Germany Issue 3 (obstacles to nationalism)

Question 1

What is the context and background of this issue?

Answer 1

• Before 1815, Germany was separated into 300 smaller states instead of the newly united country it is today.
• These states had traditions, laws, sovereignty and rulers. After the French Revolution, when Napoleon took over the Holy Roman Empire and introduced the Confederation of the Rhine the idea of nationalism began to grow throughout these states.
• Nationalism was the idea of being a very biased supporter of your country, and in this context wanting unification for the German states.
• Although there were reasons for nationalism and unification, there were many obstacles as to why nationalism couldn’t be fully supported, therefore leading to less chance of unification.

Question 2

What are the factors of this essay?

Answer 2

• The reasons for this were: Religious Differences between states, the opposition from the German Princes, Austrian Strength/Opposition and Divisions within the Nationalists.

Question 3

What is the essay arguing?

Answer 3

This essay will argue that Austrian Strength is the most crucial reason why nationalism was limited in growth during the early 1800s.

Question 4

What is the first factor of this essay?

Answer 4

• One reason why nationalism was limited within the German States was due to the power and hold the Austrian Empire had.

Question 5

Why wouldn’t Austria want unification?

Answer 5

• Austria had the most power within Europe in the early 1800s, if nationalism were to happen, the Austrian Empire would fall as countries would want to leave the empire and become unified by themselves.

Question 6

Who was Metternich and what did he call liberal ideas?

Answer 6

• The Chancellor of Austria: Klemens von Metternich was an anti-nationalist and despised this idea as he was a very conservative man and hated all ‘liberal ideas’, (aka nationalism and unification) he went as far as to call these ideas ‘the Dark Forces’.

Question 7

What did Austria control?

Answer 7

• Austria also controlled The German Confederation.

Question 8

How was Austria successful in defeating nationalism?

Answer 8

• Austria was successful in extinguishing the idea of nationalism/liberalism by introducing ‘The Carlsbad Decrees’ which banned student societies, as many were promoting nationalism and introduced censorship for media and inspectors to monitor university students.

Question 9

How were the student societies repressed further?

Answer 9

• These groups were repressed even further by Metternich in 1832 when he introduced ‘the Six Acts’ which pressured more censorship and brought the use of the military to stop any pro-nationalist protests.

Question 10

How were the Carlsblad Decrees and Six Acts successful in limiting nationalism?

Answer 10

• This was successful in limiting the growth of nationalism as the acts that were introduced showed how determined both Metternich and the Austrian Empire were to halt nationalism.
• By introducing these acts, they halted the early growth of nationalism within the states, revealing how the German Confederation was more than a political use to Austria.
• It also showed that Metternich had full control over the 39 German states and how their dominance and conservatism proved as a big barrier for nationalism to grow.

Question 11

How was Austrian Strength not the most important factor?

Answer 11

• Although Austria was mainly successful in limiting nationalism, some of Germany did not want unification, such as the monarchy, which made Austria not the most important reason for limiting growth in nationalism.

Question 12

What is the second factor of this essay?

Answer 12

• Another reason why nationalism was limited within the German States was due to Religious Differences.

Question 13

What was the prominent religious divide and what states believed what religion?

Answer 13

• There was a prominent religious divide throughout the 1500s-1600s there were many religious wars.
• The conflict between them did die down but in the 19th century, there was a prominent religious divide between Protestants (which were dominated in the north and eastern states) and Catholics (mainly in the south and western states.)
• This was the same with Prussia and Austria, as Prussia was more Protestant and Austria was more Catholic, which created a further divide between both countries.

Question 14

Why did Wilhelm Henrich find this religious division so prominent?

Answer 14

• This division between states was so distinct that writers such as Wilhelm Henrich found it very necessary to make their work suitable for both Protestant and Catholic beliefs.

Question 15

How was religious division successful in limiting nationalism?

Answer 15

• This was successful in limiting nationalism as the religious division meant that Germans were very unlikely to support unification as it would mean they would lose their religious identity, which they clearly objected to.

Question 16

How was religious division unsuccessful in limiting nationalism?

Answer 16

• However, despite differences, the work of the Frankfurt Parliament, showed that agreements were not impossible and that many political decisions for the German states were by class and not religion.

Question 17

What is the third factor of this essay?

Answer 17

• Another reason why nationalism was limited within the German States was due to opposition from the German Princes.

Question 18

How were the 39 states divided?

Answer 18

• After 1815, there were 39 states instead of the smaller 300 which had culture and history although the states did share the same language, they were still very divided.

Question 19

What did all the states have in common?

Answer 19

• Each state had a monarchy which ruled the states - they were very anti-nationalist.

Question 20

What were the Prince’s motives?

Answer 20

• Their motive was if unification were to happen it would reduce their status within Germany, so they wanted to maintain the status quo to keep the power.

Question 21

What did the Princes dream of?

Answer 21

• They wished to go back to a time when the monarchy was unchallenged and where nationalism wasn’t a threat to them.

Question 22

How did the German Princes maintain their power?

Answer 22

• To maintain power, they had; the German Princes gave many false promises for nationalism.

Question 23

What is one example of the Princes giving false promises?

Answer 23

• When the French ruled the German states, German Princes made promises to their people that they would receive a real constitutional government, which would give people more rights, but after Napoleon was defeated only 6 states kept this promise.

Question 24

What is a final example of the Princes giving false promises?

Answer 24

• Another example of this was when they promised liberal reforms such as the Frankfurt Parliament, but they persistently went back on these promises and reversed any pervious decisions.

Question 25

How was giving false promises to the public limiting nationalism?

Answer 25

• This was successful in limiting the growth of nationalism as the princes were able to maintain their power within the states and nationalism could not be implemented as a change was only able to happen when they decided to or when it was forced upon them to make one.
• This made nationalism harder to grow throughout the 1850s as they kept control, making the princes a huge obstacle.

Question 26

How were the revolutions a demonstration of the monarchy’s power?

Answer 26

• Even though the revolutions throughout the 1830s-1850s were important to Germans expressing their views, they were only brief interruptions.
• The monarchy was able to take control of situations by sending military forces to squash the revolutions.
• This further demonstrates the monarchy’s power that they had over the German States and showed the size of this obstacle that the growth of nationalism faced, which then limited the growth.

Question 27

What is the final factor of this essay?

Answer 27

• A final reason why nationalism was limited within the German States was due to a Division between the Nationalists.

Question 28

Why were there divisions between the nationalists?

Answer 28

• This was because the nationalists were divided on how Germany should be united.

Question 29

What did one side of the nationalists want?

Answer 29

• One side of the nationalists wanted ‘Grossdeutschland’ which would include all 39 states, and parts of the Austrian Empire who could speak German.

Question 30

What did the other side of the nationalists want?

Answer 30

• The other alternative was ‘Kleindeutschland’ which was lesser ambitious and would only include the 39 states, be dominated by Prussia and exclude all of Austria.

Question 31

how was the Territorial extent a limitation to nationalism?

Answer 31

• This future territorial extent was a key obstacle as to why nationalism was limited within the German states,
• as the nationalists couldn’t agree on how Germany should be united, and with the looming, powerful opposition from Austria it made it harder to decide as Austria would hate ‘Kleindeutschland’ making it harder for an agreement to be made.

Question 32

What was the second division between the nationalists?

Answer 32

• A second division between the nationalists was whether the new Germany should be ruled by a monarch or be a republic country.

Question 33

What did Liberal Germans prefer?

Answer 33

• Many Liberal Germans preferred a constitutional monarchy, which would create a political union and protect rights of the people and create a parliament where laws would be made.

Question 34

What did the radicals prefer?

Answer 34

• In contrast, the other main group were the ‘radicals’ who did want some of the same changes’ liberals wanted, but they wanted more reforms to benefit the working class and wanted more revolutionary change such as abolishing the monarchy and wanting universal male suffrage.

Question 35

How did the divisions between the nationalists limit nationalism?

Answer 35

• This made limiting nationalism successful, as this division was a major obstacle as it divided the groups wanting nationalism, but made liberals repress their views as they were terrified of revolutions breaking out.
• The division also meant that they could not make mutual decisions to progress the idea of nationalism further, meaning that they could not present a united front to anti-nationalists such as Austria.

Question 36

What is the line of argument for the conclusion?

Answer 36

• In conclusion, Austrian Strength is the most important reason why the growth of nationalism was limited in the early 1800s.

Question 37

What is the first relative rating?

Answer 37

• Although religious divisions made it harder for Germans to work together, Austria was a more important opponent to nationalism as they had more power to stopping nationalism with ‘The Bund’ which can act against as if it were to come in place, people would have to deal with religious differences.

Question 38

What is the second relative rating?

Answer 38

• Even though, there was divisions within the nationalists, they all wanted the same thing: unification, which Austria did not want. Austria had more strength to blocking ideas of nationalism with the German Confederation, meanwhile it was only a little block between the nationalists.

Question 39

What is the third relative rating?

Answer 39

• Although the German Princes did have the power to block nationalism ideas from happening, Austria had more power over the princes, and if nationalism ideas were to come to the table if the princes were forced, Austria could just invade the German states with their military or block the ideas with the German Confederation.

Question 40

What is the final sentence of the conclusion?

Answer 40

• Austrian Strength is the main reason the growth of nationalism was limited, due to the power of Metternich being the Chancellor, controlling the German Confederation and intimidating nationalists.