Key Concept 3.4
European states struggled to maintain interna:onal stability in an age of nationalism and revolutions.
The Concert of Europe (or Congress System) sought to maintain the status quo through collective ac:on and adherence to conservatism.
Metternich, architect of the Concert of Europe, used it to suppress nationalist and liberal revolutions.
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Conservatives re-established control in many European states and attempted to suppress movements
for change and, in some areas, to strengthen adherence to religious authorities. |
In the first half of the 19th century, revolutionaries attempted to destroy the status quo.
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The revolutions of 1848 challenged the conservative order and led to the breakdown of the Concert of Europe.
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The breakdown of the Concert of Europe opened the door for movements of national unification in Italy and Germany, as well as liberal reforms elsewhere.
The Crimean War demonstrated the weakness of the Ottoman Empire and contributed to the breakdown of the Concert of Europe, thereby creating the conditions in which Italy and Germany could be unified after centuries of fragmentation.
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A new breed of conservative leaders, including Napoleon III, Cavour, and Bismarck, co-opted the agenda of nationalists for the purposes of creating or strengthening the state.
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In Russia, autocratic leaders pushed through a program of reform and modernization, which gave rise to revolutionary movements and eventually to the Revolution of 1905.
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The unification of Italy and Germany transformed the European balance of power and led to efforts to construct a new diplomatic order.
Cavour's Realpolitik strategies, combined with the popular Garibaldi's military campaigns, led to the unification of Italy.
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Bismarck employed diplomacy, industrialized warfare and weaponry, and the manipulation of democratic mechanisms to unify Germany.
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After 1871 Bismarck attempted to maintain the balance of power through a complex system of alliances.
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Bismarck's dismissal in 1890 eventually led to a system of mutually antagonistic alliances and heightened international tensions.
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Nationalist tensions in the Balkans drew the Great Powers into a series of crises leading up to World War I.
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