After Otto Von Bismark united Germany, he started a program called Kulturkampf beginning in the early 1870s. The mission of Kulturkampf was to phase out the Catholics and to put restrictions on them. Thirty-six percent of the German population was Catholic, so while they were a minority they were not a very small one. In particular, Bismark disliked Pope Pious IX, who was against progress and modernity. They began with smaller things, such as banning any sort of political talk in sermons. They then moved on to banning the clerical oversight of the school system and banned the Jesuits from Germany. Civil marriage was required to be considered legitimate, and Clerical appointments had to be approved by the state. There were many other laws put in place to restrict the Catholics, but in response, the Center Party was formed to protect the rights of Catholics. By 1878 the Center Party had support and Pope Pius IX had died, and his successor Leo XIII was not against progress in his dealings with political matters. Bismark decided to end Kulturkampf and the unsuccessful crusade against Catholics ended in Germany.

In the late nineteenth century, the British office of Prime Minister usually alternated between Conservative Benjamin Disraeli and Classical Liberal William Gladstone. There had been several revolts in Ireland to try and get its independence, but these were all unsuccessful, and one of Gladstone’s ambitions was to get Ireland Home Rule. Ireland would be able to make its own laws, which was particularly important as most Irish people were Catholic. Some of the things he argued in favor of home rule, was that the Irish were often harshly treated under English rule, and when they opposed the English they were often brutally suppressed. He also considered it unfair that Ireland had to pay a tax to the protestant church when they were mostly Catholic. Gladstone was unsuccessful in his quest to get the Irish home rule but is still remembered for his effort.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Italy was again attempting Italian unification. There had been a very short-lived Republic of Rome previous to this, which was led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, but this time the leader would be Camillo Benso Count of Cavour Prime Minister of Piedmont Sardinia. Cavour was a very intellectual man and was a proponent of classical liberalism. He wanted a unified Italy with the monarch of Piedmont Sardinia at its head. First, he had to get the Austrians out of northern Italy. To do this he needed outside help, so in the Crimean war, he sent fifteen thousand troops to fight on the side of the French to try and win French favor. Eventually, the French aided Piedmont in their fight against Austria, and Piedmont gained the kingdom of Lombardy. After this False plebian votes were set up in other Italian countries so that it looked like they were agreeing to become part of a unified Italy. Giuseppe Garibaldi marched south with a thousand civilians as troops and surprisingly took over the kingdom of Sicily and other southern Italian states. Most of the southern Italians did not know what was going on or what this unification meant, so it was not as if the States were heroically banding together in the fight for unification. After this, the task of unification was almost over, and in 1866 Italy received Venitia from the Austrians, and the papal states, with the exception of the Vatican city, were unified in 1871.

In the 1860s the process of German unification also began. This effort was led by Prussia and the Minister-President of Prussia, Otto Von Bismark. Unification came about in a series of three wars, purposely excluding Austria as it had many nationalities which would cause problems for a unified Austria. The first war was over the mostly German Dutchies of Schleswig and Holstein. They had been Dutchies of Denmark but then Denmark attempted to extend its constitution to Schleswig and Holstein, which angered the Prussians. They quickly defeated Denmark with Prussias advanced military, and the Dutchies became part of Germany. After this Bismark created a diplomatic environment in which Austria declared war on Austria. Austria was defeated and Prussia was lenient with Austria, although it had to recognize the Northern German confederation. The final war was the Franco-Prussian war. The southern German states were still suspicious of Prussia, and Prussia thought a war with France would rally them to the Northern German confederation. Bismark heavily edited a meeting between the King of Prussia, Wilhelm I, and the French Ambassador to make it seem like insults had been exchanged. This so angered the French that they declared war on Prussia. The Prussians defeated the French and they had to give up the territory of Alsace-Lorraine. The southern German states rallied to the German Confederation, as Bismark had expected, and this was the beginning of a unified Germany.

Karl Marx was an influential political theorist of the 19th century. His ideas were the building blocks upon which many communist countries were built. While his works are very influential they are quite flawed. For instance, Marx stated that in a communist society people would be able to do whatever job they wanted, and could drift from job to job as they pleased. However, in a communist society, the production of goods is completely planned out. It would be impossible for people to do whatever they wanted and planned production to succeed. Therefore people would have much less autonomy under communism than they would under a free market economy. He came up with Historical Materialism, which is the idea that what kind of tools for production you have, dictates what kind of ideas you are going to have. His phrase, “The hand mill makes feudalism and steam power makes capitalism,” exemplifies this idea. However, someone had to have the idea to make the tools and the production of the tools first. Therefore Historical Materialism seems to have the process of ideas backward.

