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There was a wall splitting through Berlin. To cross it you had to go through a bunch of paperwork and months of time just to find out if you got rejected or if you were even allowed to cross it. one one side of the wall the markets were going up while the other was going down, the solution was to let the wall come down. In the early 90's it came down, now allowing the people from the different sides to come together.

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Vice President George H.W. Bush looks over the Berlin Wall into East Berlin, escorted by West Berlin Mayor Richard von Weizacker and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, February 1, 1983. (U.S. Department of Defense)

"Reunification took a tremendous amount of diplomacy, strong international partnerships, and deft political maneuvering," said Stephen J. Hadley, chair of the U.S. Institute of Peace's Board of Directors and a former U.S. national security advisor. "To many of the people closest to the process, it was nothing short of a miracle."

On January 28, USIP marked the 30th anniversary of German reunification with the establishment of "Reconciliation Hall" in the Institute's George H.W. Bush Peace Education Center. It also hosted two panel discussions that were part of the event " 30 Years Later: German Reunification Revisited."

The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War and, eventually, the Soviet Union. Soviet-occupied East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic, was reunited with West Germany on October 3, 1990. And the Soviet Union collapsed a year later.

Emily Haber, Germany's ambassador to the United States, described the collapse of the Berlin Wall as a "sudden gift out of the blue."

"What would come next was anything but clear," she said, noting that the Soviet Union was still a potent political force at the time and many countries were unconvinced that a unified Germany was in Europe's best interests. "In this moment of uncertainty, visionary leaders came to the fore. Key among them was American President George H.W. Bush ... who had laid out his vision of a Europe whole and free," she added. Indeed, Haber noted, "German unity would not have been possible without the United States and its support."

Horst Köhler, who served as the president of Germany from 2004 to 2010, said Bush "showed America at its best. An America which was good for the American people, for Germany, and for the world."

"This America," Köhler said, "is needed just as much in this 21st century."

Lessons of Reunification

German reunification was a monumental moment in history that showed "the unthinkable can happen," Köhler said. "Reunification stands for hope even under the most adverse conditions," he said, adding this history of German reunification was also a history of great political leadership. Without the then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's reform policy of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restricting), for example, Köhler maintained German reunification and the end of the Cold War would not have been possible.

Former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, recalled that only the United States and West Germany were in favor of German reunification. Close U.S. allies-the United Kingdom, led by Margaret Thatcher, and France, led by Francois Mitterrand-had serious reservations about a unified Germany.

Despite these misgivings, the winds of change were blowing across Europe. The communist bloc was roiled by reform movements in the 1980s. In Poland, the ruling communist party voted to legalize the banned Solidarity trade union, which won seats in parliament in elections in the summer of 1989. In Hungary, there were mass demonstrations for democracy.

Discontent was also brewing in East Germany and the first signs of German unity began to appear. Köhler said that at protests, "from shouting 'We are the people,' the protesters began to claim 'We are one people.'" And, he recalled, East German demonstrators took up another slogan: "If the Deutsche Mark comes we will stay; if it doesn't come we will go to it!"

Baker and Köhler took part in a discussion moderated by presidential historian Jon Meacham. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Horst Teltschik, former national security advisor to the late German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, took part in the second panel discussion moderated by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius.

Lessons from Reunification

One of the main lessons from the reunification process, according to Baker, is: "If you have an opportunity to do something that you have supported rhetorically for 40 years you ought not to let that opportunity go by."

German reunification benefited immensely from the trusting relationships between the key players. Bush and Kohl shared a close relationship, while Bush had a "growing empathy" for Gorbachev, said Rice. "[Gorbachev] needed to be understood as somebody who really wanted to be a reformer," said Rice, adding: "We always said, we're not going to push [Gorbachev] into a corner so he has to say no because he is letting history unfold."

Quoting former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz on trust being the coin of the realm, Köhler said the trust between Bush, Gorbachev, and Kohl "made it possible for them to seize the right moment to act and to overcome the skepticism of other European leaders."

Teltschik agreed that the chemistry between the leaders was "absolutely exceptional."

Köhler listed some key takeaways from the German experience of reunification: "Get ahead of developments, prepare to expect the improbable and have the guts to lead," "keep your promises and make sure others are aware of it," "foreign policy begins at home," and, finally, "don't go it alone."

Rice, who was serving as head Soviet and East European Affairs on the U.S. National Security Council at the time of German reunification, listed some critical choices that ensured success. Bush and Kohl, she said, made the choice to trust German democracy and agreed that they needed to provide an opportunity for Gorbachev to take the hard decisions "without embarrassing him, without a sense of triumphalism, without a sense that the Soviet Union had lost the Cold War and that West Germany and the United States had won."

"They were, with all of their aides and all of their statements, determined to show that this was not a defeat for the Soviet Union, but a building and making of a new Europe in which the Soviet Union, and later Russia, would have a part," Rice said.

