Check that this is your course

This guide is for WJEC AS History Unit 1, Option 7: Revolution and new ideas in Europe, c.1780-1881. Its paper code is 2100UG. Unit 1 is a period study: you need a broad understanding of the whole course and must use accurate evidence to make supported judgements about causes, consequences, change, continuity, similarity, difference and significance.

Do not learn this as eight disconnected national stories. The course asks how governments responded when revolution, nationalism, economic change and Great Power rivalry challenged the European order created in 1815.

The whole course in one argument

In 1780, most Europeans lived under dynastic monarchies and unequal social orders. The French Revolution and Napoleon transformed political expectations, states and borders, but their defeat did not erase demands for constitutions, national self-government or social change.

The Vienna settlement created a framework for consultation and restrained renewed French domination. Cooperation worked when Great Power interests overlapped, but intervention, revolution and the weakening Ottoman Empire divided them. Revolutions in 1830 and 1848 revealed the force of liberal, national and social demands, yet also their internal divisions and dependence on armies and international conditions.

Italy and Germany unified through nationalism, economic and institutional change, leadership, diplomacy and war. Neither outcome was inevitable. France moved from republic to empire and back to republic amid arguments over order, representation and social change. Russia attempted to preserve autocracy while Nicholas I used repression and Alexander II introduced major but limited reforms. Across the course, new ideas changed Europe, but states, armies, empires and social hierarchies remained powerful.

Six questions holding the course together

1. How effective was Great Power cooperation between 1815 and 1856?
2. Why did revolutions break out in 1830 and 1848, and why did their results differ?
3. How did the Eastern Question affect relations among the Great Powers?
4. Why were Italy and Germany unified by 1871?
5. Why did France experience repeated political change between 1848 and 1871?
6. How successfully did Nicholas I and Alexander II respond to Russia's challenges?

Essential vocabulary

• Conservatism: defence of established authority, religion, hierarchy and order, though conservatives disagreed about acceptable reform.
• Liberalism: support for constitutional government, civil rights and legal equality; nineteenth-century liberals did not necessarily support full democracy.
• Nationalism: belief that a people sharing an identity should possess political recognition or self-government.
• Concert of Europe: consultation among Great Powers intended to manage disputes after 1815.
• Congress System: post-1815 meetings through which powers discussed European order and intervention.
• Eastern Question: diplomatic problems created by Ottoman weakening and rival interests in its territories and strategic routes.
• Zollverein: Prussian-led customs union that reduced trade barriers among many German states.
• Risorgimento: movement and process associated with Italian national revival and unification.
• Plebiscite: direct popular vote on a political question.
• Autocracy: government in which the ruler claims supreme political authority.
• Serfdom: system binding peasants through legal and economic obligations to landowners and estates.

1. Europe in 1780 and the settlement of 1815

Europe in 1780 was dominated by hereditary monarchies, aristocratic privilege and established churches. Political arrangements varied: Britain had a parliamentary monarchy, while rulers in Russia, Prussia and Austria claimed extensive authority. Composite monarchies governed different peoples and territories through varied institutions. Reforming rulers sometimes used Enlightenment ideas, but did not surrender sovereign power.

The French Revolution attacked privilege and proclaimed citizenship. Revolutionary and Napoleonic warfare spread legal and administrative change, reorganised territories and provoked resistance, conscription and taxation. By 1815, France had been defeated, the Holy Roman Empire had disappeared and national and liberal ideas could not simply be removed.

At Vienna, the powers pursued legitimacy, compensation and balance. France was contained rather than permanently destroyed; buffer states were strengthened and borders rearranged. Russia and Prussia gained influence. The settlement provided a framework for cooperation, but it was not a permanent European government and did not restore 1780 unchanged.

Knowledge check: Name one important continuity and one important change between Europe in 1780 and Europe in 1815.

2. International cooperation, revolution and the Eastern Question, 1815-1856

The powers used congresses and diplomacy to manage disputes. Austria, Russia and Prussia were generally more willing to defend monarchical order through intervention. Britain resisted a general right to suppress revolutions and increasingly distanced itself from the congresses. Cooperation nevertheless helped manage France's return to Great Power diplomacy and some international crises.

