Bismarck and unification of germany 1848-71

Got it! Pretty much atleast. I'm going to put all those points together and build a cohesive answer and post later, i'm only up because i'm currently tackling Russia 1900-1924 = )

Fun!
Not.

I have 5 days till take off!! And then only a week gap till I have another 3 hour history exam + a Literature one.

I figure to make the biggest effort now to make up for slacking and all the debauchery this year!

Arghhhhhh, I was just doing a practise paper, 15mins in, I suddenly started panicking. I can't get the timing right, I'm waffling too much, not really answering the question... deep breaths Dan, deep breaths...

I'm getting a tad nervous, I think I know the stuff okay, but my exam technique seems pretty crummy.

Why did the attempts to promote German unity at Frankfurt in 1848-49 fail?

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That was the panicky essay, I did it in about 20mins (a bit over the amount you should spend). What do people think? Shall I phone up Notts now and say they needn't worry about my accommodation?

"A third failure of the parliament was the divorce between its deputies and the rioters. This was demonstrated by the Schleswig-Holstein crisis. This was when German nationalists rebelled in these Danish duchies and called for the Frankfurt Parliament to liberate them. Arguably however, the Parliament did not fail in this area - it simply had no effectual means of conveying support to the Nationalists. At the time, the Parliament was a much more symbolic feature of the limited Prussian 'democracy' when in actual fact the real decision to support the Nationalists would be the King and his ministers. The parliament initially supported them and asked Prussia to send troops in. However, this angered Great Britain and so Prussia was forced to withdraw and an armistice. When the parliament supported Prussia's move (it did not want to anger Prussia), radicals called for demonstrations against the parliaments decision. Prussian troops had to be called in to disperse the rioters. Therefore, the parliament had to be protected from the people it claimed to support. This divorce between the parliament and the people is another key factor for its failure - it showed it had lost its moral authority."

Hey guys, i wrote this essay and would like you to help me improve it. My teacher said it is worth a high grade C.

How far were the failures of 1848-49 due to the weaknesses of the Frankfurt Parliament? (40)

The aim of the Frankfurt Parliament when it was set up in 1848 was to promote greater unity in Germany. However, Germany was not politically united in 1848 due to a variety of factors, not solely just due to the weaknesses of the Frankfurt Parliament. Amongst these factors was King Frederick’s rejection of the FP.

One of the main reasons why the Frankfurt Parliament could not exert its authority over Germany was because it spent so long deciding over the constitution. During the majority of 1848 the Parliament was preoccupied deciding the Basic Human Rights of German citizens and other insignificant issues rather than acting directly to address the real problems of 1848. Hence, the problems of starvation, rising rents and inflation due to the 1846 potato blight/crop failure were not addressed. This led to lack of support from workers in towns and also farmers in the countryside. With no support from the working class majority-the 1848 revolution failed. Thus, in effect, although lack of support from German states was a reason for the 1848-49 failures, their lack of support stemmed from the weaknesses of the FP itself.

If the FP had dealt with the economic problems of 1848 well then perhaps they could have gained more support from citizens of the German states and from the leaders of the German states too, thus leading to a more united Germany under the rule of the FP. However, the FP found it difficult to deal with the economic problems and social unrest because they were weak and so could not raise taxes to resolve the issues. Also, with no funding, they could not make up an army to enforce the laws passed, thus leading to less centralised power. Hence, this issue of lack of funding and weakness of the FP led to the failure of being able to unite Germany in 1848.

These short-term factors of the weaknesses of the FP itself and also of the lack of support of the FP itself by members of the German states were also contributed to by other conditional factors that led to the failures in 1848-49.

The underlying issue of why the FP could not simply unite Germany in 1848-49 was due to the rivalry between Austria and Prussia for dominance in Germany. Furthermore, the revival of the Austrian King Franz Josef and also of the Prussian King Frederick William IV in 1848 meant that the unity of Germany by the FP would be virtually impossible because members of each state were now politically divided. Also, the two major powers posed a threat to the work of the FP.

In conclusion, although the Frankfurt Parliament was a main factor as to why the failures of 1848-49 occurred as they spent most of 1848 debating over the constitution and whether Germany should be a Grossdeutschland (including Austria in Prussia) or Kleindeutschland (excluding Austria from Prussia). Hence, the Parliament missed their opportunity to unite Germany at this stage. Then, with the revival of Austria and Prussia as the two great powers of Germany in 1848 and the returning of each of their Kings, FP had no hope left of politically uniting Prussia and Austria. Furthermore, King Frederick William IV refused to accept the crown of the FP, hence vanishing all hopes of uniting Germany. If he had accepted the crown of the FP then Germany would have been united under Prussian rule.

Overall, although the weaknesses of the FP were a major factor in contributing to the failures of the 1848-49 revolutions, other reasons were to blame. For example, the refusal of King Frederick William 4 to accept the crown led to further disunity of Germany. Also the revival of Austria and Prussia strengthened the leading states, hence leading to the further disunity of Germany.

Less than 24 hours to go!

How is everyone feeling?

I'd like 'Why was Bismarck appointed in 1862? (20)' and 'How important was factor X in Prussia leading Germany to unification in 1871? (40)'. That'd be a pretty perfect question for me.

^ I've been looking at that question too. I'm not sure what to put other than the Zollverein.

Lets hope it doesn't come up

^^^ Remember Prussia territories had coal and iron and fuels that they could make plenty of money off. This led to railways being built which gave Prussia significant advantage because of communication and transporting troops.

Bloody hell, the books/handouts I have don't have any of this stuff

I keep going through periods of confidence, but then I'll look at a question I don't like the look of, or read a mark scheme for a previous year, where it mentions stuff I've never heard of, and I'll suddenly go into depression mode Arghhhhh.

I'll try to remember the questions & post them up here.