German Unification final Flashcards
Social problems that led to the Revolution of 1848
- German Population doubled
- Unemployed workers to live 20 people a room
- Men, women and children worked 13 hours a day
- Diseases such as Cholera spread because of this.
- Germany –> 1% of Germans owned 25% of the land
- 1850 - 30% lived in poverty
Economic Problems that led to the revolution of 1848?
1846 - corn harvests failed
Potato Blight - shops being looted –> Crown prince’s palace being stormed
1847 - cereal prices increased by 50%
Rise in prices –> Lack of Demand –> Workers laid off –> Unemployment
How did Nationalism lead to the Revolutions of 1848?
1833 - Private meetings
1847 - 85,000 members
100,000 German Singing clubs
Rediscovery in German folklore in the books of Brothers Grimm
German scholars renowned for their works - Niebuhr’s celebrated Roman History
Prussian Growth in the 1850s
Appeared to fail at Olmutz but did suprisingly well
Industrial Production 2x –> due to railway production
Led to High EG!
Mantefuell 1850-1858 - Increase in Prussian Liberalism
the best way to prevent further revolution was to improve the living and working conditions
Appointed inspectors to improve factory conditions
Government also encouraged minimum wage
Bismarck in connection to German Unification
Neutrality of Russia made no attempt to intervene in German affairs as it previously had done à was one of the reasons why Russia did not intervene in the wars of the 1860s and stood by to allow Russia to expand
1864 – Victory against Denmark
1866 – Victory against Austria and other Germanic states à silenced liberal opposition
Annexed lands in N Ger
1867 North German Confederation à alliance with southern states
1870 – War against France à all Germanic states joined together
Foreign Influence on Unification of Germany
Neutrality with Russia
France did not intervene against Austria
Successes of the Kultukampf? Political force
Reduction in Catholic Power
Successes of Kulturkamp: Control in Education
- 1872 - Prussian school supervision Act
Excludes clergy from the system and the church on its curriculum
- Liberals saw it as a win –> created an open minded- system of education, seen as the prequesite of a progressive society
- 1873 - Section 18
State could regulate the minimum education required for clerical posts, the appointment and dismissal of clergymen and servicemen of religion, and define the limits of ecclesiastical disciplinary measures.
May Laws
see
W.O. Henderson, (1974) The Rise of German Industrial Power 1834-1914
Causes of the 1848 Revolutions
“These workers had little interest in political reforms or German unification. But they were interested in bread-and-butter questions. Exploited by great landlords and, capitalist merchants or factory owners, they were all too familiar with poverty and unemployment.”
Jonathan Sperber - The causes of the 1848 Revolution?
“If we ask why 1848 was not 1789, the answer must be that 1848 was not 1789 precisely because it was sixty years later; politically conscious Europeans had had six decades to mull over the French Revolution, consider its consequences, recoil from it, attempt to imitate it or try to improve on it…[A]ll political elements had learned the lessons of 1789. Conservatives were acutely aware of the danger of being too passive, of allowing revolutionaries to dominate events, above all of losing control of the armed forces “
