America, France, Haiti, Latin America,

America, France, Haiti, Latin America, Italy and Germany

The Formation of Nation-States: Italy and Germany

In Italy, Napoleon founded many nation-states, but when the French Emperor was defeated in 1815 these states quickly collapsed. After that, the country was ruled by monarchs that were much more conservative, such as Charles Albert and Victor Emmanuel I. In 1830, the Kingdom of Sardinia was formed and in 1848 a Constitution was created. There was a lot of political instability seen, however, and eventually Sardinia became the main driving force toward unifying Italy. The unification of Italy was not easy, however, nor did it happen quickly. It took a great deal of time and effort for Italy to finally become what it is today. The growing pains it went through served a purpose, though, in that they made the country stronger and taught the people about adversity.

In the northern part of Italy, there was industrialization and modernization taking place toward the latter part of the 19th century. This was largely due to the protectionist regime that was in place at the time. In the southern part of Italy there was underdevelopment and overpopulation which stagnated that area of the country. This forced millions of individuals to leave the country, or at least that part of the country, and search for better life conditions and employment in other areas. Most of them would leave the country for this instead of only going to northern Italy, and most of these individuals would never return. This lasted until around 1970, and estimates say that almost 26 million people left Italy in order to find better days in other countries. Primarily, these people went to Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, France, and Germany. Many people also went to Brazil, Australia, Argentina, Canada, and the United States in search of employment.

In contrast to Italy, Germany had much religious fighting in its history. However, it, too, formed many of its nation-states after the fall of Napoleon. Once he was out of power many of the countries of the world changed quite drastically and began to re-form themselves into different nations than they were before Napoleon's fall. In 1871 Germany was official created as a nation-state. This was the year that the German Empire was forged and the Kingdom of Prussia was the largest constituent. The capital was (and still is) Berlin, and the Hohenzollern dynasty of Prussia ruled the empire. All of the scattered parts of the German Empire was unified at that time with the exception of Austria. It was often called "Lesser Germany," but kept itself separate from any unification with Germany. In 1884, Germany began to establish other colonies that are outside of Europe.

Following unification, the Emperor, William I, had a foreign policy that helped to secure the position that Germany had as one of the great nations. This was done largely by the forging of various alliances, the avoidance of war, and the isolating of France through diplomatic means. Under the next Emperor, William II, Germany took a more imperialistic course that led to a lot of friction with many of the neighboring countries, which was similar to the course that other European powers also took. After this took place the alliances that Germany had with various countries were not renewed by those countries, and when new alliances were created they did not include Germany in them.

France, specifically, was one of the countries that did not renew any alliances with Germany, and many other European countries followed suit. With the exception of Hungary and Austria, Germany found itself more and more alone. During this period of time Germany was reaching out and taking over parts of Africa, as were many other countries in Europe. However, this was causing a lot of tension between the larger powers in Europe and because of that problems were growing. It is believed that some of this tension between countries might have been what helped to contribute to the start of the First World War. Eventually, the treaty of Versailles brought an end to WWI, and Germany was forced to sign it.

As can be seen, Italy and Germany had many changes in their past. Some of them were similar, such as the fact that many changes took place after the fall of Napoleon, but other changes were very different between the two countries. Where Italy was very divided between the north and the south, Germany was united and moving into other countries as well. The taking over of some of Africa indicated that Germany was exercising its power and trying to become more dominant throughout the world. Unfortunately for that country this largely backfired and other countries did not want to maintain alliances with Germany because of the attitude it displayed.