Q.
State actors played an important role in the process of unification in central
and southern Europe. Discuss this statement with reference to either Germany or
Italy.
Introduction
The unification of Germany into a politically and administratively integrated nation
state officially occurred on 18 January 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of
Versailles in France. Princes of the German states, excluding Austria, gathered there to
proclaim William I of Prussia as German Emperor after the French capitulation in the
Franco-Prussian War.
The transition of most of the German-speaking populations into a federated
organization of states had been developing for some time through alliances formal and
informal between princely rulers. The self-interests of the various parties hampered
the process over nearly a century of autocratic experimentation, beginning in the era of
the Napoleonic Wars, which prompted the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in
1806, and the subsequent rise of German nationalism.
The Holy Roman Empire, which had included more than 500 independent states, was
effectively dissolved when Emperor Francis II abdicated during the War of the Third
Coalition. Despite the legal, administrative, and political disruption associated with the
end of the Empire, the people of the German-speaking areas of the old Empire had a
common linguistic, cultural, and legal tradition further enhanced by their shared
experience in the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars.
European liberalism offered an intellectual basis for unification by challenging
dynastic and absolutist models of social and political organization; its German
manifestation emphasized the importance of tradition, education, and linguistic unity
of peoples in a geographic region. Economically, the creation of the Prussian
Zollverein (customs union) in 1818, and its subsequent expansion to include other
states of the German Confederation, reduced competition between and within states.
Emerging modes of transportation facilitated business and recreational travel, leading
to contact and sometimes conflict among German speakers from throughout Central
Europe. The model of diplomatic spheres of influence resulting from the Congress of
Vienna in 1814–15 after the Napoleonic Wars endorsed Austrian dominance in
Central Europe.
The negotiators at Vienna took no account of Prussia's growing strength within and
among the German states and so failed to foresee that Prussia would rise to challenge
Austria for leadership of the German peoples. Historians debate whether Otto von
Bismarck had a master plan to expand the North German Confederation of 1866 to
include the remaining independent German states into a single entity or simply to
expand the power of the Kingdom of Prussia. They conclude that factors in addition to
the strength of Bismarck's Realpolitik led a collection of early modern polities to
reorganize political, economic, military, and diplomatic relationships in the 19 th
century. Reaction to Danish and French nationalism provided foci for expressions of
German unity.
Military successes especially those of Prussia in three regional wars generated
enthusiasm and pride that, politicians could harness to promote unification. This
experience echoed the memory of mutual accomplishment in the Napoleonic Wars,
particularly in the War of Liberation of 1813–14. By establishing a Germany without
Austria, the political and administrative unification in 1871 at least temporarily solved
the problem of dualism
Although Germany did not exist politically, it is clear that a cultural idea of Germany
did exist. For sure this was a geographical area characterized by great diversity but it
did possess a sense of cultural identity, based upon a common language and mediated
through the education system and the printed word. And it was the expansion of what
is described as the public sphere that facilitated popular politics across the German
lands that crystallized into opposition to the old regime.
The revolutions which swept through the German lands in 1848 and 1849 were
sparked off by news of revolution in France, but they were fuelled by a combination of
social and economic grievance among peasants and artisans and intellectual activity in
the region. Nationalist sentiment was expressed by German liberals during the 1848
revolution and the new Frankfurt parliament established in May 1848 began to
formulate a vision of a unitary and constitutional German state.
The unification of Germany would not come through liberal auspices. In the German
states, growing nationalist sentiment existed within the middle class. There were
however, formidable obstacles to German unification. First, in the wake of the
Revolution of 1848, the upper classes were wary of any change that might threaten the
status quo. They particularly feared the strong nationalist feeling unleashed by
revolution, the extension of which might lead to, they reasoned, the proclamation of
the equality of all citizens.
Second, it was still not clear around which power, Austria or Prussia, Germany could
achieve national unification. Some believed in the "small German" solution in which
Prussia might affect German unification and exclude Austria. Other German
nationalists supported the "big German" ideal, whereby Austria would dominate an
expanded German Confederation. Third, in both Prussia and Austria, the 1850s
brought repression that made it clear to most nationalists that German unification
would not come under liberal auspices.
The repression following the Revolutions of 1848 had scattered thousands of German
democrats and socialists across Europe and as far as the United States. In the German
states Prussia held several trump cards toward achieving German unification,
including territorial additions in the industrializing Rhineland after the Napoleonic
Wars and a relatively strong economic position, which had been bolstered by the
Zollverein.
Furthermore, Prussia's population was quite homogeneous, as it was almost entirely
German speaking and Protestant. The Prussian royal family benefited from the internal
stability brought by an effective administrative bureaucracy and were supported by
ambitious, powerful landed nobility, the Junkers, who dominated the officer corps of
the Prussian army.