Revolutions in 1830 and 1848 had no single cause. Liberal and national demands, harvest failure, unemployment, urban protest, elite division and anger at governments combined differently across Europe. In 1830, France changed dynasty and Belgium secured independence, while Polish revolt was crushed. In 1848, upheaval spread through France, the Habsburg lands, German states and Italy. Divisions among liberals, democrats, national groups, workers and peasants weakened revolutionary coalitions; governments recovered, armies remained decisive and rival national claims collided.

The Eastern Question linked Ottoman weakness to Russian security ambitions, Austrian concerns, British trade and routes, and French prestige. Greek independence showed both intervention and rivalry. The Egyptian crises produced cooperation to restrain upheaval, but disputes over the Holy Places and Russian pressure helped lead to the Crimean War. Britain and France fought Russia while Austria's diplomacy isolated its former partner. The war demonstrated the limits of the post-1815 concert.

Knowledge check: Why could the same Great Powers cooperate in one crisis and oppose each other in another?

3. Italian unification, 1815-1871

Italy after Vienna was divided into several states; Austria directly or indirectly dominated much of the peninsula. Secret societies, liberal revolts and Mazzini's Young Italy spread demands for change, but repression, regional difference and weak coordination limited early movements. The revolutions of 1848-49 failed to expel Austria or create a united state. They nevertheless exposed Austrian power and helped establish Piedmont-Sardinia as a possible leader.

Piedmont possessed a constitution, expanding economy and reforming state. Cavour modernised it and used diplomacy pragmatically. Participation in the Crimean War gave Piedmont a place in European negotiations. Agreement with Napoleon III led to war against Austria in 1859, although French withdrawal at Villafranca revealed the limits of the alliance. Plebiscites brought central Italian states into an enlarged northern kingdom.

Garibaldi and the Thousand conquered Sicily and Naples in 1860. His popular and military initiative differed from Cavour's monarchical diplomacy, but Garibaldi transferred his gains to Victor Emmanuel II. The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861. Venetia followed during the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, and Rome after French troops withdrew during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870.

Unification therefore depended on national ideas, Piedmontese institutions, individual leadership, local mobilisation and international opportunity. Political borders changed faster than regional economies, loyalties and relations with the papacy.

Knowledge check: Explain why neither Cavour nor Garibaldi alone can account for Italian unification.

4. German unification, 1815-1871

The German Confederation joined thirty-nine states loosely and preserved Austrian influence. National and liberal movements grew, while Prussia's Zollverein reduced internal tariffs among many states. Economic integration helped Prussian influence and encouraged connections, but did not automatically create a nation-state.

The 1848 Frankfurt Parliament attempted constitutional unification. It debated rights, borders and whether a united Germany should include Austria. It failed because delegates divided, rulers recovered and the parliament lacked control of armed force. Frederick William IV of Prussia rejected the imperial crown it offered.

Prussia's industrial growth, army and administration strengthened its position. Conflict over military reform brought Bismarck to power in 1862. Reforms associated with Roon and Moltke improved mobilisation and command. Bismarck did not merely follow a fixed master plan: he adapted to circumstances and isolated opponents.

War with Denmark in 1864 enabled Prussia and Austria to take Schleswig and Holstein. Their dispute contributed to the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, after which Prussia created the North German Confederation and excluded Austria from German affairs. The crisis with France and war in 1870-71 encouraged southern states to join. The German Empire was proclaimed under Prussian leadership in 1871.

Knowledge check: Which mattered more to unification: nationalism, Prussian strength, Bismarck's diplomacy or war? Give a qualified answer.

5. France, 1848-1871

The February Revolution overthrew Louis Philippe and created the Second Republic. Universal male suffrage widened participation, but conflict developed over social reform, the National Workshops, property and order. The June Days uprising and its repression revealed deep division. Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte won the presidency through a broad coalition attracted by his name, promises and image of order.

Blocked from another presidential term, Louis-Napoleon carried out the 1851 coup and became Emperor Napoleon III in 1852. The Second Empire used censorship, policing, controlled elections and plebiscites, yet it also possessed genuine support. Railways, banking, trade and Haussmann's rebuilding of Paris symbolised modernisation, although gains and costs were unequal. During the 1860s the regime permitted more parliamentary and press freedom.

