THE RISE OF NATIONALISM IN

EUROPE

NCERT Social Science (History)

Class 10
 Frédéric Sorrieu, a French artist, in 1848 prepared a series of four THE RISE OF
prints visualising his dream of a world made up of democratic
and Social Republics. NATIONALISM IN
 The first print shows the people of Europe and America marching in a EUROPE -
long train and offering homage to the Statue of Liberty as they pass FRÉDÉRIC
it. SORRIEU’S
 The torch of Enlightenment was carried by a female figure in one
hand and the Charter of the Rights of Man in the other.
VISION OF
 On the earth in the foreground lie the shattered remains of the WORLD
symbols of absolutist institutions.
 In Sorrieu’s utopian vision, the people of the world are grouped as
distinct nations, identified through their flags and national costume.
 The procession was led by the United States and Switzerland,
followed by France and Germany. Following the German people are
the people of Austria, the Kingdom of the Two Siciles, Lombardy,
Poland, England, Ireland, Hungary and Russia.
 From the heavens above, Christ, saints and angels gaze upon the
scene. They have been used by the artist to symbolize fraternity
among the nations of the world.
During the nineteenth century, nationalism emerged as a force which
brought huge changes in the political and mental world of
Europe. The end result of these changes was the emergence of the
nation-state.
As per Earnst Renan, a French Philosopher a nation state is the
culmination of a long past of endeavours, sacrifice and devotion.
It refers to the sense of common identity and shared history or
descent.
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE IDEA OF THE NATION

 The first clear expression of nationalism came in 1789 with French Revolution and the political and
constitutional changes led to the transfer of sovereignty from the monarchy to a body of French citizens.
 Various measures and practices were introduced such as the ideas of la patrie (the fatherland) and le
citoyen ( the citizen) that emphasized the notion of united community enjoying equal rights under a
constitution.
 A new French flag, the tricolour was chosen to replace the former one.
 The Estates General was elected by a body of active citizens and renamed the National Assembly.
 New Hymns were composed, oaths were taken and martyrs commemorated all in the name of the nation.
 A centralized administrative system was put in place and it formulated uniform laws.
 Internal custom duties were abolished and a uniform system of weights and measures was adopted.
 Regional dialects were discouraged and French made the common language of the nation.
 The revolutionaries declared that it was the mission and the destiny of the French nation to liberate the
people of Europe from despotism.
 The events in France reached different cities of Europe and students and other educated middle classes
began setting up Jacobin clubs.
 With the outbreak of the revolutionary wars, the French armies carried the idea of Nationalism abroad to
Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy.
 NAPOLEON AND HIS ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS
 Democracy was destroyed and monarchy re-established in France
by Napoleon but he incorporated new revolutionary reforms in
administrative field to make it more rational and efficient.
 The Civil Code of 1804 known as Napoleonic Code did away
with all privileges based on birth, established equality before the
law and secured the right to property.
 In many regions of French control he simplified the administrative
divisions, abolished feudalism, and freed the peasants from
serfdom and manorial dues.
 In towns guild restrictions were removed and the transport and
communication systems were improved.
 Uniform laws, standardized weights and measures and a common
national currency facilitated movement and exchange of goods
and capital.
 Thus, the peasants, artisans, workers and even the new
businessmen enjoyed a new found freedom.
Initially the French armies were welcomed as harbingers of
liberty into French colonies but soon the enthusiasm turned to
hostility.
 The new administration did not allow political freedom.
 Furthermore increased taxation, censorship and forced
conscription into the armies outweighed the advantages of
administration.
 THE MAKING OF NATIONALISM IN EUROPE

 In the mid eighteenth century there were no nation states.

