When Napoleon came to rule in these areas he realized it was very challenging to rule when their society and politics were so different. So, in each of these places he grouped together some of the kingdoms. Inconspicuously, he introduced Nationalism to both the Italians and Germans. The Italians realized what a great nation they could form if they belonged together. This revelation also occurred to the Confederation of the Rhine, which was the name that Napoleon gave to the newly grouped German states.
Back in Italian possession would be a major step to Unification. However, Italy and France could not simply declare war. Austria had to be the aggressor so Cavour’s aim was to provoke Austria enough to actually get Austria to start the war. Austria became increasingly aggravated by Cavour’s provocation and on the 29th April 1849, they declared war on Italy. Cavour had succeeded in his provocation attempts and now had the backing of the French to face Austria with.
France longed to avenge its defeat in Franco-Prussian War, Bismarck signed treaties with other powered thinking they wouldn’t attack Germany alone. Emerged to triple alliance with Italy and Austria-Hungary. In 1914, Germany, Austria-Hungary fought on same side- became known as central powers. Rival bloc took shape when France and Russia formed alliance by signing an entente (nonbinding agreement to follow common policies led to close military and diplomatic ties). Britain signed similar agreement with Russia.
By 1815, the aims of these secret societies changed in the direction of driving out the Austrians and restoring old Monarchs. Consequently, these factors paved the way for revolts and armed the peasants with something they never had had before – power. In a large number, the masses could stand against the oppressive rule of the Austrians. Therefore, the events that followed in the years 1820 – 1849 were all underpinned by the resentment of this from Metternich and the importance he placed on controlling Italy. Metternich was the Austrian chancellor and saw the danger of Italian nationalism and the potentially threatening ideas that
This action upset the Nationalist movement, and several leaders used intellectual diplomacy and alliances to successfully achieve their nationalist policies. Both Cavour of Italy and Bismarck of Germany were key players in the unification of their respective countries; and both similarities and differences in their methods are evident through the wars they fought, their diplomatic relations and their variations on internal policies. While Bismarck never held back when it came to sparking wars, Cavour never approved of them, but had no choice but to accept the help of Garibaldi in Southern Italy. During Bismarck’s tenure in office, 3 wars had resulted: The Danish War, The Seven Weeks War, and the Franco-Prussian War. These wars were started in an effort to display German power and domination, while also attempting to unify German territory held by other nations, such as The Holstein-Schleswig Question which caused the Danish War.
For example, a major issue during this period was the transformismo; a coalition created by Giovanni Giolitti that influenced Liberals, Nationalists, Catholics and Socialist who did not get along – making the issues that would later arise inevitable. This ‘transformismo’ was unstable from the beginning with Francesco Crispi (Giolitti predecessor) describing it as “Political incest” because it was so corrupt. However, the ‘transformismo main challenges did not start until September 1911 when Italy invaded Libya because Giolitti wanted to quickly defeat the Turkish Empire and increase Italy’s colonies. The Socialists had condemned the war (the Italian people did not know what they were fighting for) and the Socialist newspaper ‘Avanti!’ wanted to overthrow the state and advocated strikes. Many blamed Giolitti’s refusal to use force against the strikes and insisted that this weakness encouraged left wing extremism.
Austria, however, did not want to unify at all. This caused Italian states to revolt, which was not successful and also lead to war. War with Austria united southern Europe, later leading to Italy’s unification, becoming one of the most powerful countries in Europe. Second, reforms created safety conditions, public health, free education, slave trade, etc. These economic changes promoted unity through Europe.
Germany had to either get involved in the war and be on the front foot against France and Russia, or they could wait until they were attacked and be unprepared. They showed this fear in the German Imperial War Council of 1912. As well as this, they had pledged to defend Austro Hungary, and had a burden of responsibility after their show of support in November 1912. The Austro Hungarian Empire also had reasons for war, they had a large empire and wanted to protect their land from the rebelling Serbs. There was also the widely accepted claim that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the event that tipped the scales of war.
When Italy intervened into ww1 it was divided there were two camps. Giolitti who opposed Italy joining the war and Salandra who was prime minister during 1914-1916 and he lead the campaign for Italy to go to war. In the end Salandra won the campaign only because he got the approval of the king. Normally a country goes into war undivided then as the war goes on becomes divided however Italy went into the war divided which lead to further instability and weakness in the liberal state. During the war Italy lost a decisive battle at Caporetto at this battle 300,000 men were captured and they lost 160km.
This was because the new middle class that had emerged in the 'German states', from industrialisation, wanted political representation, and felt that it could only be achieved in a united Germany. The Congress of Vienna wanted to make sure that no country could take over Europe in the way that France did in the early 1800s, it aimed to do this by allocating more land to Prussia and creating a 'barrier' that would block any attempts of French expansion and also war from Russia in the east. The German Confederation divided Germany into thirty-nine states, as Napoleon did during the French occupation. A reduction in the number of German states may seem like a move towards nationalism and in turn unification, however it was in fact a direct move against it, as can be seen in the second amendment of the confederation. This is known as 'particularism', the principle of leaving each state in a federation free to govern itself and promote its own interests.