Review Questions on the Unification of Italy and Germany
1) Who was the Prime Minister of Piedmont Sardinia? How did he accomplish the
independence of northern Italy? (Camillo di Cavour/He received help from
France to oust Austria from most of northern Italy).
2) What is Giuseppe Garibaldi known for? (hero of the Italian “Risorgimento”
who liberated the Kingdom of Two Sicilies and then brought these under the
rule of a constitutional monarch, King Victor Emmanuel II).
3) How were Italy’s and Germany’s struggles for unification similar? (both
involved military campaigns against Austria)
4) Why did Italy face problems after unification? (because of tensions between the
industrial north and agricultural south)
5) What means did Bismarck favor to achieve German unification? (military means
i.e. “iron and blood”). What term best describes Bismarck’s foreign policy?
(realpolitik or realistic politics).
6) In what ways were the actions of Bismarck similar to Cavour and Garibaldi?
(they resulted in the ultimate unification of their countries and establishment
of a national identity).
7) What was the result of the Franco-Prussian War? (Germany was finally united
under Kaiser Wilhelm I’s Second Reich while France lost war reparations
and the territory of Alsace Lorraine. This created hatred between the two
nations. /
8) What concern would Bismarck have about the geographic location of Germany?
(It is surrounded on almost all sides by potentially hostile countries).
9) How and why did the balance of power shift in Europe between the beginning and
the end of the 19th century? (Napoleon’s France was the dominant power in
Europe at the beginning of the 19th century before the defeat of his armies.
By the end of the 19th century a united Germany with its military power and
Britain with its naval power and large empire were the major powers).