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Argentina and Bolivia teamed up and opposed the premier hunters, defeating their forces, but the hunter's army was stronger and crushed them. The Royalists couldn't reorganize because the hunter wouldn't let them cross the border to go home. The hunters defeated Uruguay, Paraguay, and Upper Peru and decided to take control of the army of the North. He was outstood and the first triumphant was formed, who's main intention was independence. After lots of wars and battles, the hunters wouldn't give up. They got representatives from around Argentina who declared independence.

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Argentinian Independence | 3 Minute History

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The Argentine War of Independence was fought from 1810 to 1818. José de San Martín and Manuel Belgrano were key leaders in the revolution. The two helped gain independence for Argentina, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, and Paraguay. They fought many battles until they were independent, which was in 1818. They had formally declared independence of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata.

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When the Spanish first arrived in Argentina in the early 1500s, the area was populated by many different indigenous groups, each with their own language and culture. In the northwest of Argentina, the local populations had been conquered by Inca armies and incorporated into their empire around 1480, only a few decades earlier.

After the Spanish conquest, the American territory was divided into two viceroyalties that directly represented the Spanish king: The Viceroyalty of New Spain (first established after the fall of the Aztec Empire in 1521), which at its peak included the Spanish colonies of North America, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and most of Central America, and the Viceroyalty of Peru, founded after the fall of the Inca Empire in 1534, which included Panama and almost all of South America (the Portuguese gained control of present-day Brazil). The area we now know as Argentina formed part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, which had its capital in Lima.

In the 18th century, the Spanish split the Viceroyalty of Peru into two new viceroyalties: New Granada and Río de la Plata. The Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata, established in 1776 with Buenos Aires as its capital, encompassed modern-day Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, and part of Brazil.

In the political structure imposed by Spain, most of the people the monarchy chose to occupy important positions were , people born in Spain, which angered the , Europeans born in Latin America. This rivalry, along with the ideas of the American and French revolutions and the prohibition on trade with other nations and foreign colonies, fueled the fire of the criollos' desire for social change.

They got a chance to act in 1806, when a British fleet attacked and captured Buenos Aires. The Spanish viceroy, a peninsular named Rafael de Sobremonte, fled the city with the public treasury during the battle, following a 1778 law stating that treasuries must be kept safe and viceroys must avoid capture during an invasion so they cannot be forced to sign an official surrender. Despite this law, Sobremonte was widely seen as a coward. In his absence, Santiago de Liniers managed to liberate Buenos Aires from the British in 1806 using criollo militias. The Audiencia of Buenos Aires barred Sobremonte from returning and named Liniers an interim viceroy. Fearing subsequent invasions, the population of Buenos Aires, including criollos and slaves, was armed and arranged into military bodies. When the British attacked again in 1807, the militias forced them to surrender.

After the two military victories, Liniers was a revolutionary hero. However, his situation soon changed. Back in Europe, French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain in 1808, with Spanish King Ferdinand VII abdicating the throne on May 6 of the same year. Although he had served with the Spanish military for many years, Liniers was a Frenchman (in fact, his birth name was Jacques de Liniers, although he is better known by the Spanish version of his name). Some people in the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata thought that with Napoleon's invasion of Spain, a Frenchman had no place as a viceroy of a Spanish territory. The peninsular Martín de Álzaga led a mutiny and tried to force Liniers out of office in an open cabildo (a special type of assembly). Most of those who supported the mutiny were peninsulares, but a small number of criollos also joined. However, the criollo militias led by Cornelio Saavedra surrounded the plaza where the cabildo was and forced the rebels to disperse. As a price for the failed mutiny, the rebel peninsular militias were disarmed, thus increasing the power of the criollos.

In part to calm the rising tensions between the peninsulares and the criollos, the Junta of Seville, formed in Spain after Napoleon's invasion, sent peninsular Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros to replace Liniers as Viceroy of Río de la Plata in 1809. General Manuel Belgrano encouraged Liniers to fight the appointment, but he decided not to put up any resistance.

