Through a focus on any two countries, explain how nations developed over the nineteenth century.

The development of the German and Italian nation states in the

nineteenth century:

→ Political fragmentation: Till the middle of the nineteenth

century, the present-day nations of Germany and Italy were

fragmented into separate regions and kingdoms ruled by

different princely houses.

→ Revolutionary uprisings: Nineteenth-century Europe was

characterized by both popular uprisings of the masses and

revolutions led by the educated, liberal middle classes. The

middle classes belonging to the different German regions came

together to form an all-German National Assembly in 1848.

However, on facing opposition from the aristocracy and military,

and on losing its mass support base, it was forced to disband.

In the Italian region, during the 1830s, revolutionaries like

Giuseppe Mazzini sought to establish a unitary Italian Republic.

However, the revolutionary uprisings of 1831 and 1848 failed to

unite Italy.

→ Unification with the help of the army: After the failure of the 

revolutions, the process of German and Italian unification was

continued by the aristocracy and the army. Germany was united

by the Prussian chief minister Otto von Bismarck with the help

of the Prussian army and bureaucracy. The German empire was

proclaimed in 1871.

The Italian state of Sardinia-Piedmont played a role similar to

that played by Prussia. Count Camillo de Cavour (the Chief

Minister) led the movement to unite the separate states of

nineteenth-century Italy with the help of the army and an

alliance with France. The regions annexed by Giuseppe Garibaldi

and his Red Shirts joined with the northern regions to form a

united Italy. The italian nation was proclaimed in 1861. The

papal states joined in 1870.