Herbert Spencer is often categorized as a Social Darwinist. That Spencer supported the poor dying off for, “Might makes right”, is what is commonly stated. This, however, is very far from the truth. Herbert Spencer was against colonialism and militant types of society. He was against government welfare programs but he was an enthusiastic advocate for voluntary charity. He derived a law of equal freedom in which, “Every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man.” That his ideas led to the eugenics movement is the opposite of what he actually believed and almost no political thinker has been misrepresented like Herbert Spencer.

After Louis XVIII, the restored king of France died, his younger brother Charles X ascended the throne. Whereas Louis XVIII had tried to walk a middle course between the Ultras (People who wanted an absolutist king such as before the revolution) and the classical liberals (People who favored freedom and limited government), Charles X did not attempt to do this. He instituted the death penalty for anyone profaning the Eucharist which violated religious freedom and supported other such unpopular legislation. He dissolved the National Gaurd of Paris, and when the Chamber of Deputies passed a motion of no confidence Charles dissolved the parliament. In July 1830 he dissolved the Chamber of deputies and suspended the liberty of the press. July 27 started three days in which Paris rebelled and took over important buildings, while Charles X raised little opposition. In a day and a half, four-thousand barricades sprung up in Paris, and the people of Paris declared Charles X deposed and Louis Philippe I declared king. Louis Philippe supported the interests of the middle class and the bourgeoise and exemplified this by wearing business suits instead of royal regalia.

1848 brought on another round of revolution. By this time Louis Philippe I popularity in France had waned. For the socialists, he was doing nothing and for the classical liberals, he was not doing enough. Political gatherings were outlawed in France, so to avoid this, people would throw banquets at which people would get up and deliver political speeches. After the government found out about this they banned a banquet from being held in Paris. This led Paris to revolt and Louis Philippe abdicated as king and left France. During this time Bastiat’s pamphlets were plastered throughout Paris and published in both Conservative and Socialist newspapers. After the monarchy was abolished The Second Republic was formed. This had mostly classical liberal and conservative influences, with socialist interests being pushed aside, although national workshops were formed where anyone could go and get work. The national workshops were deeply unpopular by the middle class and in the first parliamentary elections, conservatives and moderates were in the majority. They closed down the workshops which made some of the working-class rebel, though this was quickly clamped down on. The first presidential election appointed Louis Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon I, as president. He became so powerful, however, that in 1852 he declared himself emperor, rendering the revolution for democracy unsuccessful.

In Germany, Nationalist sentiments were high, and in 1848, the parliament of Frankfurt was formed to try and form a unified Germany. They decided to not include Austria because there were too many different nationalities there, vying for independence. They approached the King of Prussia and asked if he would accept the role of King of Germany. He refused as he only wanted to be king of Germany on his terms, not tied down by a charter or what the revolutionaries wanted. So German unification was unsuccessful for the present but would come eventually in 1871.

Neoclassicism was a school of thought that developed in the 18th century. Its main attributes were reason, order, and serenity. They wanted to move away from the extravagant and over-the-top Baroque period that had come before and move into more orderly and rational styles of art. They took great inspiration from the Classical period of Greece, hence the name Neoclassicism. They disparaged the Medieval way of art as barbaric and something not to be replicated. Neoclassical architecture is common in the United States, such as the Capitol Building and the First Bank.

In this painting, by one of the most famous and influential painters of the Neoclassical style, Jacques Louis David, you can see some of the key elements of Neoclassicism. The emphasis is on horizontal and vertical lines with the subject in the center. The subject has order and composure, and there is no visible emotion.

To contrast Neoclassicism is Romanticisim. Romanticism gained influence in the early nineteenth century. Romanticism was not against reason but said that life should not only be made up of reason. There was an emphasis on spirituality, sometimes through traditional ways but often through nature, and through nature, you would get a feeling that God was the creator. Romanticists would have an interest in things far away, either in the past or geographically. The Romanticists celebrated Gothic architecture as seen in the Houses of Parliament in London.

In this painting, you can see that the emphasis is not on straight lines but more on emotion and feeling. The landscape has a feeling of mystery about it. Some Romantic writers include Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, and Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables. In these books, the emphasis is not on order but more on the way the characters feel.