 Germany, Italy and Switzerland were divided into kingdoms, duchies and cantons whose rulers had
autonomous territories. They did not see themselves as sharing a collective identity or a common
culture.
 The Habsburg Empire that ruled over Austria-Hungary included different regions and people speaking a
variety of languages.
 The Alpine region included the Tyrol, Austria and Sudetenland as well as Bohemia where the
aristocracy spoke German. It also included Lombardy and Venetia provinces where majority spoke
Italian.
 In Hungary, half of the population spoke Magyar while the other half spoke a variety of dialects.
 In Galicia, the aristocracy spoke Polish.
 Besides these three dominant groups there were the a mass of peasants: the Bohemians, the Slovaks, the
Roumans etc.
 The only tie binding these diverse groups was a common allegiance to the emperor.
 THE ARISTOCRACY AND THE NEW MIDDLE CLASS
 The aristocracy was the dominant
class in Europe both socially and
politically.
 They led a common way of life that
cut across regional divisions.
 They owned estates in the
countryside and also town houses.
 They spoke French for purposes of
diplomacy and in high society.
 Their families were often connected
by ties of marriages.
 However, they were a small group.
The majority consisted of peasants.
 In the wake of industrialization in
the late eighteenth and nineteenth
century, new social groups came
into being.
 These consisted of working class
and middle classes such as the
industrialists, businessmen and
professionals.
 Being educated and liberal
minded they favoured abolition
of aristocratic privileges and
hence gained popularity.
 LIBERALISM IN POLITICAL SPHERE
 In the early 19th Century, Europe was closely allied to
the ideology of liberalism.
 The term “liberalism” is derived from Latin word’
“liber” meaning free.
 Liberalism stood for freedom for the individual and
equality of all before the law.
 It also emphasized the concept of a government by
consent.
 It stood for the end of aristocracy and clerical
privileges, a constitution and a representative
government through parliament.
 Furthermore, they also stressed on the inviolability of
private property.
 However, the right to vote and to get elected was
exclusively for the property-owning men.
 Men without property and women were excluded from
the right to vote.
 Throughout the 19th and the early 20th Century non-
propertied men and women organized movements
demanding equal rights.
 LIBERALISM IN ECONOMIC SPHERE
 Economically, liberalism stood for the freedom of markets and
the abolition of state-imposed restrictions on the movement of
goods.
 Napoleon’s administrative measures had created a
confederation of 39 states, each of which had their own
currencies, weights and measures.
 A merchant travelling from one place to another had to pass
through 11 custom barriers and pay a customs duty of 5% at
each one of them.
 As each region possessed its own units calculations were time
consuming. Such conditions were viewed as obstacles to
economic exchange and growth.
 The new commercial classes argued for the creation of a
unified economic territory allowing easy movement of goods,
capital and people.
 In 1834, a customs union, “Zollverin” was formed at the
initiative of Prussia and later on most German states joined it.
 The union abolished tariff barriers and reduced the number of
currencies from over thirty to only two.
 The creation of a network of railways further helped mobility
and economic interests.
 Thus, the economic nationalism also strengthened wider
national sentiments.
 NEW CONSERVATISM AFTER 1815 & THE TREATY OF VIENNA
 After the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in1815,
European governments were driven by a new spirit
of conservatism.
 Most Conservatives felt that modernization could
strengthen traditional institutions like the monarchy
 They believed that established institutions of the
society such as the monarchy, the church, the
property etc. needed to be preserved.
 They also felt that a modern army, efficient
bureaucracy, a dynamic economy, the abolition of
serfdom and feudalism could strengthen the
monarchies of Europe.
 In 1815, the representatives of the European
powers – Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria – who
had defeated Napoleon met at Vienna to draw up a
settlement for Europe.
 The object of this was undoing most of the changes
during Napoleonic wars.
 THE FEATURES OF THE TREATY OF VIENNA

 The Vienna Congress or the Treaty of Vienna was hosted by Austrian Chancellor Duke
Metternich.
 The Bourbon dynasty, which had been overthrown during the French revolution was restored
to power.
 France lost the territories it had annexed under Napoleon.

 A series of states were set up on the boundaries to prevent further French expansion.

 The kingdom of Netherlands which also included Belgium was set up in North.

 Genoa was added to Piedmont in the South.

 Prussia was given new important territories in the west and Austria was given control of
northern Italy.
 However, the German confederation of 39 states was left untouched.

 In the East, Russia was given a part of Poland and Prussia was given a portion of Saxony.

However, the Conservative regimes were autocratic and did not tolerate criticism.
 They sought to curb the activities that questioned the legitimacy of autocratic governments.

