Europe

The Unification of Italy

The Holy Alliance remained so very Holy,
three was three. And they were Metternich's
bulwark against the Spring of Nations; of
democracy; of revolution; of secularism-
and Austria, the police of Europe.

Metternich screams out loud, pierces
the air- the wheels of time shalt halt. In
the mind's eye, she was a pejorative- "merely
a geographical expression"; and amidst the
continent, her autonomy is far-flung.

But too many challenge the hypothesis. Mazzini
was dancing with republicanism, goodbye monarch
while Gioberti believed, if not sincerely, in neo-
guelphism, hello the pope pius IX. And they all,
like Charles Albert, proclaimed "Italia Fara Da se".

Mister Pope was a fake; Papal Allocution and all, while
Austria paid the "geographical expression" a visit, over-
whelmed Albert at Custozza and Novara. The coffers in
Venice were dessicated and the wars were futile. So what
do you say? Italia Fara Da Se? 1848 was a bad year.

For easy reference- the ideals were too disparate; the
action unconcerted. Pope was a crap pope. Mass support
was missing- no peasants, no lower classes, just a bunch of
pseudo-intellectuals. Particularism was two-fold and the
international situation was just plain inauspicious.

1848 reinforced the notion- "a geographical expression",
but it was also the classroom for the unification that was
to come. Cavour was in luck, a student of the shambles in
history. And it began a new era, political pragmatism
versus liberal idealism; Garibaldi versus the nobleboy.

There we see, the collision of two mutually exclusive yet
equally legitimate causes but it was in the pragmatic
resolution which capture the dynamic energy of the latter
and in subsequently overriding it, was unification coaxed
out of a dangerous political and social climate- in and out.

The nationalists on the other hand, gave up the ideals
of 1848. It was a bad year, as misfortune could go but
they decided it would be better to blame the fallacy of
ideals. So they looked to the Italian National Society,
were Pallavicino expounded, "Lets follow Piedmont!"

So they did and Cavour was more than happy, or so we'd
like to think. He probably did it to detract from Mazzini
his supporters but could not overlook the fact the esca-
lating membership (20 000 volunteers in 3 months!)
that would be of use to Garibaldi later. So harness,

Cavour did. Also, he drew INS to Piedmont, the only
state in Italy to have a free constitution and press. Or
so we think again. He practiced the political connubio-
a marriage of convennience for him to seek the juste
milieu, the golden mean: the power of moderation.

Piedmont was rich too and in no little part, Cavour's
vision. Looked to the industrialised nations and sub-
scribed to Cattaneo's theory of unification by economic
intergration- to bring together the old rural aristocracy
and the middle classes of tomorrow. And the millitary,

had new gadgets and more money too! War was
inevitable so Cavour was careful to negotiate
the international terrain. The Congress of Paris
denounced Austria, did Piedmont and later, the
Pact of Plombieres in 1858. Orsini was helpful

too, now that Napoleon III would actually "do
something for Italy". The international situation
was favourable, everybody hated an Austrian-
Palmerstone, Napoleon, Prussia and Russia.
Now, Austria was indeed isolated.

So came the war 1859, and the Peace of Villafranca
was a shock to Cavour (he threw a tantrum and took
a 6 month holiday) because Venetia still dangled in
Austria hands and Parma, Tuscany and Modena
was to be returned. But heads up,

all was saved when the plebiscites kicked in. Two
months later, so did Garibaldi. He stomped into
Naples, which was ravaged by a peasant war. Cav-
our had to stop this bugger, for the pope had to be
protected against international action.

Italy was complete when Prussia helped them gain
Venetia although losses at Custozza and Lissa makes
little difference while Rome when Prussia slapped
France in the face and when they weren't looking,
Italy snuck in and took the papal lands.

The Unification of Prussia

So we are back at 1848 again but for Prussia, at
least they had the Zollverein. Still they had issues:
Friederick Willhelm IV was a transient liberal, errat-
ic policies. The Constituent Assembly was too raidcal
and even Bismarck was taken aback that the army

was called in to dissolve.The new constitution had
less the radicals in the landtag. Then we have the
Frankfurt Assembly which was tenous in itself-
little inclusive of the lower class and spent the
better part of the year deciding between:

Grossdeutschland where Austria was whee and
Kleindeutschland where Prussia was the whee
in Germany and the preferred administration.
Besides, the legal power was not with them but
vested in the wretched German confederation.

Also, Willhelm refused to pick the crown from
the gutters, the gutters who could not support
Prussia in the Schleswig-Holstein question and
with the armistice of malmo - the Frankfurt
Parliment was unable to pursue a foreign policy.

Then, we have the humiliation of Olmutz where
Russia backed Austria to block Prussian ambitions
for dominating Germany. To put it succinct, the
obstacles: Austria, Catholics at South, Particularism
of the princes and not knowing to go Gross or Klein.

Here coems the hero of our story- Bismarck. Appointed
Ministerprasident, the first speech he gave was awe-
inspiring. It has been made into one of the powerful
myths of modern times, "Blood and Iron" was the better
approach to the emasculated, time-consuming direction

of the Frankfurt parliment. He over-rode the landtag's
refusal to approve the budget for military reforms, re-
solving a deadlock. The Schleswig-Holstein question
resurfaced and he was keen for diplomacy: he pointed
out the violation of the Treaty of London by the Danish

King Denamrk and the reckless military action of the
German confederation. Ergo, with Austria they annexed
both the Duchies that ended in the Treaty of Vienna and
the Gastein Convention where Schleswig was ceded to Prussia
and Holstein to Austra, as "papering over the cracks".

He had to isolate Austria. A visit to Napoleon III in Biarritz
secured his passive support while a secret alliance with Italy
was in the works one year later in 1866 which was against
the constitution of the German Confederation. But anyway,
a war was concocted to make Austria seem like the aggressor

at least to some observers. Sadowa was a military debacle
for Austria and the Treaty of Prague ended the 7 weeks
war prematurely. A Northern German Confederation was
thus formed. "We have done enough for our generation."
Or so, Bismarck thinks.

The Luxembourg incident was exploited to fan anti-French
feelings at home while he edited the Emser Despesche to
lure the trigger-happy French into a war to prevent the
South from falling under French or Austrian influence. And
with the Treaty of France, Germany gained Alsace-Lorraine.

Imperialism

One wonders this age came about. There were the metropolitan
and peripheral theories; the political, the social, the humman-
itrian, the religious, the economic, etc.

Economical:

Hobson's theory of surplus capital- Metropole economies need
to find new markets to absorb industrial goods and to restore
rate of return on investment in metrople. However, rate of
return in France and Germany still high and countries like
Italy faced a shortage of capital and industrial produce to export.

Also, German colonies only accounted for less than 1% of German
foreign trade and imported most of its food from Australia and
the Americas. In Tunis, France only started investing a number
of years later while French expenses in Morocco more than
wiped out porfits from trade.

Political:

From 1870 onwards, Europe was dominated by large states
that began challenging each other for dominance. Indeed,
it was believed that the survival, security and prosperity
of the states depended on the world position albeit Bismarck
believed otherwise (that is until 1885 where he did an

about-turn and established protectorates over a number
of small African states in Togo, Cameroons and East &
Southwest Africa). This is evinced by the international
contest for the congo which had to be resolved in the
Berlin Conference of 1894 where territoriy boundaries

were defined for the next few years and the Congo Free
State ceded to King Leopold II of Belgium. Diplomatic
considerations were apparently more important: Bis-
marck enjoined Karl Peters to extend German territory
further East in order to improve relations with Britain.

Everyone wanted a "place in the sun". Even Italy
would put a claim to useless dessert lands in Eritrea
and Somaliland. Also, Bismarck had manipulated
imperialist ambitions to gain diplomatic ambitions:
encouraged French occupation of Tunis to antagonise

the Italians while supported British lone operations in
Egypt to divide her from France. Both were designed
to distract French revanchism. All in all, Imperialism
could be seen as a cheap and comparative bloodless
substitute for European war and expansion.

Social:

Industrialisation had changed attitudes in addition to
economic practices and conditions. Imperialism was used
to unite people of divided intersts and social groups. The
British PM Disraeli had adoptd imperailism to build a
"One Nation Conservatism" at home- in which, was

used to crush the liberal party opponents with the
turn of events stemming from the Anglo-Boer war
in 1899. Furthermore, there was also interest in
literature and the arts, and some sought to promote
such endeavours: Tennyson, Kipling, etc.

On the other hand, we have the social theories relating
to emigration. The long depression of Europe had driven
some people to escape to the colonies- an outlet. French
Algeria had seen 1 million European colonists since 1830
although subsequent African colonies did not see as much.

Pressure Groups:

Capitalists groups like the German Colonial League published
in newspapers (Kolonialzeitung) to promote imperialism. Arms
manfacturers like the Russian Patilov and the German Krupp
were also one of the strongest supporters in the name
of capitalism.

Social:

Race supremacist ideologies were steadily emerging, like
Gobineau's Essay on the Inequality of Mankind which argued
with a social Darwinist perspective that imperialism was the
necessary step to purify and thus prevent social decay,
leading to progress.

Humanitarian ideals were embodied in the different slogans,
the British called it the White Man's Burden (coined by Kip-
-ling), the French, the Mission to Civilise and the Germans,
Kultur- together with religion sees a need for colonies to be
extended the benefits of civilisaion and rid of human abuses.

Groups like Association Internationale Africane were formed
which sought scientific enquiry in addition to civilising the
colonies- but they were mostly facades for avarice
on the capitalists' part. King Leopold II never had the
intent to prepare the Congolese for self-rule.

Peripheral:

Expounded by Gallagher and Robinson, it suggests
that imperialist motivations also came from outside
the metropole. Local cries and strategic concerns
were also responsible. Disareli bought up 45% of
the shares that once belonged to Ismail to gain

control of the Suez Cannal company which was a
major shipping route for Britain. Subsequently,
a stratocracy upstaged the monarchy and in
order to protect foreign investments, a contingency
military operation was organised.

Russian Revolution

Three Russian Revolutions, we will explore finally.
But first, we will have to explain the pre-revolution
climate. Alexander II's reforms, while had
emancipated the serfs had galvanised a sea of
resentment. The muzhik was chained to the

obhschina and a strict passport system prevented
them from actively seeking prospects in the cities
and towns. Redemption payments were to be made
through the mir and the land captains did not make
life any easier. Land hunger was rife and famines

were common; even so, produces were demanded for
export. Rapid industrailisation mostly funded by
foregin money, had caused working conditions
in factories to be austere and unfavourable. Tech-
nology was at best, backward.

So bad, that a worker's riot was organised but it
was put down by the armed forces ouside the
winter palace. So started a you know what?
I think we could forget about this altogether-
my epic does not sound like an epic, indeed.


cuRRent...jer



  ¶ 6:05 pm