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19th-Century Nationalism & Empire
After 1815 two forces shaped the century. Nationalism - the idea that every people should have its own state - united Italy and Germany and shook the empires of many peoples. Imperialism - the race of industrial powers for territory - divided almost all of Africa and much of Asia among a handful of European states. Both helped lead to the war of 1914.
1848, the springtime of peoples
THEME ONE
The Vienna settlement held down both liberals and nationalists, but in 1848 revolutions broke out almost at once in Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Milan, Budapest and Prague. People demanded constitutions, free speech and states for their nations. Within two years most of the revolts were crushed. Yet serfdom ended in the Austrian Empire, Prussia gained a constitution, and in the same year Marx and Engels published the Communist Manifesto.
New nations: Italy and Germany
THEME TWO
Italy was united by the diplomacy of Cavour, minister of Piedmont, and by Garibaldi, whose thousand volunteers conquered Sicily and Naples in 1860. The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861, and Rome became its capital in 1871. Germany was united from above by the Prussian minister-president Otto von Bismarck through three wars, and the German Empire was proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles on 18 January 1871.
The scramble for Africa
THEME THREE
In 1870 Europeans controlled only the coasts of Africa. At the Berlin Conference of 1884 – 1885 the powers set rules for claiming the continent, and by 1914 only Ethiopia, which defeated an Italian army at Adwa in 1896, and Liberia remained independent. Britain ruled India directly from 1858. Colonial rule brought railways and mission schools, but also forced labour, famine and atrocities such as those in King Leopold's Congo.
Steam, telegraph and emigration
THEME FOUR
Railways crossed continents, steamships crossed oceans in days, the Suez Canal opened in 1869, and from 1866 a cable carried telegrams under the Atlantic. Steel, electricity and chemistry drove a second industrial revolution. Tens of millions of Europeans emigrated, above all to the United States, Argentina, Brazil and Canada. Russia freed its serfs in 1861, and the United States abolished slavery in 1865.
Periods
Restoration and revolutions
1815 – 1848
The monarchs of the Holy Alliance hold Europe in check, but Greece and Belgium win independence, Latin America frees itself from Spain and Portugal, and 1848 brings revolution.
The unifications
1848 – 1871
The Crimean War, the unification of Italy and Germany, the American Civil War and the end of serfdom in Russia.
The age of imperialism
1871 – 1914
The partition of Africa, rival alliances in Europe, the arms race and the shot in Sarajevo that set off the First World War.
Key dates
- 1830Greece is recognised as independent, and revolution breaks out in Paris and Brussels.
- 1848Revolutions sweep across Europe.
- 1861The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed, and Russia frees its serfs.
- 1871The German Empire is proclaimed at Versailles.
- 1884The Berlin Conference on Africa opens.
- 1914Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo on 28 June.
Questions and answers
What is nationalism?
The belief that people who share a language, culture and history form a nation, and that each nation should govern itself in its own state. In the 19th century it was a force for liberation and unity, but it also bred rivalry between states and the exclusion of minorities.
Why did European powers seize colonies?
For raw materials and markets for their industries, for naval bases and prestige, and out of a widespread belief, now rejected, in a European "civilising mission". New rifles and machine guns, steamships and quinine against malaria made the conquest possible.