19th-Century Europe: A Time of Change Quiz

Answer: Finland

During the Finnish War, fought in 1808-1809 by Sweden against the Russian Empire, Finland - which had been part of Sweden since the mid-13th century - was conquered by Russia, and pledged allegiance to the Russian monarch, Tsar Alexander I. With the signing of the Treaty of Fredrikshamn on 17 September 1809, Finland became a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire. At first, the new state was granted a remarkable measure of autonomy, with the very important consequence of allowing Finnish language and culture (which under Swedish rule had been largely suppressed) to develop freely. The "Kalevala", the Finnish national epic, was published in 1835, sowing the seeds of the national awakening that would eventually lead to the country's independence. Russian officials had a favourable view of the emergence of Finnish and the accompanying surge of nationalism, which undermined Sweden's political and cultural influence.

Unfortunately, in the last two decades of the 19th century the relationship between Finland and Russia began to sour. Things came to a head with the Russification of Finland, which began in February 1899 under Tsar Nicholas II. This policy, aimed at limiting - and possibly terminating - the Grand Duchy's autonomy, was met with hostility and resistance. Less than two decades later, the Russian Revolution and the dissolution of the Empire provided Finland with the perfect opportunity to declare its independence on 6 December 1917.

Answer: Vienna

The international diplomatic conference known as Congress of Vienna was held from September 1814 to June 1815 in the capital of the Austrian Empire. Chaired by Prince Klemens von Metternich, the Austrian Foreign Minister, the Congress saw the participation of ambassadors from most European states. The largest delegations came from the four European Great Powers (Austria, Russia, United Kingdom, and Prussia); France, where the Bourbon monarchy had been restored, was also invited as the "fifth" power. Delegations of over 200 states were represented at the Congress, which followed the Treaty of Paris of 30 May 1814, signed after Napoleon's abdication.

The British delegation was initially headed by the kingdom's Foreign Secretary, Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, known as Lord (Viscount) Castlereagh. Castlereagh returned to England in February 1815, and was replaced by none other than Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington - who, just a few months later, would be instrumental in Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo. Austria, the host country, was represented by Metternich and his deputy, Johann von Weissenberg; Russia by Tsar Alexander I and his foreign minister, Count Nesselrode; Prussia by its Chancellor, Prince von Hardenberg, as well as diplomat and scholar Wilhelm von Humboldt; and France by its foreign minister, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand.

The largely conservative leaders of the Congress aimed not only at restoring the boundaries that had existed prior to the drastic changes effected by Napoleon, but also at restraining the republican and liberal tendencies that had proved a threat to the status quo. The conference was the first of a series of international meetings known as the Concert of Europe, whose main goal was the preservation of the balance of power in the continent.

Answer: False

The Crimean War, which started in October 1853, arose from a complex tangle of events, some of which are not yet completely clear. The conflict was rooted in the longstanding enmity between the declining Ottoman Empire and the ascendant Russian Empire, which had been fighting each other for supremacy in eastern Europe and the Caucasus since the 16th century. The Ottomans had the support of France and the United Kingdom, for whom the Ottoman presence was essential in maintaining the balance of power in Europe. When, in July 1853, Russian troops occupied the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (now in Romania, but at the time vassal states of the Ottoman Empire), the Ottomans declared war on Russia.

In January 1854, the French and British fleet entered the Black Sea; the coalition supporting the Ottoman Empire also included the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, later to become part of unified Italy. The ensuing battles had alternating fortunes - with the disaster of Balaclava (25 October 1854) severely depleting British forces. After the fall of Sevastopol (the home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet) on 9 September 1855, following a brutal 11-month siege, Russia was forced to sue for peace. The Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 March 1856, ended the war; the most important result for the Ottoman Empire was its admission to the alliance known as Concert of Europe. The defeat dealt a major blow to Russian ambitions: Russia had to agree to the demilitarization of the Black Sea, which made its vast territory vulnerable to attacks from other countries.

During this conflict, the other two major European powers of the time kept a neutral stance, though in very different ways. In spite of its long-standing alliance with Russia, Austria supported the Anglo-British alliance without intervening directly - which badly damaged Austro-Russian relations. On the other hand, Prussia remained neutral because it could not decide which side to join.

Answer: magenta

One of the decisive battles of the Second Italian War of Independence, the Battle of Magenta was fought on 4 June 1859 between the armies of the Austrian Empire and those of the coalition formed by the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia (which included Piedmont, in northwestern Italy). The battle took place outside the town of Magenta, near Milan, at the time part of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, one of the crown lands of the Austrian Empire. The Austrian army, led by Marshal Ferencz Gyulai, was roundly defeated by the French-Piedmontese army, led by General Patrice de MacMahon, who was later awarded the title of Duke of Magenta. The Second Italian War of Independence ended with an even worse defeat for the Austrians, at Solferino on 24 June. With the Armistice of Villafranca of 13 July, Lombardy became part of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

The magenta dye, a shade of purplish-red known for being one of the four colours used by inkjet printers, was created in 1859, and named after the battle when it began to be marketed the following year. One of the explanations for the name is that the colour was reminiscent of the uniforms of the French Zouaves, which were partly red.

