19th-Century Political Perspectives Flashcards

At the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815), the principle of "legitimacy" championed by Talleyrand and Metternich was chiefly used to justify which outcome?

Answer: Restoring hereditary ruling dynasties displaced by the French Revolution and Napoleon

Legitimacy meant returning the rightful hereditary monarchs, such as the Bourbons in France, to their thrones. This was meant to restore stability after two decades of upheaval.

The Carlsbad Decrees of 1819, issued under the influence of Klemens von Metternich, were primarily intended to do which of the following?

Answer: Suppress liberal and nationalist agitation by censoring the press and monitoring universities

The decrees, adopted in the German Confederation, imposed press censorship and supervision of universities and banned radical student societies (Burschenschaften). They were a conservative response to liberal and nationalist activism.

Which of the following best describes the Zollverein, established under Prussian leadership beginning in 1834?

Answer: A customs union that removed internal tariffs among German states and increased Prussian economic influence

The Zollverein eliminated tariff barriers among participating German states, promoting trade and economic integration. Because it excluded Austria, it enhanced Prussia's leadership in Germany.

The Frankfurt Parliament of 1848–1849 failed to unify Germany in part because

Answer: Frederick William IV of Prussia refused the imperial crown offered by an assembly of elected representatives

Frederick William IV rejected the crown offered in 1849, saying he would not accept a crown from the people rather than from the princes. Without Prussian support, the assembly collapsed.

Which statement best characterizes Camillo di Cavour's approach to Italian unification?

Answer: He used diplomacy and alliances, including cooperation with Napoleon III, to expand Piedmont-Sardinia's power in Italy

Cavour, prime minister of Piedmont-Sardinia, pursued pragmatic diplomacy and secured French help against Austria, leading to Piedmont's gains in 1859–1860. This contrasted with the revolutionary republicanism of Mazzini.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels argued in The Communist Manifesto (1848) that

Answer: the central dynamic of history is class struggle, and the bourgeoisie would be overthrown by the proletariat

The Manifesto opens by claiming that the history of existing society is the history of class struggles, and it predicts that the proletariat will overthrow the capitalist bourgeoisie.

Which of the following is most consistent with nineteenth-century classical liberalism as advocated by thinkers such as John Stuart Mill?

Answer: Protection of individual liberties, representative government, and limited state interference in the economy

Classical liberals stressed individual rights, constitutional and representative government, and economic freedom with limited state intervention. Mill's On Liberty defended individual freedom of thought and expression.

The Ems Dispatch incident of 1870, edited by Otto von Bismarck, was significant because it

Answer: provoked France into declaring war on Prussia, helping bring the southern German states into a unified German Empire

Bismarck released an edited version of a telegram about talks between King William I and the French ambassador, which angered the French public. France declared war, and the resulting nationalist enthusiasm brought the southern German states into the Prussian-led union.

The Dreyfus Affair in France (beginning in 1894) most directly illustrated which broader development in late nineteenth-century Europe?

Answer: The persistence of antisemitism and its political use, which also helped inspire Zionism

Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army captain, was wrongly convicted of treason, and the controversy exposed deep antisemitism in French society. Theodor Herzl, who covered the case as a journalist, was among those prompted to promote political Zionism.

Tsar Alexander II's emancipation of the serfs in 1861 was motivated in large part by

Answer: the Russian defeat in the Crimean War, which exposed the weakness of Russia's economy and military

Russia's defeat in the Crimean War convinced Alexander II and his advisers that serfdom was holding back the country's modernization. Emancipation was a reform from above intended to strengthen the state.