Italy (1815–1871) and Germany (1815–1890)

Italy was split into eight separate states, Austrian princes placed on key thrones, and Lombardy-Venetia ruled directly by Austria. Liberal constitutions were abolished and conservative rulers restored.

A loose association of 39 German states set up in 1815, with a Diet in Frankfurt representing governments, not peoples. Austria chaired it and used it to block nationalism and liberalism.

A set of repressive laws pushed through the German Confederation by Metternich, banning liberal newspapers, closing student Burschenschaften, and setting up a political spy commission across German universities.

An Italian secret revolutionary society. They led failed uprisings in Naples and Piedmont (1820–21) and in the Papal States and duchies (1831), both crushed by Austria.

Mazzini believed Italy must become a unified democratic republic through popular uprising — no kings, no foreign help. He founded Young Italy in 1831.

Gioberti (Del primato, 1843) proposed a federal union of existing Italian states led by the Pope — conservative and Catholic. Mazzini wanted a republic built by revolution. Gioberti's plan collapsed in 1848 when Pius IX refused to fight Austria.

The 'pre-March' period in Germany, 1815–1848. During this time nationalist and liberal ideas grew despite Metternich's repression, and economic change (industrialisation, the Zollverein) built pressure that exploded in the 1848 revolutions.

A customs union led by Prussia that unified the trade of most German states, excluding Austria. It created economic integration and gave Prussia leadership of German economic life — quietly building unity before political unity came.

Long-term: decades of repressed nationalism and liberalism, social change from industrialisation. Short-term: harvest failures (1845–47) caused food crises; revolution in Paris (February 1848) and then the fall of Metternich (March 1848) signalled that the old order was vulnerable.

He declared war on Austria and granted a constitution (the Statuto). His army was defeated at Custoza (1848) and Novara (1849), and he abdicated. Piedmont kept the Statuto — this became the constitutional foundation for later Italian unification.

It had no army and debated endlessly (Grossdeutsch vs Kleindeutsch). When it offered the German crown to Frederick William IV of Prussia in 1849, he refused, calling it 'a crown from the gutter'. The Parliament dissolved and Austrian and Prussian armies restored order.

That popular revolution without military power and foreign alliances cannot win. Cavour in Italy concluded that unification needed Piedmont's army plus France as an ally. Bismarck concluded that Germany would be unified by 'iron and blood' — Prussian military force, not liberal parliaments.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.