The Unification of Germany and Italy
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Italy and Germany were two newly united nations that emerged in 1871. The two regions that were to be unified shared much history together; ever since they were last united as one under the Holy Roman Empire. When the French Revolution and Napoleon came along, both Germanic and Italian states were affected in many ways. Napoleon began spreading his liberalist and nationalist influence in Italy with his Italian Campaign in 1796, which later spread to the Germanic states. After NapoleonÐÐŽÐЇs defeat, things began to change; Austria regained their power over the Italian states, except for Piedmont-Sardinia, and the Germanic states were ÐÐŽÐounitedÐЎб under the German Confederation. As a result of these terms from the Congress of Vienna, liberal and nationalistic feelings began to stir up and the people began to fight towards independence.
The states that would soon unite to become future Germany and Italy all faced many obstacles in their fight for independence. One of the main things that stood in the way of both unifications was the state of Austria. Though it was ironic that the German Confederation had to fight one of its own states to achieve unification, it was one of their major conflicts. Austria was one of the most powerful German states, however, it provided no leadership or hope in the uniting Germany as one.
Since the Germanic people wanted unification, they turned to Prussia for help instead. Prussia was another one of GermanyÐÐŽÐЇs strong states. To add to its power, Prussia established a German customs union in 1818 known as the Zollverein; a union that sought to increase trade and profits of its member states, excluding Austria. Austria tried to fight this by persuading some of the lower German states not to join. However, by the end of 1853, all of the states joined, still with the exception of Austria. With Austria pushed aside, the Germanic states seemed to be prospering and the people were gaining even more nationalism. William I of Prussia was crowned king in 1861 with ideas for many reforms, such as doubling the size of the army, and lessening the importance of reserve militia. After parliament rejected the costs of these reforms in 1862, William I appointed a Junker by the name of Otto von Bismarck to lead. Bismarck worked towards unification with the idea that Prussia, in order to gain more power, had to gain control over the northern states of the German Confederation. In order to do this, there were three choices: to fight Austria with combined allies, kick Austria out of all German affairs, or compromise with Austria to split up the states between them. He eventually decided that excluding Austria from German affairs would be the best way to approach his goal, and he would do this by compiling all the nationalistic forces of the German states to fight against Austria. In 1866, Austria was defeated during the Austro-Prussian war, which only lasted seven weeks. PrussiaÐÐŽÐЇs method was to prepare a fight against Austria with no threats of any coalitions forming from the opposing side. To ensure this, Bismarck secured treaties with other major powers in Europe. While this was happening, Prussia agreed to join Austria in fighting against the Danish territory, Schleswig-Holstein. When the fight was victorious, the two debated over authority of the land, giving
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Bismarck an excuse to wage war on Austria. Thus, creating the Austro-Prussian War, where Austria was defeated by PrussiaÐÐŽÐЇs powerful army. The war ended peacefully, as Prussia did not impose any punishments on Austria; no reparations were paid, and no land was taken by Prussia. However, Venice was given to Italy as a result of their alliance with Prussia, and the German Confederation ceased to exist, while Austria surrendered the fight, withdrawing from German affairs. The newly unified northern states became the North German Confederation, and now the focus shifted to the south. Because of the fact that the southern Germanic states had differences in religion and political traditions, Bismarck saw that they were reluctant to unify. To fix this problem, he planned to put the southern states in a position where they would willingly unite with the North German Confederation as a result of nationalism. He thereby demanded from William I in 1870 that it was assured that a Hohenzollern would never have a place on SpainÐÐŽÐЇs throne. This caused France to wage war on Prussia, just as Bismarck had planned. The southern Germanic states had then fully supported the rest of Germany in he fight. Not long after in 1871, France surrendered to harsh peace terms and Germany was unified.
While all this was taking place in Germany, Italy had to deal with their own issues with Austria. Before any real action had taken place, secret societies such as the Carbonari were formed in Italy as a result of nationalism that was to be censored. Over and over, they tried to revolt against the Italian states, but were put down by Austrian power.