Equally critical was Kohl's decision to move quickly. "They understood that there was a window of opportunity and that that window of opportunity might not be open for very long," said Rice.

Baker, who served as secretary of state to Bush at the time of German reunification, also said the United States "took advantage of what turned out to be a very narrow window of opportunity. And it was a close-run thing."

A little over a year later, Gorbachev was out of power and the Soviet Union had collapsed.

Gorbachev and the 'Tide of History'

The Soviet Union, which had a formidable troop presence in East Germany, did not use force against the demonstrations there. Rice credited Gorbachev with making the choice "time and time again not to try to stop this tide of history."

What was important for Germany, Teltschik said, was that Gorbachev promised that, in a departure from the past, Soviet troops would not intervene in the domestic affairs of the Soviet Union's allies. Proof quickly came in Hungary and Poland that Gorbachev kept his word.

Rice recalled a similar experience with Gorbachev when the Soviet leader told Bush at their summit in Washington in May 1990 that Germany was free to choose its alliances.

Gorbachev truly believed in the idea of a common European home, said Rice. She recalled the former Soviet leader once told her: "I just want the Soviet Union to be a normal country."

However, the Soviet Union soon collapsed and Russia today is in the grip of Vladimir Putin, who was serving as a KGB officer in Dresden at the time of German reunification.

Rice said many Russians today have experienced living, traveling, and studying in the West. "Those people do know that there is another world out there. And for many Russians, particularly younger, more educated Russians, there is a desire to be part of a normal European country," she said.

Acknowledging that Putin's antipathy toward the West makes its hard to visualize a Europe in which Russia is a part, Rice counselled the need to remain engaged with "that younger Russian population that wants to be normal."

The Importance of U.S. Leadership

Both Rice and Baker underscored the importance of U.S. leadership on the world stage.

"When America is engaged ... we are a force for peace and stability," Baker said while emphasizing the importance of free trade and alliances. "America's alliances are extremely important to us, and we need to carefully tend them and not renounce them," he said. "More broadly, we need to remain engaged on the world stage."

Baker said U.S. leaders need to emphasize to a domestic audience that U.S. engagement on the world stage benefits the United States, both in terms of security as well as the economy. "No foreign policy can succeed if it doesn't have support at home. So, we have to educate the American people," Baker said.

Offering some advice to the Biden administration, Rice said it should shore up the transatlantic relationship. One of U.S. President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.'s first phone calls as president was to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

"Europe remains our most important strategic ally ... spending some time really rekindling the relationship that sustained us through the Cold War and delivered this reunification of Germany without a shot being fired, it's a project worth undertaking," Rice said.

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German Reunification: 'It Was Nothing Short of a Miracle'

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A little over 30 years ago, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent reunification of Germany were far from certain. It took visionary and courageous leaders-and a healthy dose of trust between them-to navigate what was a tumultuous period in history.

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If the problem continues, contact the site owner.

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In 12,000 BCE people lived there, the Spanish moved there and took over the land. The colonists made the natives slaves and when they died from the foreign diseases people started buying land. In the early to mid 1800's Simon Bolivar officially declared independence for the country.

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Colombia History in 5 Minutes - Animation

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Colombia - Revolution, Independence, Culture

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Colombia - Revolution, Independence, Culture: The French invasion of Spain in 1808 caused an outburst of loyalty to the king and country and excited grave concern for the church. Profound Granadine anxiety over the fate of the empire and conflicting courses of action attempted by colonial and peninsular subjects over control of government during the captivity of the Spanish king Ferdinand VII led to strife in New Granada and to declarations of independence. In 1810 the subordinated jurisdictions in New Granada threw out their Spanish officials, except in Santa Marta, Ríohacha, and what are now Panama and Ecuador. The uprising in Bogotá on July 20,

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In the 19th century the italian government came together after seperating in the early 1800s. They were annoyed by the ammount of power the different regions had so they just seperated them. Then in the 1900s they conjoined again into one country.

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Summary

For many centuries, the Italian peninsula was a politically fragmented conglomeration of states. This was the case when the United States announced its independence from Great Britain in 1776. When war broke out between Austria and the Revolutionary French Government in 1792, the French invaded the Italian peninsula, consolidated many of the Italian states, and established them as republics. In 1799 the Austrian and Russian armies pushed the French out of the Italian peninsula, which led to the demise of the fledgling republics.

After Napoleon's rise to power, the Italian peninsula was once again conquered by the French. Under Napoleon, the peninsula was divided into three entities: the northern parts which were annexed to the French Empire (Piedmont, Liguria, Parma, Piacenza, Tuscany, and Rome), the newly created Kingdom of Italy (Lombardy, Venice, Reggio, Modena, Romagna, and the Marshes) ruled by Napoleon himself, and the Kingdom of Naples, which was first ruled by Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonaparte, but then passed to Napoleon's brother-in-law Joachim Murat.

