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The Social and Political Influences Leading up to the First World War

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The Social and Political Influences Leading up to the First World War Romanticism began in the closing decades of the Eighteenth Century. Influencing all spheres of life, pervading the populace of Europe and the first half of the Nineteenth Century with idealistic, yet unreal sentiment. Contradicting any romantic or idealistic belief were the uniform followers of rationalism and conservatism, descendents of Puritanism that arose in the Church of England during the early 17th Century. The German writer E. T. A. Hoffmann quoted in retrospect "infinite longing" was the essence of romanticism, if this definition is accepted, it may be said that it created in Europe, an illicit hunt for a "utopian" society. This I theorize is the …show more content…

The southern Germanic states were forced to accept Prussian hegemony, and Germany as it is known today was formed. Within the space of thirty years, Germany had gone from being a cluster of insignificant states to the most powerful state in Europe - full of nationalistic sentiment, patriotic people and militaristic Kaisers. It is easily forgotten that Italy, similar to Germany is only a recently created state. Little over a century ago Italy was divided into five main groups, all subject to political arrangements made by their foreign rulers. It took 21 years of resistance in the name of Irredentism, to oust the puppet Autocratic government. Liberal views were enough, Liberal views and the invasion of Austria(1848), and for a second time in 1859, the invasions were used in order to establish the nation, and to expel Austrian emigrants from northern Italy, the theme of "unifying" ones nation through military action has been exemplified again. In order to determine a nation on the global stage, an expansionistic foreign policy has been held by both Germany and Italy, and the result has been successful each time fusing the populace closer together by attaining a sense of achievement through hardship and therefore a joint heritage and culture. Now

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