History of Europe &the Church -
The Napoleonic attempt to restore the Roman Empire in the West is but a short-
Napoleon’s final defeat at Waterloo in 1815 sends the one-
Feeble Confederation
But the affairs of the rest of Europe also have to be reordered.
To guard against the recurrence of war, the Congress of Vienna convenes to redraw
the map of Europe and bring stability to the war-
The international assembly reorganizes the political boundaries of Europe. One of the results of the Congress is the establishment of the German Confederation (Deutscher Bund) under the presidency of Austria. The defunct Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation is no more. Napoleon’s reorganization of Germany consolidated scores of smaller German states into larger entities. The new German Confederation is an association of 39 sovereign German states. But it is a feeble organization. Unity is still severely hampered by rivalries among states. The loosely knit league will limp along until 1866.
First Step Toward Unity
Prince Metternich (1773-
Under Frederick the Great (king in Prussia from 1740 to 1786), Prussia had become
a rival to Austria for control of the German states. This rivalry persists. Prussia
still seeks to gain the upper hand in German affairs. In 1834, Prussia organizes
a German customs union, known as the Zollverein, under Prussian leadership. It creates
a free-
The Zollverein shows the Germans the value of cooperation. It encourages the desire for unity. Historians will look back on the customs union as a key first step on the road toward German reunification.
Revolutions in France
Back in France, a revolution in July 1830 drives the Bourbons
from the throne. The Bourbon monarch, Charles X (1824-
On December 10, 1848, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (1808-
House of Savoy
Meanwhile, in Italy, a crucial series of events is taking place. The
Congress of Vienna had again divided Italy into numerous states. Most of the peninsula
is now dominated by Austria. Only the Kingdom of Sardinia-
In 1849, Victor Emmanuel II comes to the Sardinian throne. He is head of the House
of Savoy. During the 18th century, this dynasty had acquired the rulership of the
island of Sardinia and territories in northern Italy, centered on the region of Piedmont.
The capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia-
In 1852, Count di Cavour (1810-
Garibaldi’s Red Shirts
In July 1858, Cavour meets with Napoleon III, Emperor of the
French. They agree to provoke Austria into war. The war comes in 1859. The Franco-
Years earlier, Garibaldi had joined Young Italy, a movement for Italian liberty and
unification organized by the revolutionist Giuseppe Mazzini. Now Garibaldi decides
that the best road to unity lies in his working with Victor Emmanuel and Cavour.
In May 1860, with the support of Cavour, Garibaldi leads a 1,000-
Sicily is taken after threemonths of fighting. Garibaldi then moves against Naples.
That city falls on September 7, 1860. Sicily and Naples have been conquered! Garibaldi
is a national hero. Garibaldi hands his conquests over to Victor Emmanuel. Other
Italian states declare by plebiscite for union with Sardinia-
Rome Holds Out
Not included in the new kingdom is the Papal possession of Rome. Emperor
Napoleon I had taken the Papal States—territory in central Italy ruled by the Papacy—from
the Pope in 1809. They were restored to the Pontiff by the Congress of Vienna in
1815.
Now, the Papal States (or States of the Church) are seized by the armies of Victor Emmanuel and annexed to Italy. The Church’s temporal power is shattered! Only Rome—garrisoned by French troops—remains under Papal sovereignty. France considers herself the protector of the Papacy. Garibaldi still dreams of Rome as the capital of the new united Italy. In 1862, he raises a force to capture Rome and annex it to the Italian kingdom. But Victor Emmanuel, desirous of avoiding a conflict with France, orders his own forces to stop Garibaldi. Four years later Garibaldi tries again, but is defeated by Papal and French forces.
The time is not yet ripe for the conquest of Rome.
Enter Bismarck
Now the focus shifts to Germany. In Prussia, Otto von Bismarck becomes
prime minister and minister of foreign affairs in the autumn of 1862. He serves under
King William (Wilhelm) I, who acceded to the Prussian throne in 1861.
Bismarck was born in 1815, the year of Napoleon’s final defeat at Waterloo. He is a political genius, ultra conservative in viewpoint. From 1859 to 1862, he served as Prussian ambassador to Russia.
Bismarck’s chief ambition is to unify Germany under Prussian leadership and exclude Austria from German politics. During a short stay in London in the summer of 1862, he astonishes British statesmen by bluntly declaring that when he becomes Prussian prime minister, his first move “will be to reorganize the army with or without the help of the Diet. As soon as the army shall have been brought into such a condition as to inspire respect, I shall seize the first pretext to declare war on Austria, dissolve the German Diet, subdue the minor states, and give national unity to Germany under Prussian leadership.” Within nine years he will fulfill this program.
Iron Chancellor
At the very outset of his premiership, Bismarck stuns the world by
declaring to the Ways and Means Committee of the Prussian Diet: “The great questions
of our day cannot be solved by speeches and majority votes, but by blood and iron.”
He is thereafter popularly known as the Iron Chancellor.
Bismarck expands the Prussian military as the long-
The Seven Weeks’ War is a conflict between opposing groups of German states, one led by Austria and the other by Prussia. It culminates at the battle of Sadowa (Koniggrütz) an overwhelming Prussian victory. Austria is now excluded from participation in German affairs. Bismarck declares null and void the Constitution of the German Confederation of 1815.