The period of French invasion and occupation was important in many ways. It introduced revolutionary ideas about government and society, resulting in an overthrow of the old established ruling orders and the destruction of the last vestiges of feudalism. The ideals of freedom and equality were very influential. Also of consequence, the concept of nationalism was introduced, thus sowing the seeds of Italian nationalism throughout most parts of the northern and central Italian peninsula.

With the downfall of Napoleon in 1814 and the redistribution of territory by the Congress of Vienna (1814-15), most of the Italian states were reconstituted: the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (often referred to as Sardinia), the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Parma, the Papal States, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (fused together from the old Kingdom of Naples and Kingdom of Sicily). These were largely conservative regimes, presided over by the old social orders.

Although the Italian peninsula remained fragmented through the mid-1800s, the concept of a united Italy began to take root. Secret societies formed to oppose the conservative regimes. Several of these societies also promoted Italian nationalism and the idea of a unified Italian political state. One such society was the group Young Italy, founded in 1831 by Guiseppe Mazzini. Mazzini was an ardent advocate of the necessity for Italian unification through the desires and actions of the Italian people. Thus, the movement of Italian unification, a process referred to as the Risorgimento (resurgence) proliferated by mid-century.

The revolutions of 1848 ignited nationalist sentiment throughout the Italian peninsula. There were widespread uprisings in several Italian cities that year, mostly by the professional classes (such as doctors, lawyers, shopkeepers) as well as students. Lombardy-Venetia and Milan tried to rise up against Austrian rule. Although the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia sent troops to aid the revolt, it was crushed by the Austrians at Custoza in July 1848. The Italian uprisings were unsuccessful and by 1849 the old regimes were once again in place.

Yet, the idea of the Risorgimento continued to gain adherents after 1848. The final push for Italian unification came in 1859, led by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (then the wealthiest and most liberal of the Italian states), and orchestrated by Piedmont-Sardinia's Prime Minister, Count Camillo di Cavour. A skilled diplomat, Cavour secured an alliance with France. The Franco-Austrian War of 1859 was the agent that began the physical process of Italian unification. The Austrians were defeated by the French and Piedmontese at Magenta and Solferino, and thus relinquished Lombardy. By the end of the year Lombardy was added to the holdings of Piedmont-Sardinia.

The northern Italian states held elections in 1859 and 1860 and voted to join the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, a major step towards unification, while Piedmont-Sardinia ceded Savoy and Nice to France. Giuseppi Garibaldi, a native of Piedmont-Sardinia, was instrumental in bringing the southern Italian states into the unification process. In 1860, Garibaldi cobbled together an army (referred to as the "Thousand") to march into the southern part of the peninsula. Landing first in Sicily and then moving onwards into Naples, Garibaldi and his men overthrew the Bourbon monarchy and turned over the southern territories to Victor Emmanuel II, King of Piedmont-Sardinia. In early 1861 a national parliament convened and proclaimed the Kingdom of Italy, with Victor Emmanuel II as its king. At this point, there were only two major territories outside of the parameters of the new Kingdom of Italy: Rome and Venetia.

In 1866 Italy joined Prussia in a campaign against Austria (the 1866 Austro-Prussian War) and thus won Venetia. In 1870, taking advantage of the fact that France (the country responsible at the time for guarding the Papal States) was distracted by involvement in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), the Italian army entered Rome. That year, Rome and the Papal States were incorporated into Italy and the Risorgimento completed. During the summer of 1871, the Italian capital moved to Rome from Florence (it was moved from Turin to Florence in 1865).

Major Events

Overall Impact upon U.S. Foreign Policy

The history of recognitions (and the establishment of relations, where applicable) between the United States and the Italian states impacted several different areas of U.S. policy, including:

Trade and Commerce. The industrialization process that swept through the northern United States in the early nineteenth century spread through the northern and central Italian states in the mid-nineteenth century. As a result, the Italian states (and after 1861, the Kingdom of Italy) and the United States both sought to cultivate trade and commercial ties for mutual benefit.

Immigration and Citizenship. By the 1870s Italian immigration to the New World (both to the United States as well as to Argentina, amongst other South American countries) began to increase. Indeed, some of the "fathers" of modern Italy spent time in the United States. Garibaldi spent enough time in the U.S. to gain a U.S. passport, and was offered a commission in the U.S. Army during the Civil War.

U.S. Civil War. The unification of the Italian states impacted the foreign policy of the United States in numerous ways. Perhaps the issue that had the most immediate impact upon U.S. foreign policy in the early 1860s was over the question of recognition of the U.S. Confederacy. The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed just as the U.S. Civil War began. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln wanted to ensure that the new Italian state did not recognize the U.S. Confederacy. Washington also worried that, with Italy's long coastline, Confederate ships might seek shelter in Italian waters. With this in mind, the Italian government gave "strong assurances that no Confederate ship would be admitted to Italian ports unless it was a question of adverse weather conditions or other vis major."

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Unification of Italian States - Countries - Office of the Historian