Flashcards · 2147 · Topic 1

Core content: Option A – The nineteenth century: the development of modern nation states, 1848–1914 flashcards

39 cards on Topic 1, subtopics 1.1 to 1.6. Pick a subtopic or study them all.

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1.1 Were the Revolutions of 1848 Important?

What caused the revolutions of 1848?: Nationalism, liberal demands for constitutions, economic hardship after poor harvests, and the example of the revolution in France.
Why did the revolutions of 1848 fail?: The revolutionaries split between liberals and radicals, the middle classes withdrew once property seemed threatened, the peasants stayed largely uninvolved, and the conservative rulers kept control of their armies.
What happened in France in 1848?: King Louis-Philippe was overthrown in February 1848 and the Second Republic was declared. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was elected its president in December 1848.
What did the Frankfurt Parliament (1848–49) try to do, and why did it fail?: It tried to create a united, liberal Germany. It had no army of its own, and in 1849 King Frederick William IV of Prussia refused the crown it offered him, so it collapsed.
How did the revolutions of 1848 affect the Austrian Empire?: Metternich, the chancellor, resigned and fled in March 1848. The Habsburgs recovered control by force; the Hungarian revolution was crushed in 1849 with Russian help.
What lesson did 1848 teach about how nations would be unified?: That unification would come through force and diplomacy by existing states, not through liberal parliaments.

1.2 How Was Italy Unified?

What were the main obstacles to Italian unification?: Austrian control of the north, the Papal States splitting the peninsula, strong regional loyalties and poor communications.
What did Cavour contribute to Italian unification?: As prime minister of Piedmont he modernised the state and used diplomacy, winning a French alliance (Plombières, 1858) so that Piedmont could defeat Austria in 1859 and gain Lombardy.
What was Garibaldi’s Expedition of the Thousand (1860)?: Garibaldi’s volunteers (the Redshirts) conquered Sicily and Naples. He then handed southern Italy to King Victor Emmanuel II rather than set up a separate republic.
What was Mazzini’s role in Italian unification?: He supplied the nationalist ideology: he founded Young Italy (1831) to work for a united, republican Italy, and led the short-lived Roman Republic of 1849.
When was the Kingdom of Italy proclaimed, and how was unification completed?: Proclaimed in 1861 with Victor Emmanuel II as king. Venetia was gained in 1866 after Austria’s defeat by Prussia, and Rome in 1870 when French troops left during the Franco-Prussian War.

1.3 How Was Germany Unified?

What was the Zollverein and why did it matter for German unification?: A customs union of German states led by Prussia, formed in 1834 and excluding Austria. It tied the German economies to Prussia.
What was Bismarck’s method for unifying Germany?: 1. Isolate each opponent diplomatically before fighting. 2. Fight a limited war for a defined objective. 3. Stop once that objective is achieved.
What were Bismarck’s three wars of unification?: Against Denmark (1864) over Schleswig-Holstein, against Austria (1866) and against France (1870–71).
What did Prussia gain from the war with Austria in 1866?: Austria was excluded from German affairs, and Prussia led a new North German Confederation (1867) of the states north of the River Main.
What was the Ems Telegram and why was it important?: Bismarck edited a report of the king’s meeting with the French ambassador to make it sound insulting. France declared war in 1870, so the southern German states joined Prussia against a foreign aggressor.
When and where was the German Empire proclaimed?: 18 January 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, with Wilhelm I of Prussia as German Emperor. France lost Alsace-Lorraine.

