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
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is A, the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles. 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. Doing it on French soil was a deliberate humiliation of the defeated enemy. Option B is wrong because the Church of St Paul in Frankfurt housed the elected Frankfurt Parliament of 1848, whose attempt at unification failed. Option C is wrong because the Reichstag was the parliament of the empire that already existed in name only at that date; the ceremony was not held in Berlin. Option D is wrong because the Hofburg in Vienna was the seat of the Austrian emperor, and Austria had been deliberately excluded from the new Germany in 1866.
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 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.
Read the full explanation →In which year was Victor Emmanuel II proclaimed King of a united Italy?
- A.1859
- B.1861
- C.1866
- D.1871
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On 17 March 1861 Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia-Piedmont was proclaimed King of Italy by the first Italian parliament, after the war of 1859 had taken Lombardy and Garibaldi's campaign of 1860 had added the south.
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