The Brothers Grimm
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were born in Germany in 1785 and 1786. The brothers were very close friends even though they had very different personalities. Wilhelm was easygoing, while Jacob was difficult and introverted. For most of their lives, they worked in the same room, at facing desks. They both studied law with the goal of becoming lawyers, like their father. However, during their studies Napoleon ruled over Germany and the Brothers became more interested in studying German heritage and culture. The Brothers became librarians because this job allowed them to do research and write books. A large part of their work was traveling across Germany and going into villages to hear the oral stories that had been told by people for generations. The Brothers saw themselves as saving the German folk tradition by writing down these stories and showing that the villages of Germany had a common culture of shared stories. They hoped to show that German culture was just as strong as those of England and France. Their type of research and books inspired other nationalistic researchers in Russia, Ireland and other parts of Europe. The Brothers Grimm published their first book of fairy tales, “Nursery and Household Tales” in 1812 – at the same time that Napoleon was beginning his disastrous invasion of Russia.
The Brothers also supported democracy. In 1837, they opposed the king of Hanover (one of the territories that would become Germany) who ignored the constitution in order to take more power for himself. As a result, they lost their jobs as professors at the local university. However, by this point many German nationalists supported the work of the brothers and they gave the brothers the financial support to continue their research. Jacob Grimm was elected to be part of the Frankfurt National Assembly which met in 1848 to form a united Germany. This group failed to form a united Germany, but it was an important part of the process in building a united Germany.
Later in their lives, the brothers began the process of writing a German dictionary that would “contain the endless richness of our fatherland’s language”. This dictionary was more than a list of words. Their dictionary was also a history of the German language and explained the grammatical rules of the language. The first volume took 16 years to write and it was incomplete at the time of the Brothers deaths – it was finished by their students.
Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini was born in northern Italy when it was under the control of Napoleon’s French Empire. As a young man, he worked on the cause of Italian independence. He worked as a political activist and writer to organize Italians into a nationalist group. Mazzini was forced into exile in 1831 because of his revolutionary activities. While he was not in Italy, he began to recruit followers and organize uprisings against the rulers of the various Italian states. Mazzini’s goal was to make Italy a united, democratic country. He formed a group called Giovine Italia (Young Italy) which was the leader of the movement to unite Italy.
In 1848, when news of the successful revolutions across Italy reached in him, Mazzini returned to Italy and was welcomed as a hero. However, many of the Italian leaders were divided about whether Italy should be a democracy or a monarchy. Mazzini was elected to be a leader in a new democratic government in the city of Rome, the capital of Italy. Unfortunately, the division between the Italian leaders was too great and Italy was too weak. Both Austria and France invaded Italy and crushed the rebellions across Italy. After this, Mazzini left Italy and returned to his work of trying to organize Italian nationalists. However, after this, his influence began to fade. He was opposed to the final unification of Italy under king Victor Emmanuel because it was a monarchy. He continued to struggle for democracy until he died in 1872.
Giuseppe Garibaldi
When Garibaldi was born in northern Italy in 1807, it was ruled by Napoleon as part of his French Empire. As a young man, he worked as a sea captain until he got involved in Mazzini’s “Young Italy” movement in the 1830’s. He was forced to flee Italy after being involved in a nationalistic rebellion. During this time, he lived in South America where he fought in rebel movements in Uruguay and Brazil. Garibaldi took the idea of the red shirt as a uniform for his army, the Red Shirts, from the South American cowboys. While Garibaldi was in South America he stayed in touch with his revolutionary colleague, Mazzini, who was living in England.
When revolutions broke out in Italy in 1848, Garibaldi returned from South America with 60 loyal fighters who he called the "Italian Legion". He fought to defend Mazzini’s government (the one he was the head of) in Rome against the French, but in the end he was defeated. This time he fled Italy and lived in the United States for a few years and worked again as a sea captain.
In the 1850’s, Garibaldi returned to Italy and lived on a small farm. However, he remained active in politics and in 1860, he formed a new army, the ‘Thousand Red Shirts” and invaded the Italian island of Sicily. After conquering the island, he led the army onto the Italian mainland, at the toe in the boot of Italy. From there, his army march north, capturing the entire south of Italy. At this point, in order to bring about a peaceful unification of Italy, Garibaldi turned over the land he conquered to King Victor Emmanuelle, who ruled over most of northern Italy. This made Emmanuelle the king of the united country of Italy. After this, Garibaldi returned to his farm.
