front 1 Frederic Sorrieu was a French artist who
in 1848 prepared a
series of four prints
visualising his dream of a world made
up
of ‘Democratic and Social Republics’.
The features of
Frédéric Sorrieu's
paintings were:
The people of Europe
and America
marching in a long line are paying
homage to the
Statue of Liberty.
This shows that they wanted
and
appreciated the principles of liberty,
equality and
fraternity.
On the foreground of the image lie
the
shattered symbols of
monarchical regimes signifying
the
downfall of the monarchical and
absolutists
regimes.
In this image, people are grouped as
distinct
nations identified by their
flags and national costumes.
This
depict the rise of nation states in
Europe and America. | back 1 A Nation State refers to a
country with
well-defined
delineated boundaries, resided by
people with a
similar culture,
shared history and ethnic
character. It is
also supposed to
have a government of its choice.
The people
in a Nation State are
supposed to have unity, strength
and cooperation. |
front 2 The French Revolution is regarded as one of the most important events
in history. It not only gave a
huge setback to monarchy but also
gave the first clear expression to the idea of ‘nationalism’.
The
French Revolution led to the transfer of sovereignty from
monarchy to the French citizens. The
Constitution in France came
into existence and citizens were awarded with the rights of liberty
and
equality.
The French revolutionaries introduced various
measures and practices to create a sense of
collective identity
amongst the French people. These were:
The ideas of la patrie
(the fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen) was introduced. | back 2 The Estates General was renamed the ‘National Assembly’. Its
members were elected by active
citizens (citizens who paid taxes
to the government).
The new French flag replaced the former
royal standard.
Nation now became supreme. Hymns were composed
and oaths were taken on the name of the
nation. It was regarded
as a ‘fatherland’.
The administrative system was centralised,
and uniform laws were formulated for all citizens.
A uniform
system of weights and measures was adopted, and internal custom duties
and dues
were abolished.
The French language was made the
common language of the people residing in France.
The
revolutionaries declared that their next motive is to help other
people of Europe to become
nations.
The French Revolution
impacted the middle class including professionals and students in
several
countries such as Switzerland, Holland, Italy and
Belgium. They also wanted to throw off the
monarchies in their
countries and become nations. |
front 3 Napoleon – Child of the French Revolution
The rise of Napoleon
marked the rise of monarchy in France. However, Napoleon implemented
some
revolutionary ideas and principles in France. He did this by
taking the following steps:
He introduced the Civil Code of
1804, also known as the Napoleonic
Code. This Code instituted the
principle of equality of all people before
the law, right to
property was established and all privileges enjoyed by
the people
of high birth and class were abolished.
This Code was also
promulgated to other parts of Europe which were
controlled by
France.
In many European countries such as Switzerland,
Germany, Dutch
Republic and Italy, he simplified the
administrative machinery, ended
the feudal system and liberated
the peasants from serfdom.
In towns, restrictions imposed on
guilds were removed, and transport
and communication systems were
improved. Businessmen, small
industrialists and traders began to
realise the importance and advantages of a uniform system
of
laws.
People of other European countries initially
welcomed the French armies but later began to
oppose them because
of increased taxation and censorship imposed on them. | back 3 The Beginning of Nationalism in Europe
During the mid-eighteenth
century, there were no nation states in Europe. Italy, Germany
and
Switzerland were not one nation but were divided into various
kingdoms. Central and eastern Europe
was under absolute
monarchies. Several factors led to the emergence of the idea of
nationalism in
the later half the eighteenth century. Some of
these were the rise of the middle class, liberalism
and the rise
of a new conservatism after 1815 and its opposition by the people. |
front 4 Rise of the new middle class: The aristocratic class in Europe was a
dominant class, but it was
comprised of only few people. Most of
the people in Europe were peasants. The Industrial
Revolution
resulted in the emergence of the labour or working class. Many small
industrialists,
businessmen and professionals who formed the
middle class gained prominence. These classes
supported the
abolition of aristocratic privileges, demanded equality and advocated
the idea of
nationalism.
Liberalism: The middle class stood
for ‘liberalism’. Liberalism in political terms stood
for
equality, freedom, formation and working of government by
consent. In the economic field,
liberalism advocated the freedom
of markets and the abolition of unjust duties on the movement
of
goods from one territory to the other. This led to the beginning of
economic nationalism in
Europe which contributed to the rise of
nationalism. The new commercial class argued for the
creation of
a unified economic territory allowing the unhindered movement of
goods, people and
capital. Later, several measures were
introduced. Some of these were
In 1834, a customs union called
‘zollverein’ was formed at the initiative of Prussia.
Several
German states joined this union
The union
abolished tariff barriers and reduced the number of currencies from
over thirty
to two.