Catholic Austria, on the other hand, dominated a multinational population. The
Habsburg monarchy had much to lose by the encouragement of national movements
that might catch fire among the varied peoples within the imperial boundaries. All
German nationalists, however, did not agree on what political form a unified Germany
should take. Most Prussian Junkers had been unrelenting in their opposition to the
liberal movements that had championed popular sovereignty during the 1848
revolutions.
Many liberals, particularly republicans from the more liberal southern German states,
wanted a unified Germany to have a parliamentary government free from domination
by either autocratic, aristocratic Prussia or imperial Austria. Yet, despite Prussia's
autocratic and militaristic traditions, some nationalistic republicans still hoped Prussia,
not Austria, would lead Germans to unification. Prussian Junkers also feared that if the
"big German" plans for unification came to be, their influence would be greatly diluted
by Austrian influence. Nonetheless, Austria continued to attract the interest of German
nationalists who mistrusted Prussia.
The role of state actors and Bismarck that culminated into the unification of
Germany
The first step in the unification of Germany was the ascension to power of a monarch
equal to the task. In 1858, the pious William I (1797-1888) became regent for his
brother, Frederick William IV, who was declared insane. Crowned following
Frederick William's death in 1861, William I made clear from the outset of his reign
that, unlike his predecessor, he would look beyond the small group of reactionary
Prussian Junkers and bring some more moderate conservatives into his cabinet.
Liberals won a clear victory in the 1858 elections to the Prussian Parliament, which
brought to that assembly a good number of men enriched by the economic boom in the
early 1850s. Liberals who favoured German unification now had a public forum in
which to be heard. Many businessmen believed that German unification would be
good for them, as the Zollverein customs union had benefited them in the 1840s.
In the meantime, the Austrian war against Piedmont-Sardinia and France in 1859
divided Prussians. Some were torn between dislike for Austria and irritation with
French Emperor Napoleon III for helping the outbreak of war.
Austria was a member of the German Confederation and had the right to expect
assistance from fellow members. But Austria was also Prussia's major rival for power
within the German states. Prussia remained neutral in the war, but Italy's move toward
unification greatly impressed German nationalists. Those who looked to Prussia to
forge German unity welcomed Austria's defeat.
In 1858, several "Pan-German" associations had been formed as pressure groups
supporting German unification. The largest and most influential, the National Union,
wanted a constitutional and parliamentary German state. The Prussian government
remained suspicious of the National Union because many of its members favoured the
extension of political freedom within the German states.
As in the old Frankfurt Parliament, its members were overwhelmingly middle class,
including intellectuals, lawyers, officials, and small businessmen, but also included
several industrialists. The union rebuffed an attempt by workers organizations to join
in 1863, but contributed to the resurgence of political liberalism within Prussia by
demanding an effective constitution that would limit the domination of the monarchy
and the Junkers.
The question of army reform raised the issue of parliamentary control over the budget.
The Prussian constitutional crisis that followed became a critical step in the unification
of Germany along lines that turned out to be anything but liberal. The Prussian
military mobilization in 1859 during the Austrian war against Piedmont and France
had revealed serious inadequacies in the Prussian army. Prussian liberals wanted all
citizens to serve in the army, but also hoped that the National Guard would replace the
professional, Junker-dominated army as the foundation of the Prussian military.
Some leaders among the liberal opposition then formed the German Progressive
Party. Liberals declined to vote for the new military budget when the minister of war
refused compromise. After William dismissed parliament, new elections returned
another liberal majority, which rejected a second army budget. Seeking to overcome
parliamentary opposition, the king turned to a strong-willed and intransigently
conservative Junker, Count Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), appointing him prime
minister in 1862.
Bismarck was appointed Prussian representative to the German Confederation in
Frankfurt in 18 51. He was sent to Saint Petersburg as ambassador in 1859, perhaps to
mute his noisy denunciations of Austria. As prime minister of Prussia, Bismarck was
convinced that he could create a new German state that would not be too large for
Prussia to dominate, nor too democratic for the tradition of the Hohenzollern
monarchy. He wanted to create a modern, bureaucratic state that would be strong and
secular.
Bismarck's type of politics came to be known as Realpolitik, the pursuit of a nation's
self-interest based on a realistic assessment of the costs and consequences of action.
Inherent in Realpolitik was an absence of moral or ethical considerations, overrun by
Bismarck's unshakable determination to enhance the power of the Prussian monarchy
and nobility, and therefore of Germany.