 They imposed censorship on newspapers. books, plays and songs to control the ideas of
liberty and freedom.
 THE REVOLUTIONARIES

 During the years following 1815, the fear of repression drove many liberal nationalists underground.
 Revolutionary at that time meant a commitment to oppose the monarchies and fight for liberty and
freedom.
 Many secret societies were set up to train the revolutionaries and spread the ideas.
 The Italian revolutionary, Guisseppe Mazzini, born in Genoa in 1807 was one such revolutionary.
 He became the member of a secret society Carbonari.
 At a very young age of 24 he was sent into exile for attempting a failed revolution in Liguria in
1831.
 Later on he founded two more underground societies, Young Italy in Marseilles and Young Europe
in Berne which consisted of like minded young liberals from Poland, France etc.
 He believed that God had intended nations to be the natural units of mankind.
 So he dreamt of forging Italy into a single unified republic and not to be a patchwork of small states
and kingdoms.
 Following his model several secret societies were set in Germany, France, Switzerland etc
 Metternich described him as the most dangerous enemy of social order following his relentless
opposition of monarchies.
 THE AGE OF REVOLUTION: 1830-1848
 As conservative regimes tried to consolidate their power, liberalism and
nationalism came to be increasingly associated with revolution in many
regions of Europe such as the Italian and German states, the provinces
of the Ottoman Empire, Ireland and Poland. The revolutions were led by
liberal-nationalists especially the middle class.
 The first upheaval took place in France in July 1830 when the Bourbon
Kings were overthrown and a constitutional monarchy under King Louis
Phillipe was installed.
 ‘When the France sneezes’, Metternich had once remarked, ‘the rest of
the Europe catches cold’.
 The July Revolution in Brussels led to Belgium separating from the
United kingdom of Netherlands.
 Similarly another event that mobilized nationalist feelings among the
educated elite across Europe was the Greek war of independence.
 Greece had been the part of the Ottoman Empire since the fifteenth
century. The growth of revolutionary nationalism sparked off a struggle
for independence in 1821.
 The nationalists received support from the Greeks living in exile and
also from many west Europeans who had sympathies for ancient Greek
culture.
 The English Poet Lord Byron organized funds and also fought the war
during which he later died of fever.
 Finally, The Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognized Greece as an
 ROMANTICISM - A CULTURAL MOVEMENT
 The development of nationalism did not come about only through wars and
territorial expansions.
Culture, too, played an important role in creating the idea of the nation: art
and poetry, stories and music helped express and shape nationalist feeling.
 Romanticism was a cultural movement which sought to develop a particular
form of nationalist sentiments.
 Romantic artists and poet generally criticized the glorification of reason and
science and focused instead on emotions, institution and mystical feelings.
 Other Romantics such as German Philosopher Johann Gottfried popularized
the true spirit of nation through folk songs, folk poetry and folk dances.
Vernacular languages and local folklore too carried the nationalist message
to large illiterate masses.
 In Poland nationalist feelings were kept alive through music and languages.
Karol Kurpinski, celebrated the national struggles through his operas and
music, turning folk dances like the polonaise and mazurka into nationalist
symbols.
 Language too played an important role in developing nationalist sentiments.

 After Russia captured Poland, Russian language was imposed everywhere

and Polish was banned in schools too.
 Many members of the clergy in Poland began to use the Polish language as a
weapon of national resistance.
 As a result, a large number of priests and bishops were put in jail or sent to
Siberia by the Russian authorities as punishment for their refusal to preach in
Russians. The use of Polish came to be seen as a symbol of resistance.
 HUNGER, HARDSHIP AND POPULAR REVOLT

The 1830s were years of great economic hardship in Europe.

 The first half of the nineteenth century saw an enormous increase in
population.
 In most European countries there were more seekers of jobs than there was
employment.
 Population from rural areas migrated to the cities to live in overcrowded slum.

 Small producers faced stiff competition from machine made goods due to
industrialization especially in England.
 Peasants struggled under feudal dues and obligation whereas the aristocracy
enjoyed power.
 The rise of food prices and a year of bad harvest led to widespread pauperism.

