Unification of Germany and Italy in the 19th century - Assignment Example

 Unification of Germany and Italy in the 19th century The three main leader representing Italy in the unification of the two nations were Mazzini who formed a nationalist group and was also responsible of end of foreign rule and uniting Italy based on language, Cavour, the Prime Minister and used diplomacy and alliances to decrease the differences and Garibaldi leader of the Red Shirts. After Congress of Vienna 39 states of Germany united together to form German confederation which was led by Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Prussians. Prussians played an important role in the unification and building of the confederation because they were mainly German populated area with the strongest army in Europe. During the year 1848 Europe was taken over by the democratic revolution and the German representatives in the unification were King Wilhem I (King of Prussian), who wanted to increase the strength of the army and elect a new Prime Minister. The second leader was Otto von Bismarck who was the Prime Minister, who had no room of idealism in his regime and was the leader of realism. During the year 1866 and 1877 there was a seven week war which provoked the Austria to call a war on Prussia, in which Prussia were successful and they took control over the northern Germany, which was followed by the Franco-Prussian War in which the Prussian army took over the northern France and took 80,000 French Prisoners. This war the final stages into the unification of the Germany and the southern region on accepted the Prussian as the leaders. The Congress of Vienna established five great powers in Europe including Britain, France, Austria, Prussia and Russia and European balance of power broke down. Question 2: What long-term and short-term factors caused World War one? There were many reasons that lead to World War I, few of the reasons were long pending and few of other arose near the war that made the decision more affirmative. Few of the long reason that forced the war was the Rise of Militarism, this was in result of the increase of use of power by the European in the late 18th Century. The Europe started to believe that the military powers were one of the most feasible and desirable reasons to resolve the increasing hostile and fragile political conditions in the world. Another long term reason that caused the World War I was The Arms Race, the excess use of military caused imbalance in the powers; this led to the innovation of technology with respect to weapons and similar material, such as improved range and accuracy of cannon and the fire power, machine guns and naval weapons. Few countries were making innovations the technologies and others were creating defense mechanism and all were egger to test them in the open fields. The two other long term reasons included imperialism as a source of conflict and the balance of power in the European region. In the imperialism the countries were fighting over the boarders to increase their territory and because there were entering in to other regions which caused the residence of the area to show high resentments which led to the imbalance of power and the alliance system was broken which caused war between the nations. The short term reason include the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and Balkan Crisis another territory fight between Austria-Hungry and Russia which led the two powers against each other in World War I. Question 3: What factors motivated Europeans to explore globally? There are many reasons that motivated European empire to explore globally; the most important of the reasons were to expand trade across borders. They wanted to explore other regions and wanted to use the subcontinent as their main route. Sub-continent was one of the most famous regions with respect to many commodities. These include silk, spices, gold, stones and other similar materials. They opted for the land route mainly because the sea route was blocked by the Arabs and Europeans were more comfortable travelling and exploring by road. Else for trade they also crossed borders in search of food and other supplies for their people. With the increasing population at the time, the region supply of basic necessities to meet the demand of the region was diminishing and they needed to find other options to decrease the gap. The leaders started looking for options across the border; they started exploring food and other basic necessities in various other regions. Europeans were increasingly getting curious about the world; they wanted to know what was before them and what will come after them. They wanted to search answers, they wanted to learn about the world and the things present in it. In order to satisfy their curiosity they went across borders and started exploring the world. It was high time for innovation; many new technologies were being introduced to the world and the scientists wanted to know more. The last of the most important reasons for Europeans to explore the world globally was to expand their religion and culture of colonization. They wanted to take their religion and educate the people all around. Expansion of knowledge and skills motivated the scholars to move across borders. Question 4: Compare and contrast the development of Absolutism versus Constitutionalism? Absolutism and Constitutionalism were two most famous forms of governments being practiced in the region of France and England respectively. The first and foremost difference between the two was the number of individuals involved in running a country. With respect to Absolutist France had only one person, because one person was the sole controller he had the liberty of not following the law with all the powers as compared to Constitutionalist England which was being run by a team of individuals, they had to follows the rules on individual basis. Another difference is in the meaning of the two terms, the meaning of Absolutism is a strong and centralized system which gave the royal power and unwanted power over the nobilities and other regional powers, there were limited check and balances in the system one person was allowed to make and change the law. Whereas, constitutionalism means a form in which the power is not centralized but distributed, and the distributed power is limited by the law and has to be obeyed by all the rulers, this kept check and balances and made no one greater than the law. French monarchs were not only powerful but were also rich, they had sufficient amount of money as compared to the England rulers who had to take their petition to the parliament in order to avail funds. Last but not the least of the major difference was the Absolutist was movement of power within one family thus only one was strong enough to rule the nation as compared to constitutionalist in which the balance of power was transferred between different people elected or selected within the society. Bibliography Share, S. (2014). Nationalism. Retrieved 2014, from Slide Share: http://www.slideshare.net/paquisms/italian-and-german-unification-12313581 Read More