1.4 Why Was There a Civil War in the United States and What Were Its Results?

What were the main long-term causes of the American Civil War?: Slavery and whether it should spread into the western territories; states’ rights against federal power; and the economic differences between the industrial North and the plantation, cotton-growing South.
Name three events of the 1850s that increased tension over slavery: The Compromise of 1850 (including a stricter Fugitive Slave Act), the Kansas–Nebraska Act (1854), and the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision (1857).
What triggered Southern secession in 1860–61?: The election of Abraham Lincoln, a Republican opposed to the spread of slavery, in November 1860. South Carolina seceded in December 1860 and the Confederacy was formed in February 1861 under Jefferson Davis.
How did the Civil War begin?: Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, a Union fort in Charleston harbour, in April 1861.
Why did the North win the Civil War?: A much larger population, most of the industry and railways, a navy that blockaded Southern ports, and generals such as Grant and Sherman. Gettysburg and Vicksburg (July 1863) were turning points. Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April 1865.
What were the main results of the Civil War?: The Union was preserved and slavery was abolished by the 13th Amendment (1865). The 14th (1868) and 15th (1870) Amendments gave citizenship and voting rights, but after Reconstruction ended in 1877 Southern states restricted Black Americans’ rights.
What was the Emancipation Proclamation?: Lincoln’s order, in force from 1 January 1863, declaring enslaved people in the Confederate states free. It made the abolition of slavery a war aim.

1.5 Why, and With What Effects, Did Nations Gain and Expand Their Overseas Empires in the Nineteenth Century?

What were the four main motives for European imperialism in Africa?: Economic (raw materials such as rubber and cotton, and new markets); strategic (routes such as the Suez Canal and the Cape, and coaling stations); prestige and rivalry (colonies as a mark of great-power status); ideological and religious (the “civilising mission” and missionaries).
What was the Berlin Conference of 1884–85?: A meeting of European powers, called by Bismarck, that set rules for claiming African territory. It sped up the “Scramble for Africa”.
Which African states were still independent in 1914?: Only Ethiopia (Abyssinia) and Liberia.
Why was the Battle of Adwa (1896) significant?: Ethiopian forces under Emperor Menelik II defeated an Italian army, keeping Ethiopia independent.
Why was the Suez Canal important to Britain?: Opened in 1869, it shortened the sea route to India. Britain bought shares in it in 1875 and occupied Egypt in 1882, partly to protect it.
Exam trap: how should imperial motives be presented?: Group them (economic, strategic, prestige, ideological) and explain each, rather than writing one undifferentiated list.

1.6 What Caused the First World War?

What does MANIA stand for as causes of the First World War?: Militarism, Alliances, Nationalism, Imperialism, Assassination.
Who were in the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente?: Triple Alliance (1882): Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy. Triple Entente (by 1907): Britain, France, Russia.
Why did Britain abandon “splendid isolation”?: German naval expansion threatened British naval supremacy. Britain settled colonial disputes through the Entente Cordiale with France (1904) and the Anglo-Russian agreement (1907).
What were the Moroccan crises?: Two crises (1905 and 1911) in which Germany challenged French influence in Morocco. Both times Britain backed France, so the crises strengthened the Entente.
What was the Bosnian crisis of 1908?: Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina, angering Serbia and Russia. Russia had to back down because Germany supported Austria.
Why were problems in the Balkans so difficult for the Great Powers to solve?: As Ottoman power collapsed, Russia backed Serbia and the Slavs while Austria-Hungary feared Serbian nationalism among its own Slav subjects. Each saw vital interests at stake, and the alliances could turn a Balkan quarrel into a general war.
Summarise the July Crisis of 1914: Franz Ferdinand assassinated at Sarajevo (28 June) → Austrian ultimatum to Serbia, backed by Germany’s “blank cheque” → Austria declares war (28 July) → Russia mobilises → Germany carries out the Schlieffen Plan → Belgium invaded → Britain declares war (4 August).
Why did the July Crisis escalate in days rather than months?: The Schlieffen Plan required Germany to defeat France quickly before turning east, so Russian mobilisation left almost no time for diplomacy. Military timetables set the pace.
Was the assassination the main cause of the First World War? What judgement is best supported?: It was the trigger (the spark), not the underlying cause. The long-term tensions had built a system in which any Balkan crisis could escalate. Weigh both and reach an explicit conclusion.