Germany Issue 1 (reasons for nationalism)

Question 1

What is the context and background of this issue?

Answer 1

• In 1815, Germany as a unified country did not exist, instead, it was divided into 314 states with complete autonomy, sovereignty, traditions, laws, and rulers.
• After the French Revolution, when Napoleon became in charge of the ‘Confederation of the Rhine’, the idea of Nationalism started to grow in Germans as things were changing throughout Europe.
• Nationalism is the idea of supporting and idolizing your country and wanting what is best for it and in this case, Germans wanted the unification of the states into one country.

Question 2

What are the factors of this essay?

Answer 2

• The reasons why Nationalism grew were due to the Napoleonic Wars, Cultural Nationalism throughout Germany, The Role of the Liberals and Economic Nationalism.

Question 3

What is the essay arguing?

Answer 3

• This essay will argue that Economic Nationalism is the main reason nationalism grew throughout Germany during the early 1800s.

Question 4

What is the first factor of this essay?

Answer 4

• One reason the idea of nationalism grew was due to Economic Nationalism.

Question 5

What did each German state have that affected trading?

Answer 5

• In 1815, each German state had its own metric system, laws, and currencies and this made it a problem for German states to trade with other states and countries as they had to go through customs when trading.
• They had to fix this problem for the trade to grow between them.

Question 6

What was set up in 1818 by Prussia?

Answer 6

• This is when in 1818, Prussia decided to set up its own customs union to encourage trade and by 1836, 25/39 German states joined this union, and it was officially named “The Zollverein”.

Question 7

What did the Zolleverien allow?

Answer 7

• The Zolleverien allowed free trade and countries would not have to pay tariffs on goods when they were transferred from each state/country.

Question 8

How did the Zolleverin make nationalism grow?

Answer 8

• This effectively made nationalism grow throughout Germany as it did not only help trade grow, but nationalism as each state realised that they benefitted from being in close contact with each other and set an incentive for states to work together.

Question 9

How did Zolleverin create economic interdependence and businesses?

Answer 9

• Furthermore, this created economic interdependence, and this is when the states decided to cooperate with each other under the Prussian leadership.
• Additionally impacting the growth of nationalism as middle-class men who ran a business could compete with major countries like Britain or France, which was not near possible beforehand, people would want the growth of nationalism and a united Germany for their businesses to grow.

Question 10

What is the second factor of this essay?

Answer 10

• Another reason the idea of nationalism grew was due to one of the ideas of Cultural Nationalism. The idea of nationalism first grew in universities.

Question 11

Who saw education as the key to uniting Germany?

Answer 11

• Fredrich Jahn (pro-nationalist) saw education as key to uniting Germany.

Question 12

What did Fredrich Jahn set up and why?

Answer 12

• He set up the ‘Burschenshaften’ student movement in 1817, with the aim to restructure the morals of university students, and develop an interest in politics, which authorities did not like as they were anti-nationalist.

Question 13

What did the movement do?

Answer 13

• The movement did extremist things such as murder which discredited their cause.

Question 14

What did the extremist activities cause to be put in place?

Answer 14

• The extremist activities caused the ‘Carlsbad Decrees’ to be put in place, which disbanded many student societies, introduced the censoring of newspapers and ordered inspectors to monitor universities.

Question 15

What remerged into the 18030’s and was nationalism stopped permanently?

Answer 15

• Even though this successfully limited organised nationalism in the German states, it did not stop nationalism to grow among students as student societies re-emerged within the 1830s with the group ‘Young Germany’.

Question 16

What colours did the group use?

Answer 16

• This group officially used the black, gold and red colours which we see in the German flag today, which is a huge step for nationalism.

Question 17

What limited nationalism further? (What Act?)

Answer 17

• But once the Six Acts were passed, the Carlsbad decrees were reintroduced.
• This limited the growth of nationalism as people could not outrightly protest for it with adding more censorship and empowering states even further.
• This held back any mention of nationalism to come to the table.

Question 18

What is the third factor of this essay?

Answer 18

• The idea of Nationalism was born from the impact of the Napoleonic Wars.

Question 19

How many states was Germany divided into before Napoelon’s rise?

Answer 19

• Prior to Napoleon’s rise to the leader of the French nation, Germany was divided into 300 separate states.

Question 20

What did Napoleon create and what did it do?

