Balkan War

• Congress of Vienna


  After the Napoleonic Wars, several European forces convened in Vienna to reorganize European territories
• Concert of Europe


  • European rulers moved to restore the old order and achieve peaceful coexistence, acting as the predominant goal of the Great Powers
  • Conservatism and Liberalism
• Old Order


  • Legitimacy - Restoration of legitimate monarchs to preserve traditional institutions
  • Conservatism - Favored obedience to political authority and organized religions, believing that organized religion was crucial to social order - Supported by hereditary monarchs, government bureaucracies, landowning aristocracies, and revived churches of both the Protestants and Catholics
  • Intervention - The Concert of Europe agreed to send in armies to countries with revolutionary upheavals
• Liberalism


  Stands on the belief that humans would be "free from restraints as possible" and focuses on protection of civil liberties and civil rights - Owed much to the eighteenth-century Enlightenment and the American and French Revolutions, establishing the idea that people should be as free from restraint as possible - Adopted by middle-class men as a political philosophy
• Nationalism


  A powerful ideology for change, arising out of an awareness of being part of a community that has common institutions, traditions, language, and customs, constituting as a "nation"
• Revolutions of 1848


  1. France - The masses called for the lowering of property requirements to vote. As a result, Louis-Philippe was overthrown and the Second Republic under Louis Napoleon was inaugurated

  2. Germany - An all-German Frankfurt Assembly prepared a constitution for a Unified Germany. However, the members failed to convince German rulers to accept their constitution

  3. Austria - Demonstrations led to the dismissal of Metternich. Unfortunately, the Hungarian government was given a separate legislature and army; eventually, the Hungarian Revolution was crushed

  4. Italy - Italy was largely under the control of Austrian rule; a new movement called for a Unified Italy. Unfortunately though, Austria re-established the Old Order in Lombardy and Venetia
• Balkans


  Territorial division or geographical area in southeastern Europe, taking its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the whole of Bulgaria
• Eastern Question


  Russia and Austria took active interest in the declining Ottoman Empire. Russia then annexed several territories in the Empire
• Crimean War


  Britain and France, fearful of Russian gains in the Balkans, declared a war on Russia. This led to the fall of the Concert of Europe
• Unification of Italy


  1. King Victor Emmanuel II pronounced Count Camillo di Cavour as prime minister, who pursued a policy of economic expansion that increased government revenues and enabled Piedmont to equip a large army, proposing modernization plans for Piedmont. Napoleon III of France saw this as an opportunity and signed up as an ally to Cavour

  2. In 1859, Piedmont provoked Austria in declaring war. Much to the latter's dismay, they lost, and Piedmont gained control of Lombardy

  3. By 1860, in southern Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi, a dedicated Italian patriot, organized the Red Shirt Army to sweep through Sicily and cross over the mainland to march up to the Italian Peninsula

  4. Eventually, the Kingdom of Italy was declared
• Unification of Germany


  1. After the failure of the Frankfurt Assembly, the Germans are now looking into Austria or Prussia as leaders of the new unified Germany

  2. King William I of Prussia appointed Bismarck as Prime Minister. He is known for his realist politics which is later on known as realpolitik

  3. Bismarck encouraged Prussia and Austria to fight Denmark to take control over the territories Schleswig and Holstein in Northern Germany

  4. The French lost against Prussia, and Napoleon III and his army was captured

  5. Fearing France's possible attacks on the Southern German States, Bismarck goaded France into war with Prussia

  6. Austria and Prussia went into war with one another over the contested territories. Prussia won the war and had control over the German Kingdoms

  7. By 1871, the German Empire was declared in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles
• European State


  • In the West, there was a growth of Political Democracy - Two-Party System in Britain, Trade Unions, French Parliament
  • In the East, there was a persistence of the Old Order - Authoritarian rule continued under William II in Germany, Emperor Francis Joseph largely ignored the Parliament in Austria-Hungary, Nicholas II relied on his autocratic regime to rule over Russia
• Kaiser Wilhelm II dismissed Bismarck
• Russia was once in the Triple Alliance


  Before moving to the Triple Entente
• The Triple Alliance included Germany, Austria, and Italy, while the Triple Entente included Russia, France, and Britain
• Balkan Crisis


  In 1912-1913, the Balkan Crisis were two successive military conflicts that deprived the Ottoman Empire of almost all its territory in Europe