he crowned himself as the Emperor by holding a plebiscite. He assumed the title Napoleon III. The year was one of the distinct triumphs for nationalism. Metternich, the arbiter of Europe and enemy of nationality, was forced to leave Vienna in disguise.
Hungary and Bohemia both claimed national independence. Milan expelled the Austrians. Venice became an independent republic. Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, declared war against Austria.
Absolutism seemed dead for a while. But it was not to be. By the summer, the monarchs had begun their attacks on the revolutionaries and succeeded in crushing the democratic movements in important centres like Berlin, Vienna and Milan. In the space of a year counter-revolution was victorious throughout the continent.
Charles X July Revolution Europe in Turmoil Nationalism in southern and eastern Europe In Europe the countries that first achieved national unity were France, Spain and England. Italy which had made rich contributions to art and letters was not part of this political change. Cities in Italy like Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples and Milan were the capitals of small states. Hence she became the prey of powerful kingdoms.
Besides, the age of Renaissance was an age of intellectual liberty and certainly not an age of political liberty. The petty states of Italy, though enlightened in many ways, were mostly governed by tyrants, such as the Medici in Florence, the cruel Visconti in Milan and Caesar Borgia in central Italy. What was true of Italy was true of Germany. The Holy Roman Empire was an empire only in name.
In practice, Germany contained three of four hundred separate States. It was their kings who saved these countries from feudal anarchy and made them into nations. Conditions suitable for the rise of Italy and Germany as nation states developed only in the nineteenth century with the spread of nationalism. Unification of Italy Italy before Napoleon’s time was a patchwork of little states and petty princes.
Under Napoleon Italy had been reduced to three political divisions. This step towards unity was destroyed by