Reaction and Revolution:
The Growth of Nationalism
QFocus Questions: What were the major ideas associated with conservatism, liberalism, and
nationalism, and what role did each ideology play in Europe between 1800 and 1850? What were the
causes of the revolutions of 1848, and why did these revolutions fail?
Industrialization was a major force for
change in the nineteenth century as it led the
West into the machine dependent modern
world. Another major force forBailey JayBailey
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nationalism, which transformed the political
map of Europe in the nineteenth century.
The Conservative Order
After the defeat of Napoleon, European
rulers moved to restore much of the old order.
This was the goal of the great powers---Great
Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia--when they
met at the Congress of Vienna in September
1814 to arrange a final peace settlement after
1
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JayBailey JayvBailey JayTo reestablish peace and
stability in Europe, he considered it necessary to
restore the legitimate monarchs who would
preserve traditional institutions. This had
already been done in France with the
restoration of the Bourbon monarchy and in a
number of other states, but it did not stop the
great powers from grabbing territory, often
from the smaller, weaker states.
The peace arrangements of 1815 were but the
beginning of a conservative reaction
determined to contain the liberal and
nationalist forces unleashed by the French
Revolution. Metternich and his kind were
representatives of the ideology known as
conservatism. Most conservatives favored
obedience to political authority, believed that
organized religion was crucial to social order,
hated revolutionary upheavals, and were
unwilling to accept either the liberal demands
for civil liberties and representative
governments or the nationalistic aspirations
generated by the French revolutionary era.
After 1815, the political philosophy of
conservatism was supported by hereditary
monarchs, government bureaucracies,
landowning aristocracies, and revived
churches, both Protestant and Catholic. The
conservative forces were dominant after 1815.
One method used by the great powers to
2
maintain the new status quo they had
constructed was the Concert of Europe,
according to which Great Britain, Russia,
Prussia, and Austria (and later France) agreed to
meet periodically in conferences to take steps
that would maintain the peace in Europe.
Eventually, the great powers adopted a
principle of intervention, asserting that they
had the right to send armies into countries
where there were revolutions to restore
legitimate monarchs to their thrones.
Forces for Change
Between 1815 and 1830, conservative
governments throughout Europe worked to
maintain the old order. But, powerful forces for
change---liberalism and nationalism--were also
at work. Liberalism owed much to the
Enlightenment of the eighteenth century and
the American and French Revolutions at the
end of that century; it was based on the idea
that people should be as free from restraint as
possible. Liberals came to hold a common set of
political beliefs. Chief among them was the
protection of civil liberties, or the basic rights of
all people, which included equality before the
law; freedom of assembly, speech, and the
press; and freedom from arbitrary arrest. All of
these freedoms should be guaranteed by a
written document, such as the American Bill of
Rights. In addition to religious toleration for all,
most liberals advocated separation of church
and state. Liberals also demanded the right of
peaceful opposition to the government in and
out of parliament and the making of laws by a
representative assembly (legislature) elected
by qualified voters. Thus, many liberals
believed in a constitutional monarchy or
constitutional state with limits on the powers of
government to prevent despotism and in
written constitutions that would guarantee
these rights. Liberals were not democrats,
however. They thought that the right to vote
and hold office should be open only to men of
property. As a political philosophy, liberalism
was adopted by middle-class men, especially
industrial middle-class men, who favored voting
rights for themselves so that they could share
power with the landowning classes. Nationalism
was an even more powerful ideology for change
in the nineteenth century.
Nationalism arose out of an awareness
of being part of a community that has common
institutions, traditions, language, and customs.
This community is called a nation, and the
primary political loyalty of individuals would be
to the nation. Nationalism did not become a
popular force for change until the French
Revolution. From then on, nationalists came to
believe that each nationality should have its
own government. Thus, the Germans, who
were not united, wanted national unity in a
German nation-state with one central
government. Subject peoples, such as the
3
Hungarians, wanted the right to establish their
own autonomy rather than be subject to a
German minority in the multinational Austrian
Empire. Nationalism, then, was a threat to the
existing political order. A united Germany, for
example, would upset the balance of power
established at Vienna in 1815. Conservatives
feared such change and tried hard to repress
nationalism. The conservative order dominated
much of Europe after 1815, but the forces of
liberalism and nationalism, first generated by
the French Revolution, continued to grow as
that second great revolution, the Industrial
Revolution, expanded and brought in new
groups of people who wanted change. In 1848,
these forces for change erupted.