The introduction of railways created
mobility leading to the national unification.
The creation of a
network of railways further stimulated mobility harnessing
economic
interests to national unification.
We find that a
wave of economic nationalism strengthened the wider nationalist
sentiments
growing at the time.
Rise of New Conservatism and
its opposition by the people
After the defeat of Napoleon, there
was a rise of new conservatism. | back 4 Conservatives
They were of the opinion that the traditional
institutions of
state and society – like the monarchy, the
Church, social
hierarchies, property and the family – should be
preserved
Did not propose a return to the society of
pre-revolutionary
days but realised that modernisation could in
fact
strengthen traditional institutions like the monarchy |
front 5 The Congress of Vienna was held in 1815 in which Britain, Russia,
Prussia and Austria
participated to draw up settlement for
Europe. The Congress was hosted by the Austrian
Chancellor Duke
Metternich. Some results of the Congress of Vienna were:
Monarchy was restored in France and strengthened in Prussia, Belgium
and Austria.
Autocratic governments were set up in these
countries.
A series of states were set up on the boundaries of
France to prevent French expansion in
future.
Conservative
regimes set up in 1815 were autocratic. They did not tolerate dissent
and imposed
censorship on those materials and articles in
newspapers, books, plays and songs that reflected the
ideas of
liberty and freedom. | back 5 These conservative ideas gave rise to liberal nationalists and
revolutionaries. Liberals were opposed
to monarchial governments.
They advocated liberty and freedom and the creation of nation
states.
After 1815, many liberal nationalist went underground and
established several secret societies. |
| |
front 7 The Age of Revolutions (1830-48)
Nationalism emerged not only as
a result of wars and battles. Culture played an important role
in
HISTORY RISE OF NATIONALISM IN
EUROPE
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creating the idea of the
nation. Art, painting, poetry, stories and music played an important
role in
strengthening the feeling of
nationalism.
Romanticism was a cultural movement in which the
artists romanticised human feelings and
emotions. This was done
to create a common cultural past
as the basis of a nation. Stress
was laid on vernacular
languages and folklore. This gave
communities who were
living under the control of other powerful
nations a
cultural identity. For example, the people of Poland
who
were under Russian control defied the ban on
speaking
Polish. This was a kind of struggle to overthrow
the
Russian rule from their territory and to become
an
independent nation. Similarly, German philosopher
Johann
Gottfried Herder claimed that true German
culture was to be
discovered among the common people –
‘das volk’.
The
emphasis was laid on using vernacular language and
the collection
of local folklore not only to discover an
ancient national
spirit, but also to carry the message of
modern nationalists to
illiterate people. | back 7 Hunger, Hardships and Revolts
The 1830s were years of great
economic hardship in Europe. It was because:
During the 1830s,
there was a large-scale unemployment in Europe. In most of the
European
countries, employment opportunities were less whereas
job seekers were many.
Cities had come to be extremely
overcrowded. As a result, slums had started coming up as
more
people migrated from the rural to urban areas.
Small producers
in towns were often faced with stiff competition from the imports of
cheap
machine-made goods from England where industrialisation was
more advanced, especially in
textile production.
Peasants
struggled under the burden of feudal dues and obligations. The rise of
food prices or
a year of bad harvest led to widespread poverty in
town and country |
front 8 The Revolutions of the Liberals
The year 1848 was a year of
revolts. These revolts were led by the educated middle class.
In the revolution of February 1848, the French monarch was dethroned
and the country
became a republic based on universal male
suffrage (right to vote was given to all men).
In other parts
of Europe nation-states did not yet exist such as Germany, Italy and
Poland.
The men and women of the liberal middle classes demanded
constitutionalism with national
unification
In Germany,
people of educated middle class came together and decided to vote for
an allGerman National Assembly.
A painting by a French painter
Delacroix who
depicts an incident in which 20,000 Greeks
were
said to have been killed by Turks on the island
of
Chios. Through this painting, he was trying to
create
sympathy for the Greeks.
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On 18May 1848, 831 elected
representatives marched to take their places in the
Frankfurt
Parliament. They drafted a constitution for a German
nation to be headed by a monarchy
subjected to Parliamentary
control.
The Prussian monarch Friedrich Wilhelm IV rejected the
constitution. The German Parliament
which resisted the demands of
the workers and artisans lost their support. Later,
the
parliament led by the educated middle class was forced to
disband.
At this time, women all over Europe campaigned for
securing voting rights. | back 8 Unification of Germany
The newly emerged middle class in
Germany in 1848 tried to unite several German kingdoms
which were
suppressed by monarchies and large landowners into one nation state
governed by an
elected body.