Foreign policy sought prestige and influence. Crimea strengthened France's position; intervention in Italy weakened Austria but created tensions over Rome; the Mexican expedition failed. Relations with Prussia became increasingly dangerous. Defeat and Napoleon's capture at Sedan in 1870 collapsed the Empire. The siege of Paris and the Paris Commune followed, while the new Third Republic began amid war, civil conflict and monarchist strength.

Knowledge check: Why is it misleading to describe the Second Empire as either simply successful or simply repressive?

6. Russia under Nicholas I and Alexander II, 1825-1881

Nicholas I began his reign with the Decembrist revolt. He strengthened censorship and political policing and promoted Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality. The bureaucracy expanded, but corruption, distance and limited local institutions restricted implementation. Serfdom supported noble power and state order while constraining mobility, agriculture and social development.

Nicholas suppressed the Polish revolt of 1830-31 and intervened against revolution in Hungary in 1849. Russia appeared a defender of European conservatism, yet defeat in the Crimean War exposed weaknesses in transport, administration, military organisation and international support.

Alexander II concluded peace and pursued reform. The 1861 emancipation ended landlords' legal ownership of serfs, but redemption payments, limited land and the village commune constrained peasant freedom. Zemstva introduced local government; judicial reform improved procedure; military, education and censorship policies also changed. Reform was substantial but preserved autocracy and produced disappointed expectations.

The Polish rising of 1863 brought repression and Russification. Economic development and education helped create new social and political pressures. Populists tried to reach the peasantry; some radicals turned to terrorism. Alexander alternated reform and coercion and was assassinated by the People's Will in 1881. This was a severe crisis, not proof that revolution in 1917 was already inevitable.

Knowledge check: Compare the strengths and limitations of Nicholas I's repression with Alexander II's reform.

Anchor dates

• 1789: French Revolution begins.
• 1815: Vienna settlement and German Confederation.
• 1825: Decembrist revolt; Nicholas I succeeds.
• 1830: revolutions in France, Belgium and Poland.
• 1834: Zollverein established.
• 1848: revolutions across Europe; Second Republic in France; Frankfurt Parliament.
• 1852: Napoleon III establishes the Second Empire.
• 1853-56: Crimean War.
• 1859: Franco-Piedmontese war against Austria.
• 1860-61: Garibaldi's campaign; Kingdom of Italy proclaimed.
• 1861: emancipation of Russia's serfs.
• 1866: Austro-Prussian War; Venetia joins Italy.
• 1870-71: Franco-Prussian War; Rome joins Italy; German Empire founded; French Third Republic begins.
• 1881: assassination of Alexander II.

How to build a Unit 1 answer

Identify the exact concept and period in the question. For causation, compare underlying conditions, enabling factors, individual choices and immediate opportunities. For significance, use criteria such as scale, depth, duration and consequences. For change and continuity, identify what altered, what survived and for whom.

Organise paragraphs around competing factors or criteria, not a year-by-year narrative. Cover a substantial span of the dates. Use precise evidence, explain how it supports the argument, compare it with another factor and keep adjusting the judgement. A strong conclusion answers the exact wording and explains why the chosen factor mattered more, or under which conditions it mattered.

Practice before you leave

1. How effective were attempts at international cooperation between 1815 and 1856?
2. Why did revolutions spread across Europe in 1848?
3. Was foreign intervention the main reason for Italian unification?
4. Was Bismarck's leadership mainly responsible for German unification?
5. Was foreign policy Napoleon III's greatest problem between 1848 and 1871?
6. How successfully did Nicholas I and Alexander II address Russia's challenges?

If the course still feels tangled

Reduce it to four forces: ideas, states, society and international power. For each topic, ask which ideas challenged authority, what resources governments controlled, which social groups supported or resisted change, and how other powers altered the result. Then return to the exact section above and explain one outcome using at least three of those forces.

Your next step

Create a comparison grid for the 1848 revolutions, Italian unification, German unification, France and Russia. Use columns for the challenge, social support, government response, international influence and outcome. Then answer this judgement in one paragraph: Did new ideas or state power change Europe more between 1815 and 1881?