 In France, food shortage and widespread unemployment brought the

population of Paris out on the roads. Louis Phillipe was forced to flee.
 National Assembly proclaimed a republic, granted suffrage to all adult males
above 21, and guaranteed the right to work.
The Silesian weavers’ revolt by journalist Wilhelm Wolff:
 In 1845, weavers in Silesia had lead a revolt against contractors who supplied
them raw material and gave them orders for finished textile.
 On 4 June at 2 p.m. a large crowd of weavers emerged from their homes and
marched in pairs up to the mansion of their contractors demanding higher
wages.
 The contractor fled with his family to a neighbouring village which refused to
shelter such a person.
 He returned 24 hours later having requisitioned the army.
 THE REVOLUTION OF THE LIBERALS
Apart from the revolts of the poor, unemployed and starving peasants and workers in many
European countries in the years 1848, a revolution led by the educated middle classes was also
under way.
 In countries like Germany, Italy, Poland, and the Austro-Hungarian empire men and women of
the liberal middle classes combined their demands for constitutionalism with national unification.
 In Germany, many middle class professionals, businessmen and prosperous artisans decided to
vote for an all German National Assembly.
 On 18th May, 1848, 831 elected representatives gathered at the Frankfurt Parliament in the
Church of St. Paul and they drafted a constitution for the nation to be headed by a monarchy
subject to a parliament and also demanded for freedom of press and association.
 Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia, rejected it and joined other monarchs to oppose the elected
assembly.
 While the opposition of the aristocracy and military became stronger, the social basis of
parliament eroded with the loss of the support of workers and artisans.
 In the end troops were called and the assembly was forced to disband.
 ROLE OF WOMEN

The issue of extending political rights to women was a controversial one within
the liberal movement.
 Women had formed their own political associations, founded newspaper and taken
part in political meeting and demonstrations yet they were denied the suffrage
rights.
 Women were admitted only as observers at the Frankfurt Parliament to stand in
the visitors’ gallery.
 Many feminists raised awareness of women’s rights and interests based on the
belief of social, economic and political equality of the genders.
 Monarchs were beginning to realize that the cycles if revolution and repression
could be ended only by granting concessions to the liberal-nationalist
revolutionaries.
 Thus, from 1848 onwards, the autocratic monarchies of Europe began introducing
changes and abolished serfdom, bonded labour and also granted more autonomies.
 THE MAKING OF GERMANY

After 1848, nationalism in Europe moved away from its association with democracy and
revolution. This can be observed in the process by which Germany and Italy came to be
unified as nation-states.
 Nationalist feelings were widespread among middle-class Germans who tried to unite German
confederation through an elected Parliament.
 This liberal initiative to nation-building in 1848 was, however, repressed by the combined forces
of the monarchy and the military, supported by the large landowners of Prussia.
 Prussia took on the leadership of the movement under the leadership of Otto Van Bismark, its
Chief Minister along with the army and the bureaucracy.
 Three wars over seven years-with Austria, Denmark, and France-ended in Prussian victory and
completed the process of unification.
 On 18th January, 1871, the princes and the representatives of the army gathered at the Hall of
Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles to proclaim Kaiser William I of Prussia the emperor.
 The nation-building process in Germany had demonstrated the dominance of Prussian state
power.
 The new state placed a strong emphasis on modernizing the currency, banking, legal and judicial
 THE MAKING OF ITALY
 Like Germany, Italy too had a long history of political fragmentation. Italians were
scattered over several dynastic states as well as the multi-national Habsburg Empire.
 Nineteenth century Italy was divided into seven states of which only one Sardinia-
Piedmont was ruled by local Italian princely house.
 The North was under the Austrian Habsburg, the center was ruled by the Pope and the
southern regions were ruled by the Bourbon Kings of Spain.
 Italian language had not acquired one common form and still had many regional and
local variations.
 During 1830s, Giuseppe Mazzini had sought to put together a coherent programme
for a unitary Italian Republic. He had formed the secret society Young Italy for the
dissemination of his goals.
 The failure of revolutionary uprising both in 1831 and 1848 meant that the mantle
now fell on Sadinia-Piedmont under its ruler King Victor Emmanuel II to unify the
Italian states through war.
 A unified Italy offered them the possibility of economic development and political
dominance.
 Chief Minister Camillio Cavour of Italy was neither a revolutionary nor a democrat.
Through a tactful diplomatic alliance with France, he succeeded in defeating Austrian
Habsburg Forces in 1859.
 In 1860, armed volunteers and the troops under the leadership of Guiseppe Garibaldi
marched into the south and drove out the Spanish Bourbon rulers. They had the
support of local peasants there.
 Finally, in 1861, King Victor Emmanuel was proclaimed the king of united Italy.
 The Pope eventually surrendered to the united Italy in 1870.
 Italian population, among whom rates of illiteracy were high, remained blissfully
unaware of liberal-nationalist ideology.
 RISE OF NATIONALISM IN BRITAIN

