation-state\xa0governed by an elected parliament. This liberal initiative to nation-building\xa0was, however, repressed by the combined forces of the monarchy and\xa0the military, supported by the large landowners (called Junkers) of Prussia.\xa0From then on, Prussia took on the leadership of the movement for\xa0national unification. Its chief minister, Otto von\xa0Bismarck, was the architect of this process carried\xa0out with the help of the Prussian army and\xa0bureaucracy. Three wars over seven years – with\xa0Austria, Denmark and France – ended in Prussian\xa0victory and completed the process of unification.\xa0In January 1871, the Prussian king, William I,\xa0was proclaimed German Emperor in a ceremony\xa0held at Versailles.On the bitterly cold morning of 18 January 1871,\xa0an assembly comprising the princes of the\xa0German states, representatives of the army,\xa0important Prussian ministers including the chief\xa0minister Otto von Bismarck gathered in the\xa0unheated Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles to proclaim the new German Empire headed\xa0by Kaiser William I of Prussia.\xa0The nation-building process in Germany had\xa0demonstrated the dominance of Prussian state\xa0power. The new state placed a strong emphasis\xa0on modernising the currency, banking, legal\xa0and judicial systems in Germany. Prussian\xa0measures and practices often became a model for\xa0the rest of Germany.Italy:\xa0Like Germany, Italy too had a long history of political fragmentation.\xa0Italians were scattered over several dynastic states as well as the\xa0multi-national Habsburg Empire. During the middle of the\xa0nineteenth century, Italy was divided into seven states, of which\xa0only one, Sardinia-Piedmont, was ruled by an Italian princely house.\xa0The north was under Austrian Habsburgs, the centre was ruled by\xa0the Pope and the southern regions were under the domination\xa0of the Bourbon kings of Spain. Even the Italian language had\xa0not acquired one common form and still had many regional and\xa0local variations.During the 1830s, Giuseppe Mazzini had sought to put together a\xa0coherent programme for a unitary Italian Republic. He had also\xa0formed a secret society called Young Italy for the dissemination of\xa0his goals. The failure of revolutionary uprisings both in 1831 and\xa01848 meant that the mantle now fell on Sardinia-Piedmont under\xa0its ruler King Victor Emmanuel II to unify the Italian states through\xa0war. In the eyes of the ruling elites of this region, a unified\xa0Italy offered them the possibility of economic development and\xa0political dominance.Chief Minister Cavour who led the movement to unify the regions\xa0of Italy was neither a revolutionary nor a democrat. Like many\xa0other wealthy and educated members of the Italian elite, he spoke\xa0French much better than he did Italian. Through a tactful diplomatic\xa0alliance with France engineered by Cavour, Sardinia-Piedmont\xa0succeeded in defeating the Austrian forces in 1859. Apart from regular\xa0troops, a large number of armed volunteers under the leadership of\xa0Giuseppe Garibaldi joined the fray. In 1860, they marched into South\xa0Italy and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and succeeded in winning\xa0the support of the local peasants in order to drive out the Spanish\xa0rulers. In 1861 Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of united\xa0Italy. However, much of the Italian population, among whom rates\xa0of illiteracy were very high, remained blissfully unaware of liberalnationalist\xa0ideology. The peasant masses who had supported Garibaldi\xa0in southern Italy had never heard of Italia, and believed that ‘La Talia’\xa0was Victor Emmanuel’s wife! | |