Episode 64 – The Reich and the Risorgimento

Relevant History

At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the victorious allied powers restore Central Europe to its pre-war status: a bunch of small, semi-independent German and Italian states, dominated by more powerful neighbors. But the idea of nationalism, spread by Napoleon’s armies, is a genie you can’t put back in the bottle.

In the German Confederation, 38 tiny countries try to establish their legitimacy, but are overshadowed by the Austrian Empire in the south and the Kingdom of Prussia in the north. Without a clear path to political nationalization, German intellectuals instead focus on building a unified German culture.

In Italy, revolutionaries like Giuseppe Mazzini openly call for Risorgimento – a resurgence of Italian national identity. Drawing their inspiration from ancient Rome, these young revolutionaries will spend an entire generation battling to overthrow their Austrian overlords while avoiding French domination.

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Episode transcript (90% accurate): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r7N2KkmrRtrPBJliHzEkkKlmEsGtk8c8NzWI03eRn7A/pub

Music credit: Sergey Cheremisinov - Black Swan

SOURCES:

David Blackbourn, The Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany 1780-1918 – https://www.scribd.com/document/261666797/Long-Nineteenth-Century-History-of-Germany-1780-1918-the-David-Blackbourn

Tim Chapman, The Risorgimento: Italy 1815-71 – https://read.amazon.com/?asin=B003SNK19G&ref_=dbs_t_r_kcr

Gordon A. Craig, Germany 1866-1945

Friedrich Engels, Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany – https://archive.org/details/germanyrevolutio00enge_0

Erich Eyck, Bismarck and the German Empire

Giuseppe Garibaldi, Autobiography of Giuseppe Garibaldi – https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofg0003gari/page/4/mode/2up

Giuseppe Mazzini, Address to Pope Pius IX, On His Encyclical Letter – https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=YURTAAAAcAAJ&pg=GBS.PP4&hl=en

Jürgen Osterhammel, The Transformation of the World, A Global History of the Nineteenth Century – https://www.everand.com/read/261688401/The-Transformation-of-the-World-A-Global-History-of-the-Nineteenth-Century

Alan Palmer, Twilight of the Habsburgs: The Life and Times of Emperor Francis Joseph – https://archive.org/details/twilightofhabsbu0000palm

Pope Pius IX, Non Semel (Italian) – https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-ix/it/documents/allocuzione-non-semel-29-aprile-1848.html

Mike Rapport, 1848, Year of Revolution

Denis Mack Smith, The Making of Italy, 1796-1870 – https://archive.org/details/makingofitaly1790000mack/page/n3/mode/2up

Denis Mack Smith, Modern Italy, A Political History

Nick Svendsen, The First Schleswig-Holstein War 1848-50 – https://www.everand.com/read/402302021/The-First-Schleswig-Holstein-War-1848-50