Many scholars have argued that the model of the nation or the nation
state is Great Britain. It was not formed by a sudden upheaval or a
revolution. It was the result of a long-drawn-out process.
 There was no British nation prior to the eighteenth century. The primary
identities of the people were ethnic ones such as English, Welsh, Scots or
Irish.
 The English parliament seized power from monarchy in 1688 and formed
a nation state.
 The Act of Union (1707) resulted in the formation of United Kingdom of
Great Britain with England imposing its dominance over Scotland.
 The British parliament was henceforth dominated by its English members.
Scotland’s distinctive culture and political institutions were systematically
suppressed.
 The Scot Catholics were terribly repressed and forcibly driven out of their
homelands. They were even forbidden to speak their Gaelic language or
wear their national dress.
 Ireland too was a nation divided between Catholics and Protestants.

 The English helped the Protestants to establish their dominance over the
majority Catholics.
 Ireland, after a failed revolt led by Wolfe Tone in 1798, was forcibly
incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801.
 British flag (the Union Jack), the national anthem, the English language –
were actively promoted and the older nations survived only as subordinate
partners on this union .
 VISUALIZING THE NATION

 While it was easy enough to represent a ruler through a portrait or a statue, the artists in the
eighteenth and the nineteenth century represented a country as if it were a person.
 In other words they found ways to personify nations. Nations were then portrayed as a female
figures.
 The female figures became the allegory of the nation, to provide the abstract nation a concrete
form.
 French artists used symbols such as red cap, broken chains etc. to represent ideas such as liberty,
justice and republic. Justice was portrayed as a blindfolded woman carrying scales.
 In France the female allegory was christened Marianne, a popular Christian name, which
underlined the idea of people’s nation.
 Her statues were erected in public squares to remind people of unity and liberty. The red cap, the
tricolour, the cockade all represented characteristics.
 Her images were also marked on coins and stamps.
 Similarly, Germania, wearing a crown of oak leaves representing heroism, became the allegory of
German nation.
 NATIONALISM AND IMPERIALISM (THE BALKAN CONFLICT)
 By the last quarter of the nineteenth century nationalism no longer retained its idealistic liberal-
democratic sentiment of the first half of the century, but became a narrow creed with limited ends.
 Major powers became increasingly intolerant of each other and fought wars to expand their
territories and manipulate the people’s aspirations and practiced Imperialism.
THE BALKAN CONFLICT
The most serious source of nationalists tension in Europe after 1871 was the area called the
Balkans.
 The Balkans was a region of geographical and ethnic variation. It comprised modern day
Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia
and Montenegro.
 A large part of it was controlled by the Muslim Ottoman Empire which sought to strengthen itself
through modernization and internal reforms.
 One by one its European subjects nationalities broke away from its control and declared
independence.
 The Balkan area became an era of intense conflict due to the spread of Romanticism and the
disintegration of the Muslim Ottoman empire.
 The Balkan people claimed their independence and thought of their struggles as attempts to win
back their long lost independence. As the Slavic nationalities struggled the area became an area of
intense conflict.
 The Balkan states were jealous of each other and each hoped to gain more territory at the expense
of each other. Each major power – Russia, Germany, England, Austro-Hungary tried to dominate
over the Balkans.
 Ultimately Nationalism aligned with Imperialism in Europe led to the First World War in 1914.
 But the idea that societies should be organized into ‘nation-states’ came to be accepted as natural
and universal
EXTRA QUESTIONS:
 Who was Frederic Sorrieu? State the significance of his
print “The Dream of Worldwide Democratic & Socialist
Republics.”
 How did Ernest Renan define a nation state?

 Examine the features of aristocracy of Europe.

 Who were the Conservatives? Comment on their beliefs.

 Mention the features of the Treaty of Vienna.

 The 1830’s were the periods of great economic hardships

in Europe. Justify the statement.
 Examine the role of women in the liberal movement.

 Describe the process of unification of Italy.