Answer 20

• Once he became the First Consul and subsequently conquered the Holy Roman Empire by defeating Austria and Russia in the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, he created the “Confederation of the Rhine”, a state which reorganised the Germanic states from 300, down to 39.

Question 21

How did Napoleon create the idea of a unified Germany?

Answer 21

• This began the idea of a unified Germany and increased nationalism as it brought the states together, which made Germans have close contact with each other and they can share ideas about nationalism which can unify them further.

Question 22

What did the victorious powers do? (1)

Answer 22

• After Napoleon’s defeat in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the victorious powers convened to ensure that the following peace treaty with France provided that a war of such scale was never to occur again, and to eradicate any memories of the French Revolution.

Question 23

What did the victorious powers create? (2)

Answer 23

• This was the ‘Congress of Vienna,’ and the impact this had on German states is that they formed the German Confederation known as ‘The Bund’ which kept the 39 states that the Confederation of the Rhine had made previously but reinstated their original rulers.

Question 24

How was the Congress of Vienna ineffective in growing nationalism?

Answer 24

• This was ineffective in growing nationalism as it kept the 39 states together instead of unifying them further like Napoleon did with the previous Confederation with the formerly 300 smaller states.

Question 25

What is the final factor of this essay?

Answer 25

• Another reason why nationalism grew in the German States was due to the Role of the Liberals.

Question 26

What is the definition of Liberalism?

Answer 26

• The idea of Liberalism was important as well as Nationalism, Liberalism was the idea that the average person wanted more of a say on what happened in their lives, and to not be dominated by an emperor or a monarch.

Question 27

What class were Liberals and why did they support nationalism?

Answer 27

• Many German Liberals were middle and upper-class people, who were well-educated, and they wanted more parliamentary rule, and unification was the way to get what they wanted (fundamental rights and freedom) as they were excluded politically.

Question 28

How did the Liberals grow nationalism?

Answer 28

• This helped grow nationalism throughout the German States as the Liberals were able to pressure on the rulers of German states to bring political change.

Question 29

Were Liberals elected to Parliament?

Answer 29

• Eventually more liberals were elected to Parliament and were able to make the idea of nationalism and unification of the country spread, which couldn’t happen before as they were excluded politically.

Question 30

What is the second A point of Liberalism?

Answer 30

• This helped grow liberalism as many people’s views on nationalism were able to be spread, instead of being silenced previously.

Question 31

What is the A+ point for Liberalism?

Answer 31

• However, there was limited effectiveness as nationalism and liberalism threatened Austria’s power, specifically Metternich who was the Chancellor of Austria and who controlled the German Confederation.
• He used the German Confederation to block any ideas of nationalism and liberalism, as Metternich found these ‘new ideas’ or as he nicknamed ‘the Dark Forces’ to threaten his power.

Question 32

How would nationalism threaten Metternich’s power?

Answer 32

• This threatened his power as if these new ideas were to be enforced, they would theoretically break the Austrian Empire as each country in it would want unification, which would mean Metternich’s relevance would fall, this limits the idea of nationalism growing throughout Germany.

Question 33

What is the line of argument for the conclusion?

Answer 33

• In conclusion, the main reason why Nationalism grew in Germany in the early 1800s was due to Economic Nationalism.

Question 34

What is the first relative rating?

Answer 34

• The Liberals did influence the idea of nationalism due to their high place in society and their role in politics,
• But the Zollverein benefitted people directly as businesses could now grow and compete with world powers like Britian, which previously couldn’t happen.
• This influenced the growth of nationalism within people as businesses would support unification so they can make profit.

Question 35

What is the second relative rating?

Answer 35

• Even though the impact of the Napoleonic Wars created Germany from 300 to 39 states, The Zollverein created more opportunities for the German states and people with the customs union which allows states to communicate and realise that they needed to be in close contact with each other.

Question 36

What is the third relative rating?

Answer 36

• The university students attracted more publicity to nationalism,
• but the Zollverein helped as it was more impactful to people’s daily lives than a pressure group
• and had a greater effect as 25/39 states had joined, uniting people affecting more than just student societies.

Question 37

What is the final sentence of the conclusion?

Answer 37

• Therefore, Economic Nationalism is the main reason why nationalism grew within the German states in the early 1800s as it provided a customs union that had never been provided before and gave an incentive for states to work together, unifying them.