The Frankfurt Parliament of 1848 failed mainly because
- A.Austria and Prussia together dissolved it by war
- B.The crown it offered was refused by Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia
- C.It demanded a republic that the middle class rejected
- D.Bismarck ordered its members to be arrested
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, the crown it offered was refused by Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia. The parliament elected in May 1848 met in the Church of St Paul at Frankfurt, drafted a constitution for a German nation headed by a monarch answerable to a parliament, and offered that crown to the Prussian king. He refused a crown given by a popular assembly instead of by the princes, the assembly lost its only chance of force behind it, and it was dissolved. Option A is wrong because no war was fought against the parliament. Option C is wrong because the assembly proposed a constitutional monarchy, not a republic. Option D is wrong because Bismarck had no office in 1848; he became Minister-President of Prussia only in 1862, after the liberal attempt had already failed.
Read the full article: Unification of Italy and Germany: Nationalism in Europe
Practice Questions
View allThe secret society Young Italy was founded in 1831 by
- A.Count Camillo di Cavour
- B.Giuseppe Garibaldi
- C.Giuseppe Mazzini
- D.Victor Emmanuel II
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Mazzini, a member of the Carbonari who had been sent into exile, founded Young Italy at Marseilles in 1831 and a wider society, Young Europe, at Berne in 1834.
Read the full explanation →The German Empire was proclaimed on 18 January 1871 at
- A.The Hall of Mirrors, Versailles
- B.The Church of St Paul, Frankfurt
- C.The Reichstag, Berlin
- D.The Hofburg Palace, Vienna
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As the Franco-Prussian War ended, the German princes assembled in the Hall of Mirrors of the French royal palace at Versailles and proclaimed Wilhelm I of Prussia as German Emperor on 18 January 1871.
Read the full explanation →The Zollverein, formed in 1834, was
- A.A military alliance of the German states against France
- B.A customs union that abolished tariff barriers between German states
- C.The parliament of the German Confederation
- D.A treaty between Prussia and Austria on Schleswig
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The Zollverein was formed in 1834 under Prussian leadership. It removed the internal customs duties that had made trade between the German states slow and costly and reduced the number of currencies in circulation, so a single economic space existed long before a single political one.
Read the full explanation →Who among the following led the Expedition of the Thousand and conquered Sicily and Naples in 1860?
- A.Giuseppe Mazzini
- B.Count Cavour
- C.Giuseppe Garibaldi
- D.Napoleon III
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In May 1860 Garibaldi sailed from Genoa with roughly a thousand volunteers, known from their uniform as the Red Shirts, landed in Sicily and then crossed to the mainland and took Naples from the Bourbon rulers of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Read the full explanation →The Battle of Sadowa, also called Koniggratz, in 1866 was fought between
- A.Prussia and Denmark
- B.Prussia and Austria
- C.Prussia and France
- D.Sardinia-Piedmont and Austria
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The Austro-Prussian War of 1866, often called the Seven Weeks War, was decided at Sadowa, also known as Koniggratz, where the Prussian army defeated Austria.
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