nationalism in europe

• Nationalism


  A force that brought about sweeping changes in the political and mental world of Europe in the 19th century, leading to the emergence of the nation-state
• Nation-state


  A state in which the majority of its citizens, and not only its rulers, came to develop a sense of common identity and shared history or descent
• Ernst Renan: 'A nation is the culmination of a long past of endeavours, sacrifice and devotion. A heroic past, great men, glory, that is the social capital upon which one bases a national idea. To have common glories in the past, to have a common will in the present, to have performed great deeds together, to wish to perform still more, these are the essential conditions of being a people. A nation is therefore a large-scale solidarity … Its existence is a daily plebiscite … A province is its inhabitants; if anyone has the right to be consulted, it is the inhabitant. A nation never has any real interest in annexing or holding on to a country against its will. The existence of nations is a good thing, a necessity even. Their existence is a guarantee of liberty, which would be lost if the world had only one law and only one master.'
• Attributes of a nation, according to Renan


  • Common glories in the past
  • Common will in the present
  • Performed great deeds together
  • Wish to perform still more
• Plebiscite


  A direct vote by which all the people of a region are asked to accept or reject a proposal
• The first clear expression of nationalism came with the French Revolution in 1789
• Changes introduced by the French Revolution

  • Transfer of sovereignty from the monarchy to a body of French citizens
  • Creation of a sense of collective identity amongst the French people
  • Proclamation that the people would constitute the nation and shape its destiny
• Measures and practices introduced by the French Revolution

  • New French flag, the tricolour
  • Estates General elected by active citizens and renamed the National Assembly
  • New hymns, oaths, and commemoration of martyrs
  • Centralised administrative system with uniform laws, weights, measures, and language
• The French revolutionaries declared it was the mission and destiny of the French nation to liberate the peoples of Europe from despotism
• The French armies began to carry the idea of nationalism abroad with the outbreak of the revolutionary wars
• Reforms introduced by Napoleon

  • Civil Code of 1804 abolished privileges based on birth, established equality before the law, and secured the right to property
  • Simplified administrative divisions, abolished the feudal system, freed peasants from serfdom and manorial dues, removed guild restrictions
• Initial enthusiasm for French rule

  Turned to hostility as new administrative arrangements did not go hand in hand with political freedom
• In mid-18th century Europe, there were no 'nation-states' as we know them today
• Diverse peoples within the Habsburg Empire

  • German-speaking aristocracy in Bohemia, Tyrol, Austria, Sudetenland
  • Italian-speaking provinces of Lombardy and Venetