*Increasing nationalism of the early 1800s did not confine itself to glorification of one's national language, art, literature, and history.  It also sought unity and independence for the nation as a nation-state, often a democratic one (or at least constitutional monarchy):  a government of the People, by the People, and for the People.

*There had been uprisings and revolutions throughout the 1820s and 1830s, some successful and some not.  A new series of nationalistic fervour would again sweep all of Europe (except the UK and Russia) in the late 1840s, particularly in 1848, a year that would be known as the Springtime of Nations.  This wiped away the order of Metternich's Concert of Europe.

*In France, King Louis-Philippe, the Citizen-King ruled a moderately open state run by intellectuals, but in which only about 1% of the population could vote.  The middle class of France envied the English, and the working class feared ending up like England's, as skilled craftsmen began to see their wages and respect decline, and some workers began to look at communism. 

*When these problems were combined with economic problems and famine and a government that began to suppress its critics, the French revolted against Louis-Philippe and deposed him.  The Second Republic was declared and elections were held.  Louis-Philippe actually won a seat in the national assembly, but the first man elected President of France was Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, who promised moderate reforms and brought with him the prestigious name of his famous uncle.

*The President of France served for four years without re-election.  In 1851, Bonaparte asked the National Assembly to revise the constitution to allow him to run for re-election. They refused, fearing he might eventually become a president-for-life.  On 2 December (the same day his uncle crowned himself Emperor of France), Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte seized complete power and declared himself president-for-life.  One year later, the Second Republic was ended and the Second Empire, under Napoleon III, was created.

*Some of the strongest agitation for a nation-state came from the Germans.  Germans even had a poem, later set to music, that described the borders of Germany, land of German-speaking peoples.  It still serves as the national anthem of Germany, where it is known as 'Das Deutschlandlied.”  Elsewhere it is known by the first line of its first verse (no longer sung in Germany), 'Deutschland über alles.'

*When the French overthrew the last Bourbon king and put in place the Second Republic, Germans hoped they might form a new government, too.  Nationalists and democrats alike hoped for a new, more democratic Germany, in which the state will bring freedom to all Germans.  This would be a peaceful country in which unity, law, and freedom would reign in the Fatherland and, once united, Germans would never need to make war again—for who would want or need to conquer other nationalities?  However, to achieve this, revolution within Germany might be necessary.

*Many of the kings, princes, and dukes of Germany were not pleased by this, but the King of Prussia, Frederick Wilhelm IV, agreed to let representatives of local revolutionaries meet in the Free City of Frankfurt, where representatives from all over Germany were forming a constitutional government. 

*The Frankfurt Assembly was mostly made up of academics and intellectuals who spent a lot of time talking.  Some of the more radical revolutionaries were disappointed, but because the rules were tolerating the Assembly, they tried to give it a chance. There were many things to talk about.

*One of the main points of contention was between the Grossdeutsch and Kleindeutsch aproaches to German unification. True nationalists wanted a Grossdeutschland, but Austria (with its many non-German nationalities) did not fit in there. Furthermore, if Austria and Prussia were both part of a united Germany, it was not clear who would lead.  Eventually, the Kleindeutsch philosophy prevailed.

*The Frankfurt Assembly created an Imperial Constitution (which disappointed some democrats) and offered the crown of a new German empire to the King of Prussia, whose government had given partial support to the Frankfurt Assembly (unlike the other major Germany states).  However, when the time came, Frederick Wilhelm IV rejected it, saying that he would not take a crown rolled to him from the gutter.

*This was a signal to the other German states and Free Cities. Although some of the smaller states had accepted the constitution, Prussia's rejection of it demonstrated that others could do so to.

*As it became clear that the princes of Germany would not accept the Constitution, the radicals began violent revolutions in many parts of Germany, which were soon crushed.  Many of the leadres were declared traitors and executed, or else fled to America.

*Germany would not be unified for over two decades, but Prussia would take on more and more leadership among Germans until it could unify Germany on its own terms.