Russia and France were the two powers that would be most threatened by a unified
Germany. The 1863 Polish revolt against Russian domination presented Bismarck
with a perfect opportunity to ingratiate himself to the tsar. Whereas the other major
powers sympathized with the Poles, Bismarck immediately voiced support for Russia.
The Prussian government then signed an agreement with Russia, in which they agreed
to assist each other in pursuing insurgents across their respective frontiers. Austria,
which also had a sizable Polish population within its borders, found its relations with
Russia soured.
Bismarck's first war was fought against the Danes in 1864 over Schleswig-Holstein,
two duchies that included the Baltic port of Kiel. The duchies were ruled by the king
of Denmark although not incorporated as part of the kingdom of Denmark. Holstein,
which lies between Prussia and Schleswig, was almost entirely German-speaking and
belonged to the German Confederation, whereas both German and Danish speakers
lived in Schleswig, which was not part of the Confederation.
The London Protocol of 1852 placed Schleswig-Holstein under the authority of the
Danish king, but forbade their incorporation into Denmark. In March 1863, however,
the Danish king enacted a new constitution that seemed to incorporate Schleswig into
his kingdom. Bismarck, capitalizing on the wave of nationalistic support, then found
an ally in Austria. Prussia issued Denmark an ultimatum in January 1864, demanding
that the new constitution for Schleswig be redrawn. The Danish government rejected
the ultimatum and found itself at war with Prussia and Austria.
The Treaty of Vienna (October 1864) established the joint administration of
Schleswig-Holstein where, Austria would administer Holstein, and Prussia would
administer Schleswig. This arrangement left Prussia with a military corridor and
communications line through Austrian-controlled Holstein and use of the port of Kiel.
Bismarck viewed a military showdown with Austria as inevitable, even desirable.
Bismarck tried and failed to tempt Austria into making an agreement that would
formally divide their influence in the German states into north-south spheres.
Bismarck persuaded Napoleon Ill that France would receive territorial compensation
in the Rhineland if it would stay out of an Austro-Prussian war.
The French emperor tried to play both sides. Convinced that Austria could defeat
Prussia, he signed a secret treaty with the Habsburg monarchy that would give the
French Venetia and establish a French protectorate in the Rhineland after an Austrian
victory. Bismarck then drew Italy into a secret alliance, signed in April 1866, by
promising it Venetia in the event of a Habsburg defeat. Italy promised Prussia
assistance if there was war with Austria.
After Bismarck had secured the temporary alliance with Italy and assured France's
neutrality, Prussian troops entered Holstein. Austria allied with some of the smaller
states of the German Confederation. Prussia left the German Confederation, which
then voted under Austria's leadership to send troops against the Prussian army. Within
three weeks, Prussian troops had defeated the South German and Hanoverian armies in
the Austro-Prussian War (1866).
Bismarck realized that he would need the support of the South German states, some of
whom had been allied with Austria, if Germany was to be unified under Prussian
auspices. Moreover, the chancellor did not want to provide France or Russia with an
opportunity to enter the conflict. The Treaty of Prague (August 1866) eliminated
Austria as a rival for the domination of the German states. The German Confederation
was dissolved.
The Habsburg monarchy recognized the North German Confederation, a new union
of twenty-two states and principalities north of the Main River, with a constitution and
a parliament (Reichstag), which Prussia would dominate with William I as president
and Bismarck as federal chancellor. Bavaria signed an alliance promising to join
Prussia if it were attacked by France, which had been alarmed by the relatively easy
Prussian victory. Schleswig-Holstein became part of Prussia. By virtue of the
annexation of Hanover, Frankfurt, Nassau, and Hesse-Kassel, Prussia was no longer
divided into two separate provinces.
The Berlin government intimidated, bribed, or cajoled these smaller states into
compliance. Bismarck left no doubt that he considered the North German
Confederation a provisional solution until Germany could be united under Prussian
leadership. In the meantime, the old Zollverein customs union, which included the
South German states, was expanded to include an assembly of elected delegates.
Bismarck received support from Prussian businessmen who would profit from the
removal of customs barriers and the centralization of railway networks.
Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 completed the unification
of the German states, with the exception of Austria. Napoleon III foolishly seized
upon the issue of the Hohenzollern candidacy for the vacant Spanish throne as an
occasion to go to war against Prussia. Bismarck fanned the embers of the crisis he had
hoped would lead to a war he considered inevitable and necessary. His carefully
planned diplomacy was never more evident. The Russian tsar warmly remembered
Prussian support during the Polish rebellion of 1863.
The Austrian government had not forgiven France for joining Piedmont-Sardinia in
the war of 1859. Italy still resented the loss of Savoy and Nice in 1860 to France.