Answer: Camillo Cavour

Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1852 to 1861 (with a short interruption). On 23 March 1861, he became the first Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy, for whose creation he was in large part responsible. Thanks to his tireless work, the long and difficult process of Italian unification was eventually successful. In particular, Cavour's political skills, and his flair for exploiting favourable situations to build useful alliances, proved invaluable in the apparently unequal struggle against the Austrian Empire, which controlled large parts of northern Italy. Cavour's greatest masterpiece was probably his decision to send a contingent of 18,000 soldiers to Crimea in 1855 (see Q. 3), securing an alliance with France. To further the interest of Italian unification, Cavour even sent his cousin, the beautiful Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione, to the French court to influence Emperor Napoleon III, a notorious womanizer - a goal she achieved by becoming the Emperor's mistress.

France's military support proved essential for winning the Second Italian War of Independence (See Q. 4) against Austria. The final years of Cavour's life, however, were characterized by constant tensions with his King, Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy, and the greatest hero of the Italian "Risorgimento", General Giuseppe Garibaldi, who in 1860 conquered southern Italy with a force of a thousand volunteers ("I Mille"). Worn out by stress and overwork, Cavour fell ill, and died less than three months after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, at the age of 50.

While Disraeli and Bismarck were more or less Cavour's contemporaries, Charles de Gaulle, a former army officer who became President of France, lived in the 20th century. Germany's unification came a decade after Italy's, in 1871.

Answer: Austria and Prussia

Seven Weeks' War is one of the names by which the Austro-Prussian War, fought between June and July 1866, is known. Another name, "German War of Brothers" ("Deutscher Bruderkrieg"), stems from the fact that most of the nations involved were part of the German Confederation, the association of German-speaking sovereign states created in 1815 to replace the Holy Roman Empire. This conflict was also linked to the Third Italian War of Independence, which saw the newly formed Kingdom of Italy ally with the Kingdom of Prussia against the Austrian Empire, which still held the northeastern province of Venetia (Veneto).

The war, which lasted from 12 June to 22 July, resulted in a Prussian and Italian victory, reinforcing the Prussian hegemony in Central Europe. Austria, forced to withdraw from the German Confederation (which was dissolved shortly afterwards), united with Hungary to create the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Prussia, on the other hand, created the North German Confederation, which included all German states north of the river Main. The decisive battle of the conflict was fought at Sadowa (Königgrätz) on 3 July 1866: the Austrian army suffered heavy casualties, with the destruction of entire infantry battalions. The war ended with the Peace of Prague, signed by Prussia and Austria on 23 August 1866. With the Treaty of Paris, signed on 12 October of the same year, Venetia became part of the Kingdom of Italy, almost completing the process of Italian unification.

Answer: Bavaria

Ludwig II of the House of Wittelsbach became King of Bavaria in 1864, at the age of 18. When, after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 (see Q. 8), the German Empire was created, Bavaria became part of the Empire, in spite of Ludwig's reluctance. The state, however, was granted privileged status within the Empire, retaining a large measure of autonomy under the new Imperial Constitution. Introverted and eccentric, Ludwig soon withdrew from political life, dedicating most of his time to the planning of his famous castles and his patronage of the arts. His financial support was essential to saving Richard Wagner's career: the composer's personal opera house ("Festspielhaus") in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth was built with money loaned to Wagner by the king. The walls of the famous Neuschwanstein Castle, the magnificent Romantic building that inspired Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle, are decorated with frescoes depicting scenes from Wagner's operas. Indeed, Ludwig's overactive imagination and creative endeavours earned him the nickname of "Fairytale King" ("Märchenkönig").

Unfortunately, Ludwig's extravagance had put him (and consequently the kingdom) in a very difficult financial situation - to the point that a group of his ministers planned to depose him on grounds of mental insanity. Ludwig was eventually deposed on 10 June 1886, and confined to a manor house south of Munich; three days later, he was found dead in a nearby lake, together with one of the psychiatrists that had had him declared insane. Ludwig's death was ruled a suicide, though there were also strong suspicions of foul play.

The three wrong answers were also Central European kingdoms, but none of them is located in Germany: the Kingdom of Illyria included parts of present-day Italy, Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia, while the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria was located in western Ukraine and southern Poland, and the Kingdom of Bohemia corresponded to the western part of the Czech Republic.

