|
|
|
|
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the major states of Europe resolved basic problems that had been in evidence even before the revolutionary year of 1848. Despite the failure of a series of revolutionary movements, many of the ideas associated with liberalism and nationalism became reality in less than two decades. An important stimulant to these changes was the Crimean War. This seemingly unimportant conflict, initiated by Russia and Ottoman Turkey in the mid-1850s, had several important side effects, including the dissolution of the Concert of Europe. At the same time, the Crimean War suggested that internal social and economic reforms were necessary to preserve the viability of several states. Much of the subsequent political history of Europe can be directly traced to the unification of Italy (1861) and Germany (1871). The success of Piedmont and Prussia in carrying out the unification movements was sustained by influential leaders (Cavour and Bismarck) and by related economic, social, and political reforms at home. The culmination of German unity in the Franco-Prussian War can be viewed as foreshadowing World War I nearly fifty years later. France’s difficulties during this same period kept that nation off balance. The reign of Emperor Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon Bonaparte), followed by the formation of the Third Republic, serves to illustrate the turmoil in French political life. The Dreyfus Affair in the 1890s furnished the most notable example of how unsettled France’s sociopolitical life really was. For the Austrian Empire, this was an age of uncertain compromises. To deal with the ever-present national minorities, the Habsburg government resorted to almost any plan that would sustain their domination of the state. Admitting the Hungarian Magyars to a position of responsibility with the Dual Monarchy of 1867 did not provide a lasting solution. Similarly, Russian tsars in the latter half of the nineteenth century attempted only minimal reforms, and even these were short-lived and not necessarily to the advantage of the vast majority of Russian peasants. The long-awaited freeing of the serfs had the effect of binding many more rigidly to landlord control than they were before they were "free." The result was the formation of several extremist groups such as the People’s Will, which resorted to fanatical violence in the hopes of stimulating greater reforms from above. By the end of the century, Britain once again led the way toward social and political reform. Britain’s early industrialization nurtured a successful evolution of liberal democracy at home while fueling a wide-ranging foreign and colonial policy. The Great Reform Bill of 1867 became the model for the many reforms that followed. Capable leadership combined with an aloofness from continental problems clearly worked to Britain’s advantage. The Irish Question remained the exception because of its complexity and because of the historic bitterness that Home Rule and Catholic voting rights represented. By the 1870s, the European great power system had been transformed from what had been royalist states characterized by an eighteenth-century dynastic outlook, to nations energized by liberalism and nationalism. The stage was now set for heightened competition between countries both inside Europe and around the world as Europeans came to dominate much of the planet territorially and economically. After reading this chapter you should understand:
|