The Rise of Nationalism in Europe

Every card in this deck

QNation-state

AA state in which most citizens, not just the rulers, feel they share a common identity and a common history or descent. This feeling was not ancient: it was built through struggles, through leaders' actions and through ordinary people.

QAccording to Ernst Renan, what makes a nation?

ANot a common language, race, religion or territory, but a long past of endeavour, sacrifice and devotion: shared glories, a common will in the present and a wish to do great deeds together. A nation is a large-scale solidarity whose existence is a 'daily plebiscite', and nations guarantee liberty.

QWhat measures did the French revolutionaries take to create a sense of collective identity among the French people?

AThey promoted la patrie (fatherland) and le citoyen (citizen), replaced the royal standard with the tricolour, renamed the Estates General the National Assembly, composed hymns, took oaths and honoured martyrs, created centralised administration with uniform laws, abolished internal customs duties, adopted uniform weights and measures, and made Parisian French the national language.

QCivil Code of 1804 (Napoleonic Code)

ANapoleon's Civil Code of 1804, which ended privileges that came from birth, made everyone equal before the law and protected the right to property. It was extended to the regions France controlled.

QWhat changes did Napoleon introduce to make administration rational and efficient in the territories he ruled?

AHe applied the Civil Code, reorganised administrative divisions more simply, ended the feudal system, and released peasants from serfdom and manorial dues. In towns he lifted guild restrictions and improved transport and communication, and businessmen saw the value of uniform laws, weights, measures and currency.

QWhy did enthusiasm for French rule in conquered areas turn to hostility?

AFrench armies were first welcomed as bringers of liberty in places such as Holland, Switzerland, Brussels, Mainz, Milan and Warsaw. But the new administration came without political freedom, and higher taxes, censorship and forced conscription into French armies outweighed its advantages.

QWhat did liberalism stand for among the new middle classes of early 19th-century Europe?

APolitically, individual freedom, equality before the law and government by consent: an end to autocracy and clerical privilege, a constitution and parliament, and the inviolability of private property. Economically, free markets and the abolition of state restrictions on the movement of goods and capital. Equality did not mean universal suffrage.

QZollverein

AA customs union formed in 1834 at Prussia's initiative and joined by most German states. It abolished tariff barriers and cut the number of currencies from over thirty to two, and, with railways, harnessed economic interests to national unification.

QWhat did conservatives believe after Napoleon's defeat in 1815?

AThat long-established institutions, such as monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family, ought to be kept. They did not want to return to pre-revolutionary society: Napoleon's changes showed that a modern army, efficient bureaucracy, dynamic economy and the end of serfdom could strengthen autocratic monarchies.

QWhat did the Treaty of Vienna (1815) aim at, and what changes did it make?

AHosted by Metternich for Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria, it aimed to undo Napoleonic changes and restore monarchies. The Bourbons returned to France, which lost its annexations. Buffer states such as the Netherlands (with Belgium) were set up, Genoa went to Piedmont, Austria got northern Italy, and Russia part of Poland.

QWhy were the conservative regimes set up in 1815 described as autocratic?

AThey did not tolerate criticism or dissent and curbed any activity that questioned their legitimacy. Most imposed censorship laws to control what newspapers, books, plays and songs said, especially ideas of liberty and freedom linked to the French Revolution, so freedom of the press became a key liberal demand.

QWhy did liberal-nationalists go underground after 1815?

AFear of repression by the conservative regimes drove them into secret societies in many European states, which trained revolutionaries and spread their ideas. They opposed the monarchies set up after the Vienna Congress, fought for liberty, and saw creating nation-states as part of that struggle.

QWhat was Giuseppe Mazzini's role in the Italian national movement?

AA Genoese revolutionary and member of the Carbonari, exiled in 1831, he founded Young Italy in Marseilles and Young Europe in Berne. He believed God intended nations as the natural units of mankind, so Italy must become a single unified republic. Metternich called him 'the most dangerous enemy of our social order'.