THE RISE OF NATIONALISM
Like the Industrial Revolution, the
concept of nationalism originated in eighteenth-
century Europe, where it was the product of a
variety of factors, including the spread of
printing and the replacement of Latin with
vernacular languages, the secularization of the
age, and the experience of the French
revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. The French
were the first to show what a nation in arms
could accomplish, but peoples conquered by
Napoleon soon created their own national
armies. At the beginning of the nineteenth
century, peoples who had previously focused
their identity on a locality or a region, on loyalty
to a monarch or to a particular religious faith,
now shifted their political allegiance to the idea
of a nation, based on ethnic, linguistic, or
cultural factors. The idea of the nation had
explosive consequences: by the end of the first
two decades of the twentieth century, the
world’s three largest multiethnic states—
imperial Russia, Austria-Hungary, and the
Ottoman Empire—had all given way to a
number of individual nation-states.
4
The idea of establishing political boundaries on
the basis of ethnicity, language, or culture had a
broad appeal throughout Western civilization,
but it had unintended consequences. Although
the concept provided the basis for a new sense
of community that was tied to liberal thought
in the first half of the nineteenth century, it also
gave birth to ethnic tensions and hatred in the
second half of the century that resulted in bitter
disputes and contributed to the competition
between nation-states that eventually erupted
into world war. Governments, following the
lead of the radical government in Paris during
the French Revolution, took full advantage of
the rise of a strong national consciousness and
transformed war into a demonstration of
national honor and commitment. Universal
schooling enabled states to arouse patriotic
enthusiasm and create national unity. Most
soldiers who joyfully went to war in 1914 were
convinced that their nation’s cause was just.
But if the concept of nationalism was
initially the product of conditions in modern
Europe, it soon spread to other parts of the
world. Although a few societies, such as
Vietnam, had already developed a strong sense
of national identity, most of the peoples in Asia
and Africa lived in multiethnic and
multireligious communities and were not yet
ripe for the spirit of nationalism.
As we shall see, the first attempts to
resist European colonial rule were thus often
based on religious or ethnic identity, rather
than on the concept of denied nationhood. But
the imperialist powers, which at first benefited
from the lack of political cohesion among their
colonial subjects, eventually reaped what they
had sowed. As the colonial peoples became
familiar with Western concepts of democracy
and self-determination, they too began to
manifest a sense of common purpose that
helped knit together the different elements in
their societies to oppose colonial regimes and
create the conditions for the emergence of
future nations. For good or ill, the concept of
nationalism had now achieved global JayBailey
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5
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The peace arrangements of 1815 were but the
beginning of a conservative reaction
determined to contain the liberal and
nationalist forces unleashed by the French
Revolution. Metternich and his kind were
representatives of the ideology known as
conservatism. Most conservatives favored
obedience to political authority, believed that
organized religion was crucial to social order,
hated revolutionary upheavals, and were
unwilling to accept either the liberal demands
for civil liberties and representative
governments or the nationalistic aspirations
6
peace and stability in Europe, he considered it
necessary to restore the legitimate monarchs
who would preserve traditional institutions.
This had already been done in France with the
restoration of the Bourbon monarchy and in a
number of other states, but it did not stop the
great powers from grabbing territory, often
from the smaller, weaker states.
generated by the French revolutionary era.
After 1815, the political philosophy of
conservatism was supported by hereditary
monarchs, government bureaucracies,
landowning aristocracies, and revived
churches, both Protestant and Catholic. The
conservative forces were dominant after 1815.
One method used by the great powers to
maintain the new status quo they had
constructed was the Concert of Europe,
according to which Great Britain, Russia,
Prussia, and Austria (and later France) agreed to
meet periodically in conferences to take steps
that would maintain the peace in Europe.
Eventually, the great powers adopted a
principle of intervention, asserting that they
had the right to send armies into countries
where there were revolutions to restore
legitimate monarchs to their thrones.
