.7m) was completed and presented by the artist to Bismarck on the latter’s 70th birthday in . . Italy Unified Like Germany, Italy too had a long history of political fragmentation. Italians were scattered over several dynastic states as well as the multi-national Habsburg Empire.
During the middle of the nineteenth century, Italy was divided into seven states, of which only one, Sardinia-Piedmont, was ruled by an Italian princely house. The north was under Austrian Habsburgs, the centre was ruled by the Pope and the southern regions were under the domination of the Bourbon kings of Spain. Even the Italian language had not acquired one common form and still had many regional and local variations. During the 1830s, Giuseppe Mazzini had sought to put together a coherent programme for a unitary Italian Republic.
He had also formed a secret society called Young Italy for the dissemination of his goals. The failure of revolutionary uprisings both in and meant that the mantle now fell on Sardinia-Piedmont under its ruler King Victor Emmanuel II to unify the Italian states through war. In the eyes of the ruling elites of this region, a unified Italy offered them the possibility of economic development and political dominance. Fig.
— Caricature of Otto von Bismarck in the German reichstag (parliament), from Figaro , Vienna, March . Describe the caricature. How does it represent the relationship between Bismarck and the elected deputies of Parliament? What interpretation of democratic processes is the artist trying to convey?