Europe and the Wider World: Revolutions and Nationalism
Europe and the Wider World: Revolutions and Nationalism
Expect questions comparing revolutions, explaining why nationalism unified some states and fractured others, and judging how far 1789 or 1848 really changed anything.
Revolutions
- American (1776): taxation without representation, colonial assemblies, a written constitution.
- French (1789): fiscal crisis, the Three Estates, the Bastille, the Declaration of the Rights of Man; then republic, Terror and Napoleon, whose wars spread ideas and provoked nationalism in response.
- 1848: a wave of liberal and national revolts from Paris to Vienna and Budapest, mostly crushed, but they ended serfdom across much of central Europe.
Nationalism Unification in Italy - Mazzini's ideas, Cavour's diplomacy, Garibaldi's 1860 campaign, a kingdom declared in 1861 - and in Germany - Bismarck's Prussia, the Zollverein, wars against Denmark, Austria and France, and the Empire proclaimed in 1871.
Worked example Compare 1789 and 1848. Both demanded liberty and constitutions; 1789 built a new state and army, while 1848 failed because rulers kept their armies, liberals and radicals split, and different nationalities wanted incompatible things. Reasoning: ask who had the power to enforce a settlement.
Traps Assuming the Congress of Vienna (1815) killed nationalism - it contained France, but nationalism grew. Describing nationalism as always liberal; it could be conservative and militarist. Mixing up Italian and German leaders and dates.