Forces for Change
Between 1815 and 1830, conservative
governments throughout Europe worked to
maintain the old order. But, powerful forces for
change---liberalism and nationalism--were also
at work. Liberalism owed much to the
Enlightenment of the eighteenth century and
the American and French Revolutions at the
end of that century; it was based on the idea
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7
that people should be as free from restraint as
possible. Liberals came to hold a common set of
political beliefs. Chief among them was the
protection of civil liberties, or the basic rights of
all people, which included equality before the
law; freedom of assembly, speech, and the
press; and freedom from arbitrary arrest. All of
these freedoms should be guaranteed by a
written document, such as the American Bill of
Rights. In addition to religious toleration for all,
most liberals advocated separation of church
and state. Liberals also demanded the right of
peaceful opposition to the government in and
out of parliament and the making of laws by a
representative assembly (legislature) elected
by qualified voters. Thus, many liberals
proportions.
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in Europe, he considered it necessary to restore
the legitimate monarchs who would preserve
traditional institutions. This had already been
done in France with the restoration of the
Bourbon monarchy and in a number of other
states, but it did not stop the great powers from
grabbing territory, often from the smaller,
weaker states.
The peace arrangements of 1815 were but the
beginning of a conservative reaction
determined to contain the liberal and
nationalist forces unleashed by the French
Revolution. Metternich and his kind were
representatives of the ideology known as
conservatism. Most conservatives favored
obedience to political authority, believed that
organized religion was crucial to social order,
hated revolutionary upheavals, and were
unwilling to accept either the liberal demands
for civil liberties and representative
governments or the nationalistic aspirations
generated by the French revolutionary era.
After 1815, the political philosophy of
conservatism was supported by hereditary
monarchs, government bureaucracies,
landowning aristocracies, and revived
churches, both Protestant and Catholic. The
conservative forces were dominant after 1815.
One method used by the great powers to
8
maintain the new status quo they had
constructed was the Concert of Europe,
according to which Great Britain, Russia,
Prussia, and Austria (and later France) agreed to
meet periodically in conferences to take steps
that would maintain the peace in Europe.
Eventually, the great powers adopted a
principle of intervention, asserting that they
had the right to send armies into countries
where there were revolutions to restore
legitimate monarchs to their thrones.
Forces for Change
Between 1815 and 1830, conservative
governments throughout Europe worked to
maintain the old order. But, powerful forces for
change---liberalism and nationalism--were also
at work. Liberalism owed much to the
Enlightenment of the eighteenth century and
the American and French Revolutions at the
end of that century; it was based on the idea
that people should be as free from restraint as
possible. Liberals came to hold a common set of
political beliefs. Chief among them was the
protection of civil liberties, or the basic rights of
all people, which included equality before the
law; freedom of assembly, speech, and the
press; and freedom from arbitrary arrest. All of
these freedoms should be guaranteed by a
written document, such as the American Bill of
Rights. In addition to religious toleration for all,
most liberals advocated separation of church
and state. Liberals also demanded the right of
peaceful opposition to the government in and
out of parliament and the making of laws by a
representative assembly (legislature) elected
by qualified voters. Thus, many liberals
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reestablish peace and stability in Europe, he
considered it necessary to restore the
legitimate monarchs who would preserve
traditional institutions. This had already been
done in France with the restoration of the
Bourbon monarchy and in a number of other
states, but it did not stop the great powers from
grabbing territory, often from the smaller,
weaker states.
The peace arrangements of 1815 were but the
beginning of a conservative reaction
determined to contain the liberal and
nationalist forces unleashed by the French
Revolution. Metternich and his kind were
representatives of the ideology known as
conservatism. Most conservatives favored
obedience to political authority, believed that
organized religion was crucial to social order,
hated revolutionary upheavals, and were
unwilling to accept either the liberal demands
for civil liberties and representative
governments or the nationalistic aspirations
generated by the French revolutionary era.
After 1815, the political philosophy of
conservatism was supported by hereditary
monarchs, government bureaucracies,
landowning aristocracies, and revived
churches, both Protestant and Catholic. The
conservative forces were dominant after 1815.
