Learn European Unification: 91 Flashcards from Bismarck and Garibaldi to the EU

Deck QB5078 — European Unification: 19th Century to EU has 91 cards that cover two different stories. The first half is about how nation-states were built: Germany and Italy, 1806–1871. The second half is about how sovereignty was pooled: the road from Churchill's 1946 Zürich speech to a 27-member EU. The useful question is what links them, and the deck asks it directly: card 51 says that unification "created two new major powers that disrupted the balance of power," and much of the 20th century followed from that.

The deck in four blocks

1. Cards 1–26: Germany. Kleinstaaterei, the Confederation of the Rhine, the Congress of Vienna, the Wartburg (1817) and Hambach (1832) festivals, the Carlsbad Decrees, the Zollverein, railways, Bismarck's three wars and the proclamation at Versailles.
2. Cards 27–44: Italy. The Risorgimento, Mazzini's Young Italy, Cavour, Garibaldi's Thousand, Venetia in 1866, Rome in 1870 and the Roman Question.
3. Cards 45–51: comparison. Prussia and Piedmont as the leading regional powers, the 1848 revolutions, Realpolitik and the Kulturkampf.
4. Cards 52–91: the EU. Founding treaties, institutions, the four freedoms, Schengen and the eurozone. Cards 77–81 jump back to the interwar years (Keynes, the Paneuropean Union, Briand), so move them in front of card 65 and the timeline reads straight through.

Sample cards

Study tip 1: learn the 1866–1871 cards as pairs

The two unifications run on the same timeline, so pair the cards. 1866: Prussia defeats Austria, and Italy gains Venetia (cards 23 and 37). 1870: the Franco-Prussian War pulls the French garrison out of Rome, and Italian troops enter the city on September 20 (cards 24 and 36). 1871: the Empire is proclaimed at Versailles, and Rome becomes Italy's capital. If you remember one date, you get its partner card too.

Study tip 2: fix these cards before you review them

• Card 73: the Treaty of Paris was signed on April 18, 1951. July 23, 1952 is when it came into force.
• Card 5: Prussia's customs law dates from 1818, but the Zollverein itself started on January 1, 1834.
• Card 57: the Inner Six became a bloc with the ECSC in 1951, not in 1948.
• Card 3: the North German Confederation started as an alliance, but from 1867 it was a federal state with its own constitution.
• Duplicates: cards 52/53 (27 members) and 55/76 (Maastricht 1993). Keep one card from each pair.
• Missing: the Ems Dispatch, the euro (1999/2002) and the 2004 enlargement. Add a card for each.

Key terms

Realpolitik, Kulturkampf, Vormärz, mediatization, Federal Diet, Peace of Prague, Treaty of Frankfurt, Alsace-Lorraine, Lombardy-Venetia, Two Sicilies, Papal States, OEEC, Treaty of Brussels, Hague Congress, Council of Europe, ECSC, EEC, Euratom, Single European Act, Common Foreign and Security Policy, In Varietate Concordia.

For the postwar context behind cards 65–69 (the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan), see our Cold War study guide.

Search for QB5078 in the Flip It library to start reviewing.