Europe (1848-1871) (SparkNotes History Note)

By SparkNotes

Europe (1848-1871) (SparkNotes History Note)
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SparkNotes History Guides help students strengthen their grasp of history by focusing on individual eras or episodes in U.S. or world history. Breaking history up into digestible lessons, the History Guides make it easier for students to see how events, figures, movements, and trends interrelate. SparkNotes History Guides are perfect for high school and college history classes, for students studying for History AP Test or SAT Subject Tests, and simply as general reference tools. Each note contains a general overview of historical context, a concise summary of events, lists of key people and terms, in-depth summary and analysis with timelines, study questions and suggested essay topics, and a 50-question review quiz.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SparkNotes
• Release date: Aug 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781411472693

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Cover of SparkNotes Guide to Europe (1848-1871) by SparkNotes Editors

Europe (1848-1871)

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Contents

Summary

The Leap into Modernity: Europe, 1848-1871

Important Terms, People, and Events

Timeline

The Revolutions 1848 (1848)

The Crimean War (1854-1855)

Italian Unification (1848-1870)

German Unification (1850-1871)

The Second Empire in France (1852-1870)

Victorian England

Reform in Russia (1855-1881)

Civil War in the United States (1861-1865)

New Ideas and Changing Assumptions in European Culture and Politics

Study Questions

Review & Resources

Summary

When revolutions erupted throughout Europe in 1848, radicals from Prague to Paris, Naples to Berlin were interested in overthrowing the conservative establishment that had ruled Europe since the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815. Revolution was in the name of change, but every revolt failed. By the end of the year, a strong president was in charge of France, taking dictatorial powers within three years. In Austria, the Austrian army suppressed each and every urban revolt, reasserting the power and rule of the conservative monarchy.

However, where radical revolution failed, nationalism took hold and succeeded. Italian unification, after centuries of disunity, was finally realized in 1861, with the proclamation of Italy under the Sardinian king. By 1870, with the annexation of Rome and its surrounding provinces from France and the Pope, the entire boot of Italy became one united nation-state. Just to the north, the wily political animal that was Otto von Bismarck used everything from war to harsh diplomacy to finally unite the German provinces under the Prussian crown in 1871. Central Europe, previously divided by more powerful interests to the west and east, was finally consolidated into viable and strong states (Germany).

Meanwhile, Great Britain continued its pattern of gradual reform and experienced firsthand an active debate over government intervention in the economy and society. Russia, the most backward of all the European powers, frightened by her defeat in the Crimean War, finally moved to some reforms in society and government; however, these reforms were halfhearted and did not effect lasting change. The period between 1848 and 1871, therefore, can be considered a transition period when most nations focused on domestic matter and where those leaders who understood the interconnection between domestic and foreign affairs succeeded beyond their expectations.

The Leap into Modernity: Europe, 1848-1871

Students tend to minimize the historical importance of the twenty-three years that begin the second half of the nineteenth century. Industrialization had already taken hold in Britain, Germany, and, to a lesser extent, France; few alive in Europe at the time, furthermore, could remember what life was like under Napoleon Bonaparte. In many ways, this millisecond in the grand scope of recorded history is a bridge--from x to y. Historians have named many varying notions as x and