As time went on, French troops gained more and more control of Spain, finally taking Seville on February 1, 1810. The Junta of Seville moved to Cadiz and dissolved itself, though the Council of Regency of Spain and the Indies was created to replace it. The news that the Junta of Seville was no more reached Buenos Aires on May 18, sparking the May Revolution, lasting from May 18 to May 25, 1810.

In Buenos Aires, group of criollo lawyers and military officials quickly organized an open cabildo on May 22 to discuss the future of the viceroyalty. The delegates agreed that Cisneros had no right to govern since the government he had been appointed by no longer existed. In his place, a junta was formed to govern the viceroyalty. Initially, Cisneros was appointed president of the Junta, but this was met with so much popular resistance by the angry crowds that formed outside the cabildo (in what is known today as the Plaza de Mayo) that he was forced to resign. On May 25, 1810 Argentina's first independent government, the Primera Junta (First Assembly), was formed. The stated role of the Primera Junta was to rule the viceroyalty in name of the deposed Spanish King Ferdinand VII, but Spain would never regain control of the region. Today, May 25 is a public holiday in Argentina that honors the Primer gobierno patrio or the First National Government.

The Primera Junta was formed by representatives from Buenos Aires, who sent word to other cities in the viceroyalty and asked them to send deputies. However, the other main cities refused to acknowledge the new Junta and armed conflict between the new government and those loyal to the Spanish crown began in 1810.

After years of many battles on multiple fronts, on July 9, 1816, the Congress of Tucumán formally declared the independence of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata from Spain. Today, this is the day Argentina celebrates Independence Day, although the Argentinian War of Independence did not officially conclude until 1818.

Important Figures in the Argentinian War of Independence

José de San Martín (1778-1850)
A national hero in both Argentina and Peru, in 1811 San Martín resigned from his military career fighting for Spain in Europe and Africa and returned to his home country of Argentina to join the revolutionary movement. San Martín was an important war general and helped Argentina, Peru, and Chile gain independence. Today, most Argentinian cities have a statue of San Martín, and in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral there is an eternal flame, lit in 1947 and burning ever since, in tribute to General San Martín and the Unknown Soldier of the War of Independence.

Manuel Belgrano (1770-1820)
Another one of Argentina's libertadores, Belgrano was an important criollo in Buenos Aires who fought against the two British invasions (1806 and 1807), supported the May Revolution and served in the Primera Junta, fought in the Argentinian war of independence, and created the flag of Argentina in 1812. He also played a role in the independence of Bolivia and Paraguay.

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Around the turn of the 18th century, enlightenment ideas, social rivalries, and prohibitions on trade fueled the desire for social change. Learn more about the

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The Unification of Germany occurred in the 19th century. After the Franco-Prussian War, the German princess proclaimed the German nation in Versailles, France, at the Hall of Mirrors. The unification joined together many independent German states, which became the German Empire.

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Otto Von Bismarck was the leader of German unification. He caused three different short wars against Denmark, Austria, and France. In the end, he unified Germany into a nation-state, forming the German Empire.

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Table of Contents

1. Otto von Bismarck: Early Years

2. Otto von Bismarck: The Iron Chancellor

3. Otto von Bismarck: Kulturkampf, Welfare State, Empire

4. Otto von Bismarck: Final Years and Legacy

Germany became a modern, unified nation under the leadership of the "Iron Chancellor" Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), who between 1862 and 1890 effectively ruled first Prussia and then all of Germany. A master strategist, Bismarck initiated decisive wars with Denmark, Austria and France to unite 39 independent German states under Prussian leadership. Although an arch-conservative, Bismarck introduced progressive reforms-including universal male suffrage and the establishment of the first welfare state-in order to achieve his goals. He manipulated European rivalries to make Germany a world power, but in doing so laid the groundwork for both World Wars.

Otto von Bismarck: Early Years

Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck was born April 1, 1815, at his family's estate in the Prussian heartland west of Berlin. His father was a fifth-generation Junker (a Prussian landowning noble), and his mother came from a family of successful academics and government ministers. Throughout his life Bismarck would emphasize his rural Junker roots, underplaying his considerable intellect and cosmopolitan outlook.

Did you know? Although German leader Otto von Bismarck wore a general's uniform in public for much of his later life (and successfully prosecuted three wars as chancellor), his only prior military service was a brief, unwilling stint in a reserve unit.