One method used by the great powers to
maintain the new status quo they had
constructed was the Concert of Europe,
according to which Great Britain, Russia,
Prussia, and Austria (and later France) agreed to
meet periodically in conferences to take steps
that would maintain the peace in Europe.
Eventually, the great powers adopted a
principle of intervention, asserting that they
had the right to send armies into countries
where there were revolutions to restore
legitimate monarchs to their thrones.
Forces for Change
Between 1815 and 1830, conservative
governments throughout Europe worked to
maintain the old order. But, powerful forces for
change---liberalism and nationalism--were also
at work. Liberalism owed much to the
Enlightenment of the eighteenth century and
10
the American and French Revolutions at the
end of that century; it was based on the idea
that people should be as free from restraint as
possible. Liberals came to hold a common set of
political beliefs. Chief among them was the
protection of civil liberties, or the basic rights of
all people, which included equality before the
law; freedom of assembly, speech, and the
press; and freedom from arbitrary arrest. All of
these freedoms should be guaranteed by a
written document, such as the American Bill of
Rights. In addition to religious toleration for all,
most liberals advocated separation of church
and state. Liberals also demanded the right of
peaceful opposition to the government in and
out of parliament and the making of laws by a
representative assembly (legislature) elected
by qualified voters. Thus, many liberals
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reestablish peace and stability in Europe, he
considered it necessary to restore the
legitimate monarchs who would preserve
traditional institutions. This had already been
done in France with the restoration of the
Bourbon monarchy and in a number of other
states, but it did not stop the great powers from
grabbing territory, often from the smaller,
weaker states.
The peace arrangements of 1815 were but the
beginning of a conservative reaction
determined to contain the liberal and
nationalist forces unleashed by the French
Revolution. Metternich and his kind were
representatives of the ideology known as
conservatism. Most conservatives favored
obedience to political authority, believed that
organized religion was crucial to social order,
hated revolutionary upheavals, and were
unwilling to accept either the liberal demands
for civil liberties and representative
governments or the nationalistic aspirations
generated by the French revolutionary era.
After 1815, the political philosophy of
conservatism was supported by hereditary
monarchs, government bureaucracies,
landowning aristocracies, and revived
churches, both Protestant and Catholic. The
conservative forces were dominant after 1815.
One method used by the great powers to
11
maintain the new status quo they had
constructed was the Concert of Europe,
according to which Great Britain, Russia,
Prussia, and Austria (and later France) agreed to
meet periodically in conferences to take steps
that would maintain the peace in Europe.
Eventually, the great powers adopted a
principle of intervention, asserting that they
had the right to send armies into countries
where there were revolutions to restore
legitimate monarchs to their thrones.
Forces for Change
Between 1815 and 1830, conservative
governments throughout Europe worked to
maintain the old order. But, powerful forces for
change---liberalism and nationalism--were also
at work. Liberalism owed much to the
Enlightenment of the eighteenth century and
the American and French Revolutions at the
end of that century; it was based on the idea
that people should be as free from restraint as
possible. Liberals came to hold a common set of
political beliefs. Chief among them was the
protection of civil liberties, or the basic rights of
all people, which included equality before the
law; freedom of assembly, speech, and the
press; and freedom from arbitrary arrest. All of
these freedoms should be guaranteed by a
written document, such as the American Bill of
Rights. In addition to religious toleration for all,
most liberals advocated separation of church
and state. Liberals also demanded the right of
peaceful opposition to the government in and
out of parliament and the making of laws by a
representative ass conservatism was supported
by hereditary monarchs, government
bureaucracies, landowning aristocracies, and
revived churches, both Protestant and
Catholic. The conservative forces were
dominant after 1815. One method used by the
great powers to maintain the new status quo
they had constructed was the Concert of
Europe, according to which Great Britain,
Russia, Prussia, and Austria (and later France)
agreed to meet periodically in conferences to
take steps that would maintain the peace in
Europe. Eventually, the great powers adopted a
principle of intervention, asserting that they
had the right to send armies into countries
where there were revolutions to restore
legitimate monarchs to their thrones.
