- European states struggled to maintain international stability in an age of nationalism and revolutions.
- Conservatives re-established control in many European states and attempted to suppress movements for change and, in some areas, to strengthen adherence to religious authorities.
- The revolutions of 1848 challenged the conservative order and led to the breakdown of the Concert of Europe.
- The Crimean War demonstrated the weakness of the Ottoman Empire and contributed to the breakdown of the Concert of Europe, thereby creating the conditions in which Italy and Germany could be unified after centuries of fragmentation.
- A new breed of conservative leaders, including Napoleon III, Cavour, and Bismarck, co-opted the agenda of nationalists for the purpose of creating or strengthening the state.
- The creation of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, which recognized the political power of the largest ethnic minority, was an attempt to stabilize the state by reconfiguring national unity.
- In Russia, autocratic leaders pushed through a program of reform and modernization, which gave rise to revolutionary movements and eventually the Revolution of 1905.
- Nationalist tensions in the Balkans drew the Great Powers into a series of crises leading up to World War I.
- Bismarck’s dismissal in 1890 eventually led to a system of mutually antagonistic alliances and heightened international tensions.
- Bismarck employed diplomacy , industrialized warfare and weaponry, and the manipulation of democratic mechanisms to unify Germany.
*All information is taken from AP European History Curriculum Framework