Bismarck was educated in Berlin and after university took a series of minor diplomatic posts before retiring, at age 24, to run his family's estate at Kneiphof. In 1847 he married and was sent to Berlin as a delegate to the new Prussian parliament, where he emerged as a reactionary voice against the liberal, anti-autocratic Revolutions of 1848.

From 1851 to 1862 Bismarck served a series of ambassadorships-at the German Confederation in Frankfurt, in St. Petersburg and in Paris-that gave him valuable insight into the vulnerabilities of Europe's great powers.

Otto von Bismarck: The Iron Chancellor

William I became Prussia's king in 1861 and a year later appointed Bismarck as his chief minister. Though technically deferring to William, in reality Bismarck was in charge, manipulating the king with his intellect and the occasional tantrum while using royal decrees to circumvent the power of elected officials.

In 1864 Bismarck began the series of wars that would establish Prussian power in Europe. He attacked Denmark to gain the German-speaking territories of Schleswig-Holstein and two years later provoked Emperor Franz-Josef I into starting the Austro-Prussian War (1866), which ended in a swift defeat for the aging Austrian empire. At the time, Bismarck wisely declined to levy a war indemnity against the Austrians.

Bismarck was less circumspect in his conduct of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). Seeing the opportunity to unify Germany's loose confederations against an outside enemy, Bismarck stirred political tensions between France and Prussia, famously editing a telegram from William I to make both countries feel insulted by the other. The French declared war, but the Prussians and their German allies won handily. Prussia levied an indemnity, annexed the French border provinces of Alsace and Lorraine and crowned William emperor of a unified Germany (the Second Reich) in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles-a tremendous insult to the French.

Otto von Bismarck: Kulturkampf, Welfare State, Empire

With Germany unified, William I and Bismarck turned to entrenching their domestic power. For much of the 1870s Bismarck pursued a Kulturkampf (cultural struggle) against Catholics, who made up 36 percent of Germany's population, by placing parochial schools under state control and expelling the Jesuits. In 1878 Bismarck relented, allying with the Catholics against the growing socialist threat.

In the 1880s Bismarck set aside his conservative impulses to counter the socialists by creating Europe's first modern welfare state, establishing national healthcare (1883), accident insurance (1884) and old age pensions (1889). Bismarck also hosted the 1885 Berlin Conference that ended the "Scramble for Africa," dividing the continent between the European powers and establishing German colonies in Cameroon, Togoland and East and Southwest Africa.

Otto von Bismarck: Final Years and Legacy

William I died in 1888 and was succeeded by his son Frederick III and then his grandson William II, both of whom Bismarck found difficult to control. In 1890 the new king forced Bismarck out. William II was left in control of a flourishing unified state but was ill-equipped to maintain Bismarck's carefully manipulated balance of international rivalries. Respected and honored by the time of his death eight years later, Bismarck quickly became a quasi-mythic figure invoked by political leaders calling for strong German leadership-or for war.

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Otto von Bismarck - Biography, World Wars & Facts

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Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898)-also known as the "Iron Chancellor"-was Chancellor of the newly-united German Empire from 1862 to 1890. During his tenure he modernized the nation and helped set the stage for World War I.

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Napoleon created the kingdom of Italy but when he was defeated they reverted back to an independent state. Victor Emmanuel led the unification movement. He sent troops to fight Russians alongside the British and French in hopes of gaining an ally. There were many wars involving the Italians as the searched for unification.

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In early 1861 a national parliament convened and proclaimed the Kingdom of Italy, with Victor Emmanuel II as its king. There were many leaders who helped unify Italy, including Cavour, Garibaldi, and more. The war of 1859 is what truly unified Italy though.