Forces for Change
Between 1815 and 1830, conservative
governments throughout Europe worked to
maintain the old order. But, powerful forces for
change---liberalism and nationalism--were also
at work. Liberalism owed much to the
Enlightenment of the eighteenth century and
the American and French Revolutions at the
end of that century; it was based conservatism
was supported by hereditary monarchs,
government bureaucracies, landowning
aristocracies, and revived churches, both
12
Protestant and Catholic. The conservative
forces were dominant after 1815. One method
used by the great powers to maintain the new
status quo they had constructed was the
Concert of Europe, according to which Great
Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria (and later
France) agreed to meet periodically in
conferences to take steps that would maintain
the peace in Europe. Eventually, the great
powers adopted a principle of intervention,
asserting that they had the right to send armies
into countries where there were revolutions to
restore legitimate monarchs to their thrones.
Forces for Change
Between 1815 and 1830, conservative
governments throughout Europe worked to
maintain the old order. But, powerful forces for
change---liberalism and nationalism--were also
at work. Liberalism owed much to the
Enlightenment of the eighteenth century and
the American and French Revolutions at the
end of that century; it was based conservatism
was supported by hereditary monarchs,
government bureaucracies, landowning
aristocracies, and revived churches, both
Protestant and Catholic. The conservative
forces were dominant after 1815. One method
used by the great powers to maintain the new
status quo they had constructed was the
Concert of Europe, according to which Great
Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria (and later
France) agreed to meet periodically in
conferences to take steps that would maintain
the peace in Europe. Eventually, the great
powers adopted a principle of intervention,
asserting that they had the right to send armies
into countries where there were revolutions to
restore legitimate monarchs to their thrones.
Forces for Change
Between 1815 and 1830, conservative
governments throughout Europe worked to
maintain the old order. But, powerful forces for
change---liberalism and nationalism--were also
at work. Liberalism owed much to the
Enlightenment of the eighteenth century and
the American and French Revolutions at the
end of that century; it was based embly
(legislature) elected by qualified voters. Thus,
many liberals JayBailey JayBailey JayvBailey
JayTo reestablish peace and stability in Europe,
he considered it necessary to restore the
legitimate monarchs who would preserve
traditional institutions. This had already been
done in France with the restoration of the
Bourbon monarchy and in a number of other
states, but it did not stop the great powers from
grabbing territory, often from the smaller,
weaker states.

The peace arrangements of 1815 were but the beginning of a conservative reaction determined to
contain the liberal and nationalist forces unleashed by the French Revolution. Metternich and his kind
were representatives of the ideology known as conservatism. Most conservatives favored obedience to
political authority, believed that organized religion was crucial to social order, hated revolutionary
upheavals, and were unwilling to accept either the liberal demands for civil liberties and representative
governments or the nationalistic aspirations generated by the French revolutionary era. After 1815, the
political philosophy of conservatism was supported by hereditary monarchs, government
bureaucracies, landowning aristocracies, and revived churches, both Protestant and Catholic. The
conservative forces were dominant after 1815. One method used by the great powers to maintain the
new status quo they had constructed was the Concert of Europe, according to which Great Britain,
Russia, Prussia, and Austria (and later France) agreed to meet periodically in conferences to take steps
that would maintain the peace in Europe. Eventually, the great powers adopted a principle of

13
intervention, asserting that they had the right to send armies into countries where there were
revolutions to restore legitimate monarchs to their thrones.

Forces for Change

Between 1815 and 1830, conservative governments throughout Europe worked to maintain the old
order. But, powerful forces for change---liberalism and nationalism--were also at work. Liberalism owed
much to the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century and the American and French Revolutions at the
end of that century; it was based on the idea that people should be as free from restraint as possible.
Liberals came to hold a common set of political beliefs. Chief among them was the protection of civil
liberties, or the basic rights of all people, which included equality before the law; freedom of assembly,
speech, and the press; and freedom from arbitrary arrest. All of these freedoms should be guaranteed
by a written document, such as the American Bill of Rights. In addition to religious toleration for all,
most liberals advocated separation of church and state. Liberals also demanded the right of peaceful
opposition to the government in and out of parliament and the making of laws by a representative
assembly (legislature) elected by qualified voters. Thus, many liberals

14