*Austria had not had any interest in joining a German Empire, because nationalism was especially dangerous to that multi-national empire.  Austria held more than a dozen nationalities, all of which made some effort at independence during the Springtime of Nations.  By far the most dangerous, though, were the Hungarians.

*The Emperor of Austria was also King of Hungary, but that role had been largely taken for granted and neglected in the 1800s. In 1848, mass demonstrations broke out in Buda and Pest (not united until 1873).  Their leader was Lajos Kossuth.

*At first, the Austrians tried to rally all the lesser minorities against the Hungarians (hoping to unite one set of rebels by turning them against another), who fought them off, until Russia intervened as well, as it had always promised it would do against revolutions that threatened legitimate monarchies.  As a compromise, Kossuth was briefly allowed to govern Hungary on behalf of the Emperor, but was soon exiled to the Ottoman Empire, whence he went to the UK and the USA (a bust of Kossuth is in the US Capitol).

*Although Austria put down its minorities in 1848, in 1867 the Austrians reached a compromise with the Hungarians, the second-largest group in the Empire, and created Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary, under which the Emperor of Austria was also King of Hungary and allowed Hungary to have its own parliament, laws, and customs.  This was done partly to appease resentful Hungarians and partly because the Austrians realised that they would never dominate Germany, and should instead focus on their own multi-ethnic empire.

*In Italy, the Austrians ruled the Northeast, the Pope ruled the centre, the Two Sicilies ruled the South, and Sardinia ruled the Northwest.  Many people wanted to unify it under one government.  This movement was called the Risorgimento (resurgence).  Although the cabonari had failed to create a new nation in 1831, another group founded about the same by Giuseppe Mazzini called Young Italy remained active in the effort to unify Italy.  In fact, for Mazzini, the unification of Italy was but the first step in creating a United States of Europe.

*As revolutions began in France and Germany, the Two Sicilies, Tuscany, and the Papal States created constitutions. Furthermore, the cities of Milan and Venice rebelled against Austria.  However, the newly constitutional monarchy argued with the newly-elected leaders of their countries, and were driven out of their lands by revolutionaries (even the pope). 

*Among the republican leaders was a fairly successful military leader named Giuseppe Garibaldi who temporarily beat the French who marched on Rome to restore it to the Pope.  After his eventual defeat, Garibaldi went to America, but returned to Italy later.

*There were also monarchies that wanted to unify Italy, particularly the King of Sardinia (who also ruled Piedmont in Northern Italy), but he wanted to unify it as a kingdom under his rule.  He entered the wars of 1848 ostensibly to help the Milanese and Venetians win independence from Austria, but also to try to win all of Italy for himself.

*By 1849 the Austrians and the French had put down the revolts, restored the Pope to the Rome, and kept the King of Sardinia from becoming King of Italy, but only for the moment.

*In Ireland, the Young Ireland movement (which had existed since the 1830s) led a revolt against British rule.  They were partly motivated by a long-standing resentment against the British, but primarily they were inspired by the revolutions on the Continent and by the suffering of Ireland during the Potato Famine (1845-1849), which was caused by a single-celled organism similar to fungi, algae, and bacteria.  Innumerable Irish died, and many more fled to the USA—so many that it is estimated that there were more Irish in Ireland before the beginning of the Famine than there are today, despite having 160 years to recover. 

*The Young Ireland movement hoped to have a peaceful revolution, and it was peaceful, but it was a nearly bloodless defeat: they failed to win independence or significant concessions from the British.  Their leader was transported to Tasmania, but eventually allowed to come home.

*The Springtime of Nations failed.  With it died much of the idealism of the mid 19th century in Europe, and it was replaced with a philosophy of realism, of doing what works, independent of right or wrong—a strong man makes his own morality.