The only part of Italy that was not part of country was the city of Rome. Rome was always seen as the capital of Italy, but at this point it was controlled by the French, who kept an army in the city. Garibaldi tried to seize Rome in the mid-1860s, but he failed and he was captured three times and sent back to his farm. It was only France was defeated in a war by Germany in 1871 that the Italian government got control of Rome, and Italy was finally united. In the last years of his life, Garibaldi was considered a national hero and was honored by the Italian government.
Otto von Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck was born to a noble family in the country of Prussia in 1815. He was a rebellious child and was not a good student because he was a heavy drinker with no real direction in life. However, in his early 30's he went through a transformation and became a serious person and became involved in politics. During the 1850's and early 1860's, he worked as a diplomat representing the government of Prussia in dealing with the governments of Russia, Austria and France.
Kaiser Wilhelm, the Prussian king, wanted to build a larger army and make Prussia a major power in Europe. He chose Bismarck to lead the government. Bismarck used the power of the government to achieve Wilhelm’s goals and famously said that German unification would “not be decided by speeches and resolutions of majorities… but by blood and iron.” In saying this, Bismarck showed he was willing to use military power to expand Prussia and create the united country of Germany.
Bismarck used his diplomatic skills to start a war with Denmark and then one with Austria. The stronger Prussian army quickly won both wars. By winning, they got more lands and became a larger kingdom. These wars increased Bismarck’s own power. Next, Bismarck tricked Napoleon III, the Emperor of France, into declaring war on Prussia. The Prussian army captured Napoleon III after the first major battle of the war and surrounded the French capital of France until the French surrendered in 1871. The French were very bitter over this loss and would spend the next several decades trying to get revenge on Germany (including in the world wars). The French were also angry that Bismarck had Kaiser Wilhelm crowned the Emperor of Germany at the Palace of Versailles (Louis XIV’s palace) while the Prussian army was attacking Paris.
After defeating France, Prussia became the German Empire. From 1871 to from 1890, Bismarck ruled over a unified Germany, modernizing its government and transforming it into an industrialized society. Bismarck created a government that looked like a democracy, with representatives elected by the German people, but was really a monarchy with all the power held by the King. However, when the king, Wilhelm, died in 1888, the king’s son, Wilhelm II, became king. Wilhelm II did not like Bismarck and was able to force Bismarck to retire early. Wilhelm II, who was inexperienced and cocky, messed up all of the systems that Bismarck had created to keep peace in Europe, and thereby set the stage for World War I.
Klemens von Metternich
Metternich was born to a noble family in Austria in 1773. As a young man he served as the Austrian ambassador to Prussia, Russia and France. During that time he had a complicated relationship with Napoleon – he would argue with Napoleon and was even arrested by Napoleon. But at the same time, he also arranged Napoleon’s marriage to the sister of the Austrian Emperor. In 1809, the Austrian Emperor made Metternich Foreign Minister for Austria. In this position, Metternich worked with Napoleon in his (disastrous) preparations to attack Russia. Metternich told Russia that Austria would side with Russia if Russia was invaded by Napoleon. After Napoleon was defeated by Russia, Austria joined Russia in an alliance against Napoleon – resulting in Napoleon's final defeat.
After Napoleon was defeated, all of the leaders of Europe got together at a meeting to discuss how to prevent democracy from spreading and how to put Europe back together. Metternich was the leader of this meeting. Metternich hated the democratic ideas of the French Revolution and thought that nationalism was dangerous. He believed that these ideas were responsible for the violence of the Reign of Terror and the decade of war caused by Napoleon. He thought that only traditional monarchs could prevent this violence. Metternich made sure that the peace treaties made at the meeting would make every country a monarchy. He also set up a system where the monarchs would work together to prevent revolution and prevent nationalism. The governments often used military power to crush nationalistic rebellions. This system kept peace in Europe and this period was called the “Age of Metternich”.
While Metternich’s system was successful for several decades, it could not stop the idea of nationalism. In 1848, a series of nationalist rebellions swept across Europe, overthrowing governments. These rebellions hurt Austria and Metternich was forced to resign his position as Foreign Minister and flee to England. The Austrian empire was thrown into chaos by non-Austrians, such as the Hungarians, Czech and Polish people rebelling to create their own countries. In the end, the Austrians needed the help of the Russians to stop the rebellions. Though the rebellions would stop, they would continue to cause problems for Austria until World War I. Metternich returned to Austria in 1851 and took a position advising the new king until he died in 1859.