Unification, Bismarck and the New German State (1849–1890)

Answer

A secret deal between Cavour and Napoleon III: France would fight Austria alongside Piedmont if Austria attacked. In return, Piedmont gave France Savoy and Nice. Cavour needed a great-power ally to defeat Austria — diplomacy, not just armies.

Answer

In 1860 Garibaldi led his 'Thousand' (red-shirts) from Genoa to conquer Sicily and then Naples (the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies), handing these territories to Victor Emmanuel II — adding the south to the emerging Italian state.

Answer

1. France defeated Austria in 1859 → Piedmont won Lombardy. 2. Prussia defeated Austria in 1866 → Italy gained Venice. 3. France's defeat by Prussia in 1870 → French troops left Rome; Italy seized the Papal city.

Answer

A German customs union founded in 1834 by Prussia, abolishing internal tariffs between member states. It created a single German market under Prussian leadership and excluded Austria, making Prussian economic dominance of Germany a fact long before political unification.

Answer

Breech-loading needle gun (fired faster than Austrian muskets); railway network for rapid mobilisation; universal conscription for a large trained reserve; an efficient general staff under Helmuth von Moltke.

Answer

A diplomatic telegram about a French demand that Bismarck edited to make it appear insulting to Prussia. France, enraged, declared war — which united south German states behind Prussia and led to the proclamation of the German Empire in January 1871.

Answer

Prussia's king was automatically Kaiser; Bismarck simultaneously held the Chancellorship and Prussian Minister-Presidency; Prussia had 17 of 58 Bundesrat votes — enough to veto constitutional changes. Two-thirds of Germany's people and territory were Prussian.

Answer

Bismarck's 'culture struggle' (1871–79) against the Catholic Church: May Laws (1873) gave the state control of priests; Jesuits expelled; civil marriage required. It failed because Catholics rallied around the Church, the Centre Party grew stronger, and Bismarck reversed most laws by the late 1870s.

Answer

Stick: Anti-Socialist Laws (1878) banned SPD meetings, unions and newspapers. Carrot: welfare state — health insurance (1883), accident insurance (1884), old-age/disability pensions (1889). Aim: destroy socialist organisation while making workers loyal to the Empire through material benefits.

Answer

Excluded from the Zollverein (1834); military defeat by France and Piedmont in Italy (1859); crushed by Prussia at Königgrätz (1866). After 1866 Austria signed the Ausgleich (1867), refocusing as Austria-Hungary and turning away from German affairs permanently.

Answer

He did not want to humiliate Austria and drive it toward France for revenge. By offering a lenient settlement, he converted a defeated enemy into a future ally — the Dual Alliance of 1879. This showed Bismarck's goal was Prussian dominance, not Austrian destruction.

Answer

Bismarck's 1879 protective tariff policy that satisfied both heavy industry ('iron') and Junker grain farmers ('rye'). It built a conservative economic coalition supporting the Empire, while isolating free-trade liberals and socialists who might challenge the political order.