Nationalism in Europe

• In 1848, Frédéric Sorrieu, a French artist, created a series of four prints visualizing his dream of a world composed of 'democratic and social Republics'
• The first print of Sorrieu's series depicts peoples of Europe and America, of all ages and social classes, marching in homage to the statue of Liberty, personified as a female figure holding the torch of Enlightenment and the Charter of the Rights of Man
• In Sorrieu's utopian vision, distinct nations are grouped by their flags and national costume, with the United States and Switzerland leading the procession past the statue of Liberty
• The German peoples did not yet exist as a united nation at the time when Sorrieu created the image
• The flag carried by the German peoples in the image is an expression of liberal hopes in 1848 to unify the numerous German-speaking principalities into a nation-state under a democratic constitution
• The image by Sorrieu depicts various nations, including Germany, Austria, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Lombardy, Poland, England, Ireland, Hungary, and Russia, symbolizing fraternity among the nations of the world
• Christ, saints, and angels in the image symbolize fraternity among the nations of the world
• Nationalism emerged as a force in the nineteenth century, leading to the emergence of the nation-state in place of the multi-national dynastic empires of Europe
• A nation-state is characterized by a centralised power exercising sovereign control over a clearly defined territory, with the majority of its citizens developing a sense of common identity and shared history or descent
• The common identity in a nation-state was forged through struggles, actions of leaders, and the common people, not existing from time immemorial
• Ernst Renan's understanding of a nation:

  • Renan criticises the notion that a nation is formed by a common language, race, religion, or territory
  • According to Renan, a nation is the culmination of a long past of endeavours, sacrifice, and devotion, with a heroic past, great men, and glory forming the social capital for a national idea
  • Essential conditions of being a people according to Renan:
  • Having common glories in the past
  • Having a common will in the present
  • Performing great deeds together
  • Wishing to perform more
• Renan describes a nation as a large-scale solidarity, with its existence being a daily plebiscite
• According to Renan, a province is its inhabitants, and if anyone has the right to be consulted, it is the inhabitant
• Renan believes that a nation never has any real interest in annexing or holding on to a country against its will
• Renan sees the existence of nations as a good thing and a necessity, serving as a guarantee of liberty that would be lost if the world had only one law and one master
• The first clear expression of nationalism came with the French Revolution in 1789
• France in 1789 was a full-fledged territorial state under the rule of an absolute monarch
• Political and constitutional changes after the French Revolution transferred sovereignty from the monarchy to a body of French citizens
• The French revolutionaries introduced measures to create a sense of collective identity among the French people, emphasizing ideas of la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen)
• The revolutionaries replaced the former royal standard with a new French flag, the tricolour, and renamed the Estates General to the National Assembly
• A centralised administrative system was established, with uniform laws, abolition of internal customs duties, adoption of a uniform system of weights and measures, and promotion of French as the common language of the nation
• The French revolutionaries declared it the mission and destiny of the French nation to liberate the peoples of Europe from despotism, aiming to help other European peoples become nations
• Students and educated middle-class individuals in Europe set up Jacobin clubs in response to the events in France, which paved the way for French armies to move into Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and much of Italy in the 1790s
• With the outbreak of revolutionary wars, French armies began to spread the idea of nationalism abroad
• Napoleon introduced reforms in territories under his control, similar to those in France, incorporating revolutionary principles to make the system more rational and efficient
• Through a return to monarchy, Napoleon destroyed democracy in France, but in the administrative field, he incorporated revolutionary principles
• The Napoleonic Code was exported to regions under French control, simplifying administrative divisions and abolishing the feudal system, freeing peasants from serfdom and manorial dues in the Dutch Republic, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany
• The Civil Code of 1804, known as the Napoleonic Code, abolished privileges based on birth, established equality before the law, and secured the right to property
• Uniform laws, standardised weights and measures, and a common national currency were seen as facilitators for the movement and exchange of goods and capital from one region to another
• Reactions of local populations to French rule were mixed in areas conquered:

  • Initially welcomed in places like Holland, Switzerland, Brussels, Mainz, Milan, and Warsaw as harbingers of liberty
  • Initial enthusiasm turned to hostility as new administrative arrangements did not come with political freedom
  • Increased taxation, censorship, forced conscription into French armies for conquering the rest of Europe outweighed the advantages of the administrative changes
• In mid-eighteenth-century Europe, there were no 'nation-states' as we know them today
• Germany, Italy, and Switzerland were divided into kingdoms, duchies, and cantons with autonomous rulers
• Eastern and Central Europe were under autocratic monarchies with diverse peoples who didn't share a collective identity or common culture
• The Habsburg Empire ruled over Austria-Hungary, a patchwork of regions and peoples including Alpine regions, Bohemia, Lombardy, Venetia, Hungary, Galicia, and Transylvania
• In the Habsburg Empire, different regions spoke various languages and belonged to different ethnic groups
• A common allegiance to the emperor was the only tie binding the diverse groups within the Habsburg Empire together
• Some important dates 1797 Napoleon invades Italy; Napoleonic wars begin. 1814-1815 Fall of Napoleon; the Vienna Peace Settlement. 1821 Greek struggle for independence begins. 1848 Revolutions in Europe; artisans, industrial workers and peasants revolt against economic hardships; middle classes demand constitutions and representative governments; Italians, Germans, Magyars, Poles, Czechs, etc. demand nation-states. 1859-1870 Unification of Italy. 1866-1871 Unification of Germany. 1905 Slav nationalism gathers force in the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires.
• In Europe, a landed aristocracy was the dominant class socially and politically
• Members of the landed aristocracy were united by a common way of life, owning estates in the countryside and town-houses, speaking French for diplomacy and in high society, and often being connected by marriage
• The powerful aristocracy was a small group numerically, with the majority of the population being peasantry