QHow did the Greek war of independence mobilise nationalist feeling among Europe's educated elite?

AThe struggle against the Ottoman Empire, begun in 1821, won support from exiled Greeks and West Europeans who admired ancient Greek culture. Poets and artists hailed Greece as the cradle of European civilisation, and Lord Byron raised funds and died fighting. The Treaty of Constantinople (1832) recognised Greek independence.

QHow did Romanticism contribute to nationalism in Europe?

ARomantic artists and poets criticised the glorification of reason and science, and focused on emotions, intuition and mystical feelings to create a sense of shared heritage and common cultural past. Herder argued that true German culture lay in the common people (das volk), popularised through folk songs, poetry and dances.

QHow did language and folk culture keep nationalism alive in Poland and Germany?

AIn partitioned Poland, Kurpinski turned folk dances like the polonaise and mazurka into nationalist symbols, and after 1831 clergy used Polish, not Russian, in church, becoming a symbol of resistance. The Grimm brothers collected German folktales and compiled a German dictionary to oppose French domination.

QWhy were the 1830s years of great economic hardship in Europe?

APopulation grew enormously, so job-seekers outnumbered jobs and rural migrants crowded into city slums. Small producers faced cheap machine-made imports from England, peasants bore feudal dues where aristocrats still ruled, and rising food prices or bad harvests caused widespread pauperism.

QWhat was the Frankfurt Parliament, and why did it fail?

AIn 1848, 831 elected deputies met in the Church of St Paul in Frankfurt and drafted a constitution for a German nation under a monarchy subject to parliament. Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia rejected the crown and joined other monarchs against it; the middle-class deputies lost workers' support, and troops disbanded it.

QHow were women treated within the liberal movement of 1848?

AAlthough many women had formed political associations, founded newspapers and joined demonstrations, they were denied suffrage in electing the Frankfurt Assembly and admitted only as observers in the visitors' gallery. Extending political rights to women remained controversial among liberals.

QDescribe the process of German unification.

AAfter the liberal effort of 1848 was crushed by monarchy, military and Junkers, Prussia led unification. Its chief minister Otto von Bismarck, with the Prussian army and bureaucracy, won three wars in seven years against Austria, Denmark and France. In January 1871 William I was proclaimed German Emperor at Versailles.

QDescribe the process of Italian unification.

AItaly was split into seven states, only Sardinia-Piedmont under an Italian house. After failed uprisings in 1831 and 1848, Victor Emmanuel II and Cavour, allied with France, defeated Austria in 1859. In 1860 Garibaldi's volunteers took the south, and in 1861 Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of united Italy.

QGiuseppe Garibaldi

AA celebrated Italian freedom fighter and former sailor who joined Mazzini's Young Italy. In 1860 he led the Expedition of the Thousand into south Italy, his volunteers, the Red Shirts, growing to about 30,000. His 1867 march on Rome failed; the Papal States joined Italy only in 1870.

QHow was the formation of the British nation-state unlike the rest of Europe?

AIt came from a long process, not a sudden revolution. The English parliament, powerful after 1688, was its instrument. The Act of Union (1707) let England dominate Scotland, whose culture was suppressed, and Ireland was forcibly incorporated in 1801. A dominant English culture and symbols such as the Union Jack forged the 'British nation'.

QWhat were Marianne and Germania, and why were nations portrayed this way?

AFemale allegories that gave the abstract idea of a nation a concrete form. Marianne, a popular Christian name, stood for France as a people's nation, with the red cap, tricolour and cockade, and appeared on statues, coins and stamps. Germania represented Germany, wearing a crown of oak leaves for heroism.

QWhy was the Balkans the most serious source of nationalist tension after 1871, and how did it lead to war?

AThe Slav nationalities of the disintegrating Ottoman Empire, inspired by romantic nationalism, sought to regain lost independence and were jealous of each other's territory. Russia, Germany, England and Austria-Hungary competed to control the region. This led to a series of wars and finally the First World War.