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The role of Piedmont

In Piedmont Victor Emmanuel II governed with a parliament whose democratic majority refused to ratify the peace treaty with Austria. This was an exception to the general course of reaction. The skillfully worded Proclamation of Moncalieri (November 20, 1849) favourably contrasted Victor Emmanuel's policies with those of other Italian rulers and permitted elections. The victorious Liberals installed a new cabinet under Massimo d'Azeglio, a moderate trusted by the king. D'Azeglio introduced the Siccardi law, which curtailed the power of ecclesiastical courts. In October 1850 another prominent moderate, Camillo Benso di Cavour, entered the cabinet and directed a laissez-faire economic policy. He formulated international commercial treaties and drew on foreign capital to reduce the public debt, stimulate economic growth, and develop a railroad system. Cavour's dynamism alarmed conservatives and even d'Azeglio. In 1852, through an alliance with centre-left deputies that became known as the connubio ("marriage"), Cavour displaced d'Azeglio as head of the cabinet. Despite disagreements with the king (who favoured the clerical party and occasionally displayed absolutist tendencies), Cavour introduced various ecclesiastical, judicial, and fiscal reforms.

A number of events promoted Piedmont's prestige in Italy and abroad. In March 1854 France and England intervened in support of the Ottoman Empire against Russia in the Crimean War. To obtain Austrian support, they were prepared to guarantee the status quo in Italy. Only Piedmont was in a position to disrupt it at that time, and Cavour negotiated an alliance with the Western powers. In May he sent to Crimea an army that performed brilliantly. As a result, Piedmont was able to assume a place among the victors at the Congress of Paris (February 1856). From this platform Cavour, achieving a diplomatic coup for Piedmont and Italy, declared that the only threat to peace in Italy, and the root cause of subversive plots, was the burdensome Austrian overlordship. Cavour's pronouncements at the congress increased the standing of Piedmont among nationalists.

Meanwhile, Mazzini's democratic and republican movement was crumbling. In February 1853 an insurrection against the Austrians failed in Milan. The discovery and execution at Belfiore (1852-53) of the leaders of a conspiracy in Mantua, as well as abortive insurrections in Cadore and Lunigiana, discredited the democratic movement and discouraged its most dedicated adherents. Mazzini faced complete isolation for his support of an expedition to the southern mainland to incite insurrection, known as the Sapri expedition (June-July 1857), in which the Neapolitan republican and socialist Carlo Pisacane and some 300 companions lost their lives. The democrats were divided and unable to carry on the revolutionary struggle; nothing was to be expected from the restored governments. In Lombardy-Venetia, Austria carried out stern repressive measures. Pius IX, now under the influence of the reactionary Giacomo Cardinal Antonelli, refused to grant any reforms in Rome. Liberal Catholicism could not remain viable without reforms in the Papal States. In Naples and the duchies, reaction became pervasive, although the grand duke of Tuscany sought to make his subjects forget that he owed his throne to Austrian military intervention. Only in Piedmont was there any hope left for the reformers.

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Italy - Unification, Risorgimento, Nation-State

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Italy - Unification, Risorgimento, Nation-State: In Piedmont Victor Emmanuel II governed with a parliament whose democratic majority refused to ratify the peace treaty with Austria. This was an exception to the general course of reaction. The skillfully worded Proclamation of Moncalieri (November 20, 1849) favourably contrasted Victor Emmanuel's policies with those of other Italian rulers and permitted elections.

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The Brazilian Revolution started in September of 1822. There was trouble finding a leader, since King John didn't want to rule because he felt he was in the way of independence. He put his son, Pedro, as ruler but he was reduced to Prince of Brazil. After Pedro heard that the Cortes wanted to abolish his power, he declared independence and went back to Rio. He was then named Emperor and would rule as the Constitution stated, Brazil also separated from Portugal. They had an argument over this resulting in a battle and then blockading Portugal in to surrender. After they came "at peace" with Portugal Pedro's father died and he went to rule Portugal in his place. His son was the new Brazilian leader who he had to fight in the Liberal wars.

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Brazilian Independence | 3 Minute History

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Dom João had a son who he made king, named Dom Pedro. After the king faced a difficult political, he was ordered back to Europe by Parliament. He didn't leave and the Brazilians supported it. He then formed a ministry founded by Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva. On September 7 of 1822, he declared independence of Brazil. The Brazilian war of independence was then fought for about two years.

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Over time, the Portuguese realized that some European countries, especially France, were also sending excursions to Brazil to extract brazilwood, and the Portuguese crown decided to send large missions to take possession of the land by setting up hereditary captaincies, which were largely a failure.