Social Sciences and History / Unit 4 SSH 0329 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Who Unified What: Matching Leaders to Nations
The idea
Sample question eight asks who unified Germany, and the key is Bismarck. The anchor's account: after eighteen fifteen Germany was only a confederation and free trade zone; nationalism was strong, and eighteen forty-eight failed. Otto von Bismarck, a Prussian noble and chancellor to the Prussian king, unified Germany through war, not speeches, in his own phrase by iron and blood. He provoked Austria into war and beat it, then France, and in eighteen seventy-one the German Empire was proclaimed. The anchor calls him the inventor of Realpolitik, pragmatic enough to introduce social reforms to blunt socialism though he detested reform.
In practice
Match each leader to a nation and a method. Bismarck: Germany, by Prussian war. Cavour: Italy, as Piedmont's minister, by diplomacy and war under Victor Emmanuel. Mazzini: Italy's romantic nationalist, whose Young Italy inspired but did not unify. Garibaldi, whom the witness names: Italy's soldier. Metternich, a common distractor: Austria's conservative at Vienna. Given "unified Germany", Bismarck; "the romantic prophet of Italian unity", Mazzini; "the pragmatic minister of Piedmont", Cavour.
Where people slip
The trap is the parallel. Cavour and Bismarck were similar officials, the anchor says, and the exam will offer Cavour as a distractor for Germany. The second trap is Realpolitik's authorship: "inventor of Realpolitik" is Brooks's characterization, attributed.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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