# data[].attributes.body
Otto von Bismarck was a great Germanic leader and chancellor. He had expanded the Prussian Empire so he could unify all the German states. he had a goal to make Germany the most powerful country and after he had disagreed with Emperor Wilhelm II he was retired to an estate near Hamburg and died there.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Bismarck was responsible for transforming a collection of small German states into the German empire, and was its first chancellor.

Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck was born into an aristocratic family at Schönhausen, northwest of Berlin, on 1 April 1815. He attended a prestigious school in Berlin followed by the University of Göttingen. He then entered the Prussian civil service but was bored by his job and in 1838 resigned. For nearly a decade, he helped his father manage the family estates.

In 1847, Bismarck married Johanna von Puttkamer, who provided him with stability. It was a year of significant change in his life, when he also embraced the Christian tradition of Lutheranism, and began his political career in the Prussian legislature, where he gained a reputation as an ultra-conservative royalist. In 1851, King Frederick Wilhelm IV appointed Bismarck as Prussian representative to the German Confederation. He then served as ambassador to Russia and France. In 1862, he returned to Prussia and was appointed prime minister by the new king, Wilhelm I.

Bismarck was now determined to unite the German states into a single empire, with Prussia at its core. With Austrian support, he used the expanded Prussian army to capture the provinces of Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark. He then escalated a quarrel with Austria and its German allies over the administration of these provinces into a war, in which Prussia was the victor. Prussia then annexed further territory in Germany.

Unable to persuade the southern German states to join with his North German Confederation, he provoked hostilities with France as a way of uniting the German states together. The German victory in the Franco-Prussian War won over the southern German states, and in 1871 they agreed to join a German empire. Wilhelm I of Prussia became emperor.

As 'chancellor' of the new Germany, Bismarck concentrated on building a powerful state with a unified national identity. One of his targets was the Catholic Church, which he believed had too much influence, particularly in southern Germany. He also worked to prevent the spread of socialism, partly by introducing health insurance and pensions.

Abroad, Bismarck aimed to make the German empire the most powerful in Europe. In 1879, he negotiated an alliance with Austria-Hungary to counteract France and Russia. Italy later joined the alliance. To avoid alienating Britain, Bismarck arranged the two Mediterranean Agreements of 1887, designed to preserve the status quo against a Russian threat.

In 1890, Bismarck resigned after disagreeing with the new emperor, Wilhelm II. He retired to his estate near Hamburg and died there on 30 July 1898.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bismarck was responsible for transforming a collection of small German states into the German empire, and was its first chancellor. Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck was born into an aristocratic family at Schönhausen, northwest of Berlin, on 1 April 1815. He attended a prestigious school in Berlin followed by the University of Göttingen.

# data[].attributes.headline
German artwork of the leaders of the Unification of Germany

# data[].attributes.subject
German artwork of the leaders of the Unification of Germany

# data[].attributes.body
This is impressionism.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Italy - Unification, Risorgimento, Nation-State

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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.

# data[].attributes.headline
Italian artwork of the leaders of the Unification of Italy

# data[].attributes.subject
Italian artwork of the leaders of the Unification of Italy

# data[].attributes.body
This is romanticism.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
History leading to independence

Prior to the Spanish expeditions led by Francisco Pizarro in 1533, the land now known as Ecuador was inhabited by the Incas and Cañari.

Incan warriors had only started incorporating Ecuadorian land in 1463 after battles with native groups like the Cañari, who formed around 900 A.D.

The Incas used native Ecuadorian labor to construct roads and buildings and for military service, but they did not have to pay taxes to the empire. This was known as Mit'a in Quechua, the language spoken by most indegeabous tribes in the Andean region.

The Spanish were able to conquer the Incan territories so easily because of how weak the empire was following its civil war.

Huáscar became Sapa Inca (sovereign emperor) after several deaths in his family and he named his brother Atahualpa as the governor of Quito, the modern day capital of Ecuador. Fearing his brother would launch a coup against him, Huáscar declared war on him in 1529.

Atahualpa eventually imprisoned his brother and therefore became the last Sapa Inca in 1532.

When Pizarro's expedition came, they used Atahualpa to conqueror much of the Incan area and when they killed him, it essentially marked the end of one of Latin America's greatest empires.

After centuries of Spanish rule, Napoleon tried to take over the Iberian Peninsula in 1808 and on Aug. 10, 1809 Spaniards in Ecuador rebelled against French rule.

This commemorates the first day of declaration of independence for Quito.

That rebellion was crushed in weeks, but the war for independence came in 1820 and the Spanish were finally defeated after the Battle of Pichincha on May 24, 1822.

Ecuador went on to join Gran Colombia, including the territories of Colombia, Venezuela and northern Peru and Brazil, which was formed by General Simón Bolívar who helped several South American countries gain independence.

Ecuador left on May 30, 1830, after members of Gran Colombia favored federalism to the centralized government.

Julio Jaramillio, who lived from 1935 to 1978, is Ecuador's most acclaimed singer, and is on the same level as José José in Mexico or Frank Sinatra in the U.S..

Known as El Ruiseñor de América ("The Nightingale of the Americas") he mainly sang boleros and his songs "Nuestro Juramento" and "Odiame" can still be heard in cantinas across Latin America.

Cirrhosis caused by his alcohol plagued his final years and when the city of Guayaquil held a tribute in 1978 for Jaramillo following his death, it is estimated that 250,000 attended.

Antonio Valencia is hailed as his country's greatest soccer player and currently plays for Liga de Quito in the Ecuadorian Serie A at the age of 35.

The winger and fullback is better known for his days at Manchester United, where he guided them to two Premier League titles and a Europa League in his 10 years at one of England's largest clubs.

Rafael Correa, president from 2007 to 2017, is one of the country's most transformative leaders. He is an economist who campaigned against neoliberalism and the wealthy elite.

While allying closely with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, Correa rejected the predatory policies of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank that had trapped the country in debt and this allowed him to invest heavily in social programs and infrastructure.

He currently hosts a show on RT Spanish from his self-imposed exile in Belgium, after his successor and vice president, Lenín Moreno, strayed from his ideology and a judge demanded he return to face charges for the suspicion of kidnapping a political opponent.

Ecuador, which is 109,483 square miles in size, is smaller in size than the U.S. state of Arizona.

It is also the world's largest exporter of bananas, accounting for about 28.3% of the world supply in 2016. In the same year the South America country sold 215 million tons of the fruit, worth $110 million.

The country of over 17 million also became the first to give nature constitutional rights in 2008.

"Nature or Pacha Mama, where life is reproduced and realized, has the right to have its existence and the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes fully respected," written in Article 71 of the Ecuadorian Constitution.

With Ecuador using the U.S. dollar, it has made it very easy for American tourists to travel there. The switch happened in 2000, when the government sought to stabilize their currency after the sucre dramatically lost value during an economic crisis in the late 1990's.

The country has had one female president and she governed for two days. Rosalía Arteaga was the vice president of Abdalá Bucaram but after he was impeached she disputed the presidency with a congressional leader, Fabián Alarcón.

Arteaga was president from Feb. 9 to Feb. 11, 1997, but after Alarcón gained the support of congress and the military, she was forced to resign.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
It's been 211 years since Ecuador demanded independence

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
History leading to independence Prior to the Spanish expeditions led by Francisco Pizarro in 1533, the land now known as Ecuador was inhabited by the Incas and Cañari. Incan warriors had only started incorporating Ecuadorian land in 1463 after battles with native groups like the Cañari, who formed around 900 A.D.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
1932 Paulista Rebellion | 3 Minute History