*One of the strongest men in Europe by the 1860s was Otto von Bismarck, Prime Minister of Prussia.  Prussia did have a constitutional monarchy, but the majority of power still resided with the Junkers and other wealthy and powerful men.  Just as Prussia co-opted the idea of constitutional monarchy to make it look as if the people had a say in government, it also co-opted socialism, creating enough benefits for workers to keep them more or less satisfied and supportive of the government (particularly health insurance, workmen's compensation, disability insurance, and retirement benefits), and it co-opted nationalism, using a love of Germany to unite rival factions within Prussia, and then to unite all of Germany under Prussian leadership. 

*Bismark said "the great questions of the day will not be decided by speeches and the resolutions of majorities — that was the great mistake from 1848 to 1849 — but by iron and blood."

*When Prussia's Reichstag disagreed with taxes the King and Bismarck wanted to raise, Bismarck distracted and unified the country by declaring war on Denmark in 1864 (the Danish-Prussian War over Schleswig-Holstein) to gain control of German-speaking areas owned by the King of Denmark. 

*In 1866 Prussia goaded Austria into a war (the Seven Weeks' War) over a minor pretext about the administration of Schleswig and Holstein and rapidly defeated Austria and all her allies with a highly trained and well-equipped army (compared with the Austrians who still used muzzle-loading guns).  Not only did Prussia establish itself as the main force in Germany, it absorbed the lands of many of Austria's German allies (most notably Hanover).  Prussia also encouraged Italian unity in the process, by allying with Italians against Austria.

*Prussia's victory over Austria upset the balance of power in Europe and distressed France, who feared it might be next.  The French were correct.  Hoping to use one more war to unify Germany behind him, Bismark took a conversation between the Prussian King and the French ambassador (over who ought to be the next king of Spain (the French did not want a Hohenzollern)) and quoted it out of context.  After more twisting of the language and mistranslations, the Ems Dispatch (named for the resort of Bad Ems where the king and the ambassador spoke) was published in French newspapers on Bastille Day, 1870, and seemed to present a very insulting attitude by the King of Prussia towards the French.  The French were outraged and demanded war.

*The French were defeated in the Franco-Prussian war (1870-1871) and Napoleon III was overthrown, replaced by the Third Republic. However, as having a common enemy to fight had united the German people behind Prussia (with the help of some bribes to a few minor kings and princes using money taken from the last King of Hanover), the German Empire, with the King of Prussia as Kaiser, was proclaimed in 1871.  Among the possessions of the new Germany Empire were Alsace and Lorraine, German-speaking lands that had belonged to France since the days of Louis XIV.

*Prussia won its wars with conscripted armies, a highly-trained General Staff, technologically advanced guns, telegraphic communication, and rail transport.  Soon all European countries would adopt similar methods to try to preserve the Balance of Power as the centre of that balance shifted.

*Italy had been united the year before, in 1870, under the King of Sardinia (who had taken the title King of Italy in 1861), partly because Napoleon III was forced to remove his troops from Rome that protected the Pope.  In September, Garibaldi and his Redshirts along with the armies of Victor Emmanuel II entered Rome.  They offered the Pope control over the Leonine City, a fortified area around the Vatican, but the Pope would not recognise Victor Emmanuel's right to rule over Rome as king.  In turn, the Kings of Italy would not recognise the Pope's control over the Vatican. 

*This lasted for 59 years, with a series of Popes claiming to be prisoners in the Vatican.  Only in 1929 did Italy recognise the Pope's sovereignty within the Vatican-the last vestige of the Papal States--and the Pope recognise Italy's existence as a state.  Even after that there would be a few areas near Italy with Italian heritage that Italy would try to reclaim.  The tiny city-state of San Marino also was allowed to remain an independent republic within Italy—the last of Italy's many tiny republics; its constitution, written in 1600, is the oldest written constitution still in use in the world.  It is said that San Marino was allowed to remain independent because it had helped hide supporters of unification who were being persecuted.

*As the nineteenth century drew to a close, Europe was increasingly militarised.  Its governments, one way or another, were also increasingly responsive to the will of the people (even if, in some cases, only out of fear of rebellion).  Europe was also increasingly powerful, as it built empires around the world.