New Confederation
In the wake of the Prussian victory over Austria, the North German
Confederation (Norddeutscher Bund) is formed under Prussian hegemony in 1867. It
is a union of the German states north of the Main River.
Berlin becomes the capital of this new Confederation. Bismarck writes a constitution making the Prussian king the hereditary ruler and the Prussian prime minister its chancellor. The four large southern German states of Baden, Bavaria, Saxony and Wurttemberg remain independent and are permitted to form a separate confederation. They enter into a military alliance with Prussia.
Austria’s defeat in the Seven Weeks’ War leads Austrian Emperor Franz Josef and his
government to establish a dual monarchy embracing the Empire of Austria and the Kingdom
of Hungary. It is officially known as the Austro-
Franco-
Napoleon Ill of France declares war on Prussia on July 19, 1870—just as the Iron
Chancellor had hoped. The ambitions of the two men have come to a clash. Thus begins
the Franco-
The German offensive is planned brilliantly by General Helmuth von Moltke. On September 1, 1870 Prussia defeats France at the battle of Sedan. Napoleon Ill surrenders himself to the Prussians. Paris itself is captured on January 28, 1871. The German victory marks the end of French hegemony in continental Europe. The war is concluded by the peace of Frankfurt on May 10, 1871.
Second Reich
The Franco-
On January 18, 1871, King William I of Prussia is proclaimed German Emperor (Deutscher Kaiser) in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles near Paris. North and South Germany are united into a single Reich, or Empire. Bismarck has succeeded in consolidating Germany under the Prussian Hohenzollerns!
Bismarck assumes the office of Reich Chancellor and is made a prince.
This new German Empire is called the Second Reich. (The First Reich had been inaugurated in AD. 962 with the crowning of Otto the Great as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII.) This Second Reich, born in 1871, will live 47 years (until 1918). Germany has become the dominant force in European affairs!
Prisoner Popes
With the French defeat in the Franco-
On September 20, 1870, the forces of Victor Emmanuel II enter Rome. The “Eternal City” is taken by Italian troops in the name of the Kingdom of Italy. In October, Romans vote overwhelmingly to be a come part of the Italian kingdom. Rome officially becomes the capital of a united Italy on July 2, 1871.
After 1.500 years, Rome is again the capital of Italy!
But what of the Papacy?
The Pope, Pius IX (1846-
Though weak in the temporal sphere, the Papacy is asserting its strength in the spiritual realm. Pope Pius had convoked the first Vatican Council in 1869. The next year it declared Papal infallibility as a formal article of Catholic belief. This dogma holds that when a Pope speaks officially (ex cathedra ) to the universal Church on a .doctrine of faith or morals, he cannot err. This dogma had long been held in some form, but in view of objections being made against it, the bishops in the Vatican Council thought it expedient to make clear the stand of the Church. Not all, however, are willing to submit to this newly defined and reasserted Papal authority.
Struggle for Power
The German Reich is ruled by a Protestant dynasty, the Hohenzollerns.
Bismarck seeks to strengthen the unity of the Reich by limiting the power of the
Catholic Church within Germany. He accuses Catholic elements within the Reich of
political separatism, and labels them a threat to the unified German state.
Thus begins the so-
A series of drastic laws are passed to intimidate the Catholic clergy. “What is here
at stake is a struggle for power, a struggle as old as the human race, the struggle
for power between monarchy and priesthood. That is a struggle for power which has
filled the whole of German history,” Bismarck declares.
Pope Pius dies in 1878 after
a pontificate of 32 years—the longest in the history of the Popes. But the Kulturkampf
continues, though on a lesser scale, for an other nine ears.
A major reason for the Kulturkampf had been Bismarck’s desire to create some focus
for national resentment. But with the rise of socialism, Bismarck now sees the socialists
filling that role even better. He gradually begins to rescind his anti-
New German-
The ancient ties of Italy and Germany, extending back to the days of Charlemagne and Otto the Great, are reforged. It is the prelude to an era that will arise more than a half century later under Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
Conflict and Defeat
Emperor William I dies March 9, 1888. His son and successor, Frederick
III, lives only a few months.
In June 1888, William 11 becomes Emperor of German. The new Kaiser is anxious to direct the government personally. He demands the Iron Chancellor’s resignation. After. 38 years of service, Bismarck steps down in March 1890. He retires to his castle, Friedrichsruh, near Hamburg.. The Kaiser.then sets an aggressively independent course in foreign affairs—a.course that leads eventually to war.
On June 28. 1914 Archduke Françis Ferdinand——heir to the throne of Austria-
When the guns finally fall silent on November 11, 1918, a staggering 10 million lie dead. And the German Empire lies vanquished. The abdication of the Kaiser is announced November 9. Defeated Germany is demilitarized and becomes a republic. A new German constitution is adopted at the city of Weimar.
Many German war veterans are embittered by defeat and the humiliations imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. Among them is a young Gefreiter (lance corporal) by the name of Adolf Hitler.