Prussia, a German kingdom,
took the leadership in uniting various German states. Otto
von
Bismarck, the Chief Minister of Prussia, aimed to achieve the
goal of
unification with the help of the Prussian army and the
bureaucracy.
Spread over seven years, the Prussian army with
the help of the Austrian,
French and Danish armies fought three
wars and successfully incorporated all
the small German kingdoms.
This marked the process of completion of
German
unification.
In 1871, William I was declared as the
emperor of Germany at the Palace of
Versailles. The process of
the unification of Germany exhibited the power of
the Prussian
state. Many new reforms were initiated in banking,
currency,
administration and judiciary in Germany. |
front 9 Unification of Italy
Italy was also politically fragmented
into various small states which were ruled by
monarchies.
During the mid-nineteenth century, only the state of Sardinia-Piedmont
was ruled
by the Italian monarchy. The northern states were under
the Austrian monarchy,
Central Italy was under the control of the
Pope and the states in the south were
under the control of the
Bourbon kings of Spain.
Giuseppe Mazzini was a revolutionary
who actively supported the unification of the
Italian states. For
achieving this aim, he formed a secret society called
‘Young
Italy’.
The state of Sardinia-Piedmont took the
responsibility of fulfilling this task after
Giuseppe
Garibaldi
Otto von Bismarck
HISTORY RISE OF NATIONALISM IN
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the failed uprisings in 1831
and 1848. The king of Sardinia-Piedmont, Victor Emmanuel II,
was
actively helped by his Chief Minister Cavour. Cavour led the
process of the unification of Italy.
In 1859, the state of
Sardinia-Piedmont defeated the Austrians. In 1860, the Italian
forces
helped by Giuseppe Garibaldi and his volunteers marched
into southern Italy and unified it with
Italy.
King Victor
Emmanuel II was proclaimed as the king of united Italy. The complete
unification
of Italy was achieved in 1871.
Great Britain – A
Nation State
The transformation of Great Britain i | back 9 Great Britain – A Nation State
The transformation of Great
Britain into a nation state was not a sudden process. There was
no
one British nation before the eighteenth century.
People residing in the British Isles were mainly English, Welsh, Scots
and Irish. These ethnic
groups had distinct political and social
traditions.
As the English nation grew in wealth and power, it
began to dominate the other islands.
In 1688, the English
Parliament seized power from the monarchy. The Parliament passed the
Act
of Union, 1707, by which England and Scotland were unified
resulting in the formation of the
‘United Kingdom of Great
Britain’.
The Parliament was dominated by the English, and the
political and cultural identities of the
Scots were
systematically suppressed. The Catholics in Scotland were brutally
suppressed
whenever they wanted to regain their
independence.
Ireland was inhabited by the Protestants and the
Catholics. The English supported the
Protestants and established
their rule with their help and support. Catholics, who constituted
a
majority in Ireland, revolted against the British on numerous
occasions but were suppressed.
Ireland forcibly became a part
of Britain in 1801. The English language dominated. Both
Scotland
and Ireland were subordinate to England.
The idea
of a nation was expressed in various forms by artists and painters.
Most of the nations
were portrayed as female figures. The female
figure became an allegory of the nation. ‘Marianne’ in
France and
‘Germania’ in Germany became allegories of a nation. |
front 10 Allegory
An allegory is an
abstract idea which
is
expressed through a
person or a thing. It can
be
literal or symbolic.
‘Germania’ was an
allegory of
the
German nation | back 10 Nationalism and Imperialism
Nationalism which is the feeling
of love for one’s own nation became intense and narrow minded
in
the mid-nineteenth century. Many nations became intolerant of each
other and competed with
one another for the control of
territories.
Imperialism is territorial control of a region or
a country by another country by using military
control.
This feeling of nationalism became intense in the Balkan region. The
Balkan region formerly
comprised the present-day territories of
Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Croatia, Greece, BosniaHerzegovina,
Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro. The people in these countries were
called Slavs.
The disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the
region made the situation very explosive in the
region as every
state was jealous of one another and hoped to gain independence at the
cost of
the other.
One by one, the European nationalities
in the Balkan broke away from the control of the
Ottoman Empire
and declared independence.
As the different Slavic
nationalities struggled to define their identity and independence,
the
Balkan area became an area of intense conflict.
During
this time, many powerful European nations such as England, France,
Russia and Germany
competed to gain control in the Balkan region.
This competition for gaining prominence in the
region finally led
to the First World War in 1914.
Later, several Asian and
African countries which were colonised by the European nations
began
to oppose imperial domination. Anti- imperial movements
that began in colonies were nationalist in
nature as people were
fighting to form independent nation states. |