Bismarck revealed documents proving that the French emperor had in 1866 demanded
Belgium and Luxembourg as compensation for Prussia's increased power. This ended
any chance of support for Napoleon III by the British government. France went alone
to war against Prussia. Following the surrender of French armies at the end of August
and the beginning of September, Prussian forces besieged Paris. French resistance
continued until January 28, 1871.
Bismarck signed a convention with the provisional French government, awaiting the
election of a National Assembly in France that could conclude a peace treaty.
Bolstered by a surge of nationalist sentiment in the South German states as well as in
Prussia, Bismarck demanded the annexation of Alsace, where German speakers
predominated and much of Lorraine.
The German Empire was officially proclaimed at Versailles on January 18, 1871. King
William I of Prussia became Emperor William I of Germany. The North German
Confederation and its constitution provided the framework for German unification.
The German Empire took on the autocratic political structure of Prussia, dominated by
Prussian nobles and military officers.
Industrialists and merchants trusted that unification would provide a boost to large-
scale industrialization in the new Germany. Hamburg merchants thus traded the
traditional independence of their city for the economic advantages of operating within
a centralized state. Bismarck had harnessed economic liberalism to the goals of
conservative political nationalism.
Although many Germans remained indifferent to unification and others preferred the
particularism of their region, over the long run, most Germans came to accept with
growing enthusiasm the politically unified state that had been forged by Bismarck's
spectacularly successful state-making. The result was a critical shift in the balance of
power in Europe. The empire had a parliament, but the Reichstag had little real
authority. Its members, elected by a franchise system that in Prussia grossly
overrepresented landed interests could not hold cabinet posts.
The chancellor was responsible not to the Reichstag, but rather to the emperor. The
Reichstag could not propose legislation. Foreign policy and military affairs remained
in the hands of the emperor and the chancellor. The Reichstag's control over the
budget could not limit the prerogatives of the throne. Each of Germany's twenty-five
states sent a delegate to a federal council (Bundesrat), over which the chancellor
presided.
Germany's growing economic power was therefore unaccompanied by the evolution
toward effective parliamentary government that characterized Britain and then France,
as well as to some extent Italy. Junkers dominated the army and civil service. In
exchange for loyalty, they were exempt from most taxation, receiving what amounted
to state subsidies for their immense estates. Noble economic clout declined with the
agricultural depression and with the remarkably rapid industrialization of Germany,
but Prussian Junkers retained their full measure of political power.
Unlike their counterparts in Victorian England and France, the German middle class
largely remained outside political life in the German Empire, as they had been in
Prussia before unification. Most middle-class Germans willingly acquiesced to
imperial authority and noble influence. The subsequent rise of the German Social
Democratic Party, founded in 1875 was enough to keep the German middle class loyal
to the empire.
Conclusion
The unification of Germany had largely been effected by the expansion of the most
powerful of the states that would become part of the unified state that resulted. Otto
von Bismarck had harnessed economic liberalism to the goals of conservative political
nationalism in achieving the unification of Germany. Liberals had relatively little
influence in unified Germany.
Although having universal male suffrage, Germany remained dominated by
reactionary monarchs supported by reactionary Junkers, its Reichstag almost
powerless against autocracy, despite the growth of a mass socialist party. In the wake
of the Revolutions of 1848, nationalism had also proven itself a major force for
unification in Germany.
By the time she was unified Germany was on the road to becoming a major industrial
power. Bismarck inherited a state that was already in the process of economic and
social transformation. These changes were accelerated by political unification, but no
attempt was made to adapt political structures to economic and social realities so that
there existed a disjuncture between the two. This was a socially and economically
vibrant society governed by an authoritarian system.
This German state was ill-equipped to establish a comfortable relationship with the
new social classes. Political power remained in the hands of the traditional
conservative elite despite the transfer of economic power to the industrial bourgeoisie.
In an attempt to consolidate this diverse and inherently unstable state, Bismarck and
his government between 1871 and 1890 embarked upon a series of political strategies
which, instead of opening up the political system to represent those upon whose backs
the state was being built, succeeded in cementing in place the structures of power
more suited to a previous age.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bruce Waller, Themes in modern European History 1830-1890, Unwin Hyman
Ltd, 1990.
Lynn Abrams, Bismarck and the German Empire 1871–1918: Second Edition,
London and New York: Routledge, 1995.
Martin Kitchen, A History of Modern Germany 1800–2000, Blackwell
Publishing Ltd, 2006.
John Merriman, A History of Modern Europe: From the Renaissance to the
Present, New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996.
Stephen J. Lee, Imperial Germany 1871-1918, London and New York:
Routledge, 1999.
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