Deck 13: The Global Consolidation of Large Nation-States, 1859-1871

Question 1

Before the nation-state became the standard political model around 1860-1870, the characteristic European political organization was/were

A) federal states like Switzerland and the United States.
B) either small states comprising fragments of a nation or large empires made up of diverse peoples.
C) nation-states like France and Britain.
D) city-states and religiously-based countries, such as the Holy Roman Empire and the papal states.

Answer 1

either small states comprising fragments of a nation or large empires made up of diverse peoples.

Question 2

Cavour embraced the new realism, which meant he

A) worked with republicans, even if he didn't approve of their goals.
B) encouraged Mazzini to conduct a kind of guerrilla warfare in the south of Italy.
C) worked to obtain British military support against Austria.
D) encouraged the republican Orsinis to try to assassinate Napoleon III.

Answer 2

worked with republicans, even if he didn't approve of their goals.

Question 3

The 1859 defeat of the Austrians at the battles of Magenta and Solferino was followed by

A) Prussia sending an army across the Rhine into France.
B) Austria ceding Venice and Milan to Piedmont.
C) a nationalist revolution, which spread through much of northern and central Italy.
D) the reluctant agreement of the pope to cede the papal state to Piedmont.

Answer 3

a nationalist revolution, which spread through much of northern and central Italy.

Question 4

Otto von Bismarck was all of the following except

A) a German nationalist.
B) a Prussian monarchist.
C) sympathetic to the Junkers.
D) anti-liberal.

Question 5

In 1862, Bismarck began to wage a four-year struggle with the Prussian parliament over the question _of

A) increased appropriations for the army.
B) the king's rights in matters of foreign policy.
C) the question of German unification.
D) the tax-exempt status of the Junkers.

Question 6

In a famous speech, Bismarck asserted that the great questions of the day would be settled by "blood and iron" rather than by

A) diplomacy.
B) speeches and majority votes.
C) nationalism.
D) a successful policy of dynastic marriage alliances.

Question 7

How did the socialists (mainly followers of Lassalle) react to the 1867 formation of the North German Confederation?

A) The majority condemned it, boycotting the new parliament.
B) The majority accepted it, but boycotted the parliament as long as the unscrupulous Bismarck remained chancellor.
C) The bulk of the socialists accepted it after Bismarck promised to institute democratic voting rights.
D) Most denounced it, demanding a new Frankfurt-style assembly to draw up a constitution for Germany.

Question 8

The Franco-Prussian war was provoked by which of the following?

A) Napoleon III wanted to put his cousin on the Spanish throne.
B) Napoleon III wanted to annex the Rhineland.
C) Bismarck publicized an incident that angered both the French and Prussians.
D) The Prussian ambassador in Paris snubbed the French emperor.

Question 9

The central issue in the Habsburg empire after 1848 was

A) the struggle for democracy.
B) nationalism and national self-determination.
C) the creation of a liberal, parliamentary regime.
D) socialism and the labor movement.

Question 10

Emancipation of the Russian serfs in 1861 resulted in

A) the peasantry obtaining more than three-quarters of the land.
B) the undermining of the gentry's financial position.
C) rather than private property.
D) the distribution of all land in full ownership to the peasants, but in tiny, economically inefficient parcels.

Question 11

In their proud insistence on states' rights and constitutional liberties, their aristocratic and warlike codes of ethics, their demand for independence from outside influence and for freedom in ruling their own subject peoples, the southern U.S. whites, prior to the Civil War, resembled

A) the French.
B) the Magyars.
C) the Prussians.
D) the Italians.

Question 12

The last serious European attempt to colonize or subjugate additional parts of the New World was

A) Spain's landing of troops in northern Puerto Rico in 1862.
B) Denmark's acquisition of the Virgin Islands in 1865.
C) Britain's temporary occupation of Cuba during the Civil War.
D) Napoleon III's 1864 creation of a puppet empire in Mexico.

Question 13

The American Civil War

A) ended the idea of the United States as a confederation of states.
B) resolved sectional differences.
C) put an end to the "racial question" until the twentieth century.
D) ended slavery with compensation to former slave owners.

Question 14

The Tokugawa shogunate

A) pursued international trade relations with Europeans.
B) instituted democratic institutions similar to western parliaments.
C) oppressed the merchant class.
D) established peace and pursued policies of isolation from western influences.

Question 15

During the nineteenth century the Japanese adopted all the following westernizing policies except

A) the recasting of their criminal law along western lines.
B) the encouragement of the growth of Christianity.
C) the creation of a navy modeled on Britain's.
D) the establishment of a new army, modeled on Prussia's.

Question 16

The westernization of Japan was

A) the culmination of a long period of modernization.
B) history's most remarkable transformation ever undergone by a people in so short a time.
C) notable as a deliberate and successful attempt to rid Japanese culture of the elements that made it distinctly Japanese.
D) limited to the areas of industry and finance.

Question 17

In the two centuries before Perry's 1853 arrival, Japan allowed which of the following Europeans to reside in Japan and trade with it?

A) the Spanish.
B) the Portuguese.
C) the British.
D) the Dutch.

Question 18

Compare and contrast Bismarck's and Cavour's methods of achieving unification.

Question 19

Why did the Italian struggle for unification succeed in 1859 when it had failed so miserably in 1848-1849?

Question 20

How important was Napoleon III as a catalyst for the unification of Italy and Germany? Without his presence would either of these developments have occurred so quickly?

Question 21

Compare and contrast the reform and modernization of Japan during the Meiji era with the reforms of the Tsar Liberator, Alexander II. What were the underlying reasons for each set of reforms?

Question 22

What role did economic factors play in the unification of Italy and Germany?

Question 23

What factors led to the great Russian reforms of the 1860s and 1870s? Why did these reforms dissatisfy many people?

Question 24

What factors enabled Japan in the late nineteenth century to westernize successfully and to avoid European colonialism?

Question 25

How were separatist movements thwarted in both the U.S. and Canada?

Question 26

Why did Garibaldi compromise with Cavour in 1860?

Question 27

What provoked the Franco-Prussian War? How was the conflict resolved?

Question 28

How far-reaching was the Act of Emancipation in transforming Russian society?

Question 29

What did the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. constitution guarantee? How was it primarily used after the American Civil War?

Question 30

Describe the class divisions of Japanese society. Did modernization transform those divisions?

Question 31

How was Italy unified? Compare that process to the formation of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary.

Question 32

Which groups resisted consolidation in Canada and the United States? Why? How did the British and the Union preserve unity?

Question 33

How did Prussian militarism facilitate German unification? Evaluate Bismarck's role in the process of German unification.

Question 34

Why did the movement to create a unified Germany give rise to opposing nationalist groups?

Question 35

From 1871-1914, Europe had fewer separate states than at any other time in its history. Where do you anticipate conflict would arise between states by the end of that period?

Question 36

How did European leaders pursue strategies of centralism in the late nineteenth century? Were such strategies effective in overcoming nationalist tendencies within large states?

Question 37

Did Japan face the same obstacles to unification found in Europe? Compare the process of unification in the islands to the experiences of regions like Italy or Austria-Hungary.

Question 38

How did Japan become a modern nation-state in the Meiji era?