History Western Civ 2: Lesson 105 Essay – (1) “What were the key steps in the process of Italian unification?” (2) “What were the key steps in the process of German unification?”

    Count Camillo di Cavour became the prime minister of Piedmont, an Italian state, in the early 1850’s.  He contributed 15,000 troops to the anti-Russian side of the Crimean War in order to gain favor with France.  Austria launched a war on Piedmont, but the French assisted the Piedmontese in crushing the Austrians, so Piedmont gained Lombardy.  Piedmont created fraudulent plebiscites in northern Italy in order to convince people that these areas wanted to join Piedmont in unifying Italy.  Garibaldi, a retired war general, took over some parts of southern Italy, then proceeded to give these to Piedmont.  Piedmont claimed Venetia and the Papal States, excluding the Vatican, to finalize the unification of Italy.

    The primary person who unified Germany, Otto Von Bismark, became the prime minister of Prussia in 1862.  Austria and Prussia teamed up and took two territories from Denmark, each kept one.  Then Prussia went to war with Austria and claimed the territory that Austria had previously won, as well as forcing Austria to stay out of this new unified Germany.  Prussia then went to war with France and won a territory.  This victory motivated the southern states of Germany to support Bismark, which pretty much completed the German unification.

History Western Civilization: Lesson 170 Essay- (1) “Discuss the rise and fall of Girolamo Savanarola.” (2) “Discuss the Italian War of 1494-1498.” (3) “Discuss some of the significant aspects of the reign of Louis XI.”

You wouldn’t have expected Girolamo Savanarola to come to power because he was anti-Renaissance and the Renaissance was the new popular thing to participate in. Girolamo’s rise to power came from his ability to speak so well that he could convince Renaissance artists that the Renaissance was bad. He created a new constitution and then came to power in Florence. Girolamo tried to get everyone to live a perfectly moral life like him. At first people liked this until their moral views came into conflict with his and they could be charged as criminals. People also lost faith in him because he was trying to create another Western Schism and he would not always follow through with his religious claims and prophecies. Eventually, the people executed him.

French King Charles VIII pursued his claim to Naples by invading Italy. He was successful and cheered on by Milan, an enemy of Naples. Charles VIII started to win so much that even Milan got scared, so all the Italian city states formed an alliance. Eventually, Charles VIII was driven out.

Louis XI was a French King who had lots of spies. He wanted to centralize the government in France as much as possible. Louis XI did not like feudalism. He wanted to be the only monarch and he wanted everyone to owe him direct allegiance. His main goal was to centralize power in the French government.