Answer: Sedan

The French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War that took place between 19 July 1870 and 28 January 1871 put an end to the Second Empire, led by Emperor Napoleon III, a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. The conflict broke out because of France's determination to reassert its dominant status in Europe, brought into question by Prussia's victory in the Austro-Prussian War (see Q. 6). Concerned about the process of German unification initiated by Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who had set his sights on the independent states in the south of Germany, Napoleon III let the Chancellor goad him into declaring war to Prussia. For the French Emperor, the conflict became also a means of distracting public opinion from a number of troublesome domestic issues.

Due to Prussia's superior military organization and strategy, the war immediately took a negative turn for France, when Prussia invaded northeastern France and put the city of Metz under siege. The conflict culminated in the Battle of Sedan (1-2 September 1870). During this engagement, Napoleon III was captured, together with over 100,000 soldiers and 558 guns. On 19 September, the Prussian army besieged Paris, which surrendered on 28 January 1871. A few days earlier, on 18 January, Wilhelm I of Prussia had been declared German Emperor. The final peace treaty was signed in Frankfurt on 10 May 1871, granting possession of the northeastern region of Alsace-Lorraine to the newly-created Empire. Napoleon III went into exile in England with his family, and died there in 1873, haunted by his defeat until the very end.

The three battles listed as wrong answers were fought during the Crimean War (Alma), the First and Third Italian Wars of Independence (Custoza), and World War One (Verdun). The name "sedan" for a type of passenger car is not related to the French town of Sedan, where the battle was fought.

Answer: Treaty of San Stefano

Named after the village west of Constantinople (now called Yeºilköy) where it was signed, the Treaty of San Stefano of 3 March 1878 marked the end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, one of a long string of conflicts that pitted the Ottoman Empire against Russia. Fought in the Balkans and the Caucasus, the war was a direct consequence of the decline of the Ottoman Empire, which came to be known as the "sick man of Europe", and Russia's desire to avenge the humiliation of the Crimean War (see Q. 3). Another decisive factor was the rise of nationalism in the Balkans, which Russia exploited for its own gain. The actual war was preceded by uprisings against Ottoman rule in Albania, Herzegovina, and especially Bulgaria - where in the spring of 1876 atrocities were committed by the Turkish army against the local population. The massacres in Bulgaria elicited a very strong reaction in Europe, and a wave of patriotism in Russia, which eventually resulted in Russia declaring war on the Ottoman Empire after having secured the neutrality of Austria, its main rival in the Balkan region.

The war, which saw the active involvement of most of the Balkan states on the Russian side, ended when Russia was pressured by the British to accept the settlement offered by the Ottoman Empire, halting the Russian army's march towards Constantinople. The Treaty established the Principality of Bulgaria as an autonomous state, after 500 years of Ottoman rule; 3 March is celebrated in Bulgaria as National Liberation Day, though the country remained a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire until 1908. The enlargement of the Bulgarian territory, which was a cause for concern for some European powers, was reversed by the Treaty of Berlin of 13 July of the same year. On the other hand, the independence gained by Romania, Serbia and Montenegro during the conflict was confirmed by the Treaty of Berlin.

"San Stefano" means "St Stephen" in English; St Stephen's Day (also known as Boxing Day) is celebrated by Western Christianity on 26 December. Of the other "saintly" treaties listed as wrong answers, the Treaty of San Lorenzo was signed in 1795 between Spain and the US, while the Treaty of Saint-Germain was signed in 1919, at the end of WWI. The best-known of the many Treaties of Saint Petersburg was signed in 1875 between Russia and Japan.

Answer: Elisabeth of Austria

The wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I, Elisabeth of Austria was a cousin of Ludwig II of Bavaria (see Q. 6), to whom she was very close. She was only 60 years old when she was stabbed to death by Luigi Lucheni with a sharpened file. The unhappy Empress had always loved traveling, which brought her some some of solace after the tragic death of her son, Archduke Rudolf (who in 1889 had committed suicide after murdering his lover), and other painful losses. She did not curtail her movements even after being warned about possible assassination attempts. Though Elisabeth was traveling incognito, the 25-year-old Lucheni - who had been planning to assassinate the Duke of Orléans, the pretender to the French throne - learned her true identity, and approached her while she was walking on the lake front. The file pierced Elisabeth's heart: the Empress barely managed to reach her hotel, where she expired less than an hour later.

At the turn of the 20th century, many royals and heads of state fell victim to anarchists or other political extremists. Like Elisabeth, the three gentlemen listed as wrong answers were also assassinated - Alexander II of Russia in 1881, Umberto I of Italy in 1900, and Archduke Franz Ferdinand - who was the heir presumptive of Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary - in 1914. Two US presidents - James Garfield (1881) and William McKinley (1901) - shared the same fate.