5.8 The unification of Italy and Germany

The unification of Italy and Germany in the 19th century reshaped Europe's political landscape. These movements, driven by nationalist sentiment and strategic leadership, overcame regional divisions and foreign influences to create powerful new nation-states.

The two processes differed in key ways. Italy's unification involved popular uprisings and military campaigns led by multiple figures, while Germany's was largely orchestrated by Otto von Bismarck through diplomacy and targeted wars. Both altered European power dynamics and set the stage for future conflicts.

Italian unification process

The Italian peninsula had been politically fragmented for centuries, divided into small kingdoms, duchies, and papal territories, many under Austrian or French influence. The movement to consolidate these states into a single nation is known as the Risorgimento (Italian for "resurgence"). It was driven by a mix of political idealism, nationalist sentiment, and the strategic actions of key leaders like Camillo di Cavour and Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Risorgimento movement

The Risorgimento was an intellectual and political movement that emerged in the early 19th century, drawing on Enlightenment ideas and the example of the French Revolution. Its central goal was an Italy free from foreign domination and united under a single government.

Key early figures include:

• Giuseppe Mazzini, who founded the Young Italy movement in 1831, calling for a democratic Italian republic. Mazzini was more of an ideological inspiration than a practical leader, but his writings shaped an entire generation of Italian nationalists.
• Vincenzo Gioberti, who took a more moderate approach, advocating for a confederation of Italian states under the leadership of the Pope.

These competing visions of what a unified Italy should look like (republic vs. monarchy, centralized vs. federated) would shape the entire unification process.

Role of Camillo di Cavour

Camillo di Cavour, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, was the political architect of Italian unification. Unlike Mazzini's idealism, Cavour was a pragmatist who relied on diplomacy, economic modernization, and strategic alliances.

His key moves included:

1. Modernizing Piedmont's economy and military to make it the strongest Italian state and a credible leader of unification.
2. Securing an alliance with Napoleon III of France, who agreed to support Piedmont against Austria in exchange for the territories of Nice and Savoy.
3. Provoking Austria into war in 1859 (the Second Italian War of Independence), which resulted in Piedmont gaining Lombardy.
4. Orchestrating plebiscites (popular votes) in central Italian states like Tuscany, Parma, and Modena, which voted to join Piedmont.

Cavour's approach was top-down: he used statecraft rather than revolution to expand Piedmont's territory piece by piece.

Conquests of Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi provided the military force and popular energy that Cavour's diplomacy couldn't. A charismatic guerrilla leader, Garibaldi had fought in revolutionary movements in South America before returning to Italy.

In 1860, Garibaldi and roughly 1,000 volunteers known as the Redshirts sailed to Sicily and conquered the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in southern Italy. This was a remarkable feat: his small volunteer force defeated a professional army of about 25,000. Garibaldi then marched north, and in a famous meeting at Teano, he handed his conquered territories over to King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, putting national unity above personal ambition.

The Kingdom of Italy was officially proclaimed in 1861, with Victor Emmanuel II as king. However, unification wasn't yet complete.

Challenges of uniting Italian states

Several obstacles remained even after 1861:

• The Papal States resisted incorporation. The Pope opposed unification and maintained control over Rome until 1870, when French troops protecting the city withdrew during the Franco-Prussian War. Italian forces then seized Rome, making it the capital.
• Venetia (the region around Venice) remained under Austrian control until 1866, when Italy gained it after Austria's defeat in the Austro-Prussian War.
• Deep regional differences in language, culture, and economic development persisted. The industrializing north and the agrarian south had little in common, prompting the famous (and possibly apocryphal) quote attributed to statesman Massimo d'Azeglio: "We have made Italy; now we must make Italians."

German unification process

German unification was driven by the rise of Prussia as the dominant German state and the political genius of Otto von Bismarck. Unlike Italy's mix of popular uprisings and diplomacy, Germany's path to unity was directed almost entirely from above through calculated wars and power politics.

The result was a unified German Empire proclaimed in 1871, which immediately became the most powerful state on the European continent.

Role of Otto von Bismarck

Otto von Bismarck, appointed Minister President of Prussia in 1862, is the central figure of German unification. A conservative Junker (Prussian landowner), Bismarck was not a nationalist idealist. He wanted to expand Prussian power, and unification was his tool for doing so.

Bismarck practiced what he called Realpolitik, politics based on practical objectives rather than ideals or morality. His famous 1862 speech to the Prussian parliament captured his approach: "The great questions of the day will not be settled by speeches and majority decisions...but by iron and blood."

His strategy unfolded in three deliberate steps:

1. The Danish War (1864) against Denmark over the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, fought alongside Austria.
2. The Austro-Prussian War (1866), which expelled Austria from German affairs.
3. The Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), which united the remaining southern German states with Prussia against a common enemy.

Each war was carefully engineered to isolate the target, win quickly, and advance Prussian dominance.

Prussian military strength

Prussia's military was arguably the best in Europe by the 1860s. Key advantages included:

• A professional officer corps and a system of universal military conscription that produced a large, well-trained army.
• Strategic leadership from General Helmuth von Moltke, who pioneered the use of railroads and telegraphs for rapid troop mobilization and communication.
• Superior weaponry, including the Prussian needle gun, a breech-loading rifle that could fire far faster than Austrian muzzle-loaders.

These advantages proved decisive. The Austro-Prussian War lasted just seven weeks, and the Franco-Prussian War saw France's main armies defeated within months.

Zollverein customs union

Before political unification, economic integration laid the groundwork. The Zollverein, a customs union established under Prussian leadership in 1834, abolished tariffs and trade barriers among its member states.

The Zollverein mattered for two reasons:

• It created a common market that boosted trade and industrialization across the German states, tying their economies together.
• It deliberately excluded Austria, reinforcing Prussia's position as the economic leader of the German world.

By the time political unification came, many German states already had strong economic ties to Prussia, making the transition smoother.

Austro-Prussian War of 1866

Also called the Seven Weeks' War, this conflict was Bismarck's move to settle the question of who would lead Germany: Prussia or Austria.

Bismarck provoked the war by engineering a dispute over the administration of Schleswig and Holstein (territories won jointly from Denmark in 1864). He also secured Italian support by promising Venetia in exchange for Italy opening a second front against Austria.

Prussia's decisive victory at the Battle of Königgrätz (Sadowa) in July 1866 ended the war quickly. The results were significant:

• Austria was excluded from German affairs entirely.
• Prussia formed the North German Confederation, a new political body uniting the northern German states under Prussian leadership.
• The southern German states (Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden) remained independent for now, but signed secret military alliances with Prussia.

Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71

The final step in unification required bringing the southern German states into the fold. Bismarck achieved this by provoking a war with France, which stirred up German nationalist feeling across all regions.

The crisis began over the question of a Hohenzollern (Prussian royal family) candidate for the Spanish throne. When the French ambassador met with Prussian King Wilhelm I at Ems to discuss the matter, Bismarck edited the official telegram describing the meeting (the Ems Dispatch) to make it sound like both sides had insulted each other. The result: France declared war on Prussia, and the southern German states rallied to Prussia's side.

The war was a disaster for France. Prussian forces captured Emperor Napoleon III at the Battle of Sedan in September 1870, and Paris fell after a prolonged siege. The Treaty of Frankfurt (1871) forced France to cede Alsace-Lorraine and pay a massive indemnity of 5 billion francs.

On January 18, 1871, the German Empire was proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, a deliberate humiliation of France. King Wilhelm I of Prussia became Kaiser (Emperor) of a unified Germany.

Comparing Italian and German unification

Both Italy and Germany went from fragmented collections of states to unified nations within roughly the same period (1859–1871). The similarities and differences between the two processes are a common exam topic.

Similarities in nationalist movements

• Both countries experienced rising nationalist movements inspired by Enlightenment ideas and the example of the French Revolution.
• Movements like Young Italy (Mazzini) and the German nationalist movement promoted unity based on shared language, culture, and history.
• Both faced the obstacle of Austrian influence over their territories.
• Both achieved unification under the leadership of a single dominant state: Piedmont-Sardinia for Italy, Prussia for Germany.

Differences in leadership and methods

Role of foreign powers

Foreign powers played different roles in each case:

• In Italy, France was a crucial ally. Napoleon III's military support against Austria in 1859 was essential to early unification. But French troops also blocked unification by protecting the Papal States until 1870.
• In Germany, Bismarck manipulated foreign powers rather than relying on them. He used alliances of convenience (with Italy against Austria, for example) and provoked wars with Austria and France to serve Prussian goals. No foreign power actively aided German unification.

Impact of Italian and German unification

Shift in European balance of power

The creation of a unified Germany was the single biggest shift in European power dynamics since the Napoleonic Wars. Germany's population of about 41 million (in 1871), combined with its industrial capacity and military strength, made it the dominant continental power almost overnight. This challenged France and Austria-Hungary and triggered a new era of alliance-building and arms races.

Unified Italy, while less powerful, became a significant player in Mediterranean politics and competed with France and Britain for colonial influence in North Africa.

Economic and industrial development

Unification accelerated economic growth in both countries by creating larger domestic markets and removing internal trade barriers.

• Germany experienced explosive industrialization after 1871, sometimes called the Second Industrial Revolution. By 1900, Germany had surpassed Britain in steel production and was a world leader in chemicals and electrical engineering.
• Italy's development was more uneven. The industrial north (Milan, Turin, Genoa) modernized rapidly, while the agrarian south lagged behind, creating a north-south economic divide that persists to this day.

Nationalist and imperialist ambitions

Both new nations pursued colonial empires to prove their status as great powers:

• Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II pursued Weltpolitik (world policy), seeking colonies in Africa (Namibia, Tanzania, Cameroon) and the Pacific, and building a navy to rival Britain's.
• Italy attempted to colonize parts of East Africa but suffered a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Adwa (1896) against Ethiopia, one of the few successful African resistances to European imperialism.

Foundation for 20th-century conflicts

The unification of Italy and Germany set forces in motion that would shape the 20th century:

• The rivalry between Germany and France over Alsace-Lorraine became a persistent source of tension that fed directly into World War I.
• The alliance systems that formed in response to Germany's rise (Triple Alliance vs. Triple Entente) created the conditions for a continental war.
• The nationalist ideologies that drove unification later mutated into more extreme forms, contributing to the rise of fascism in Italy under Mussolini (1922) and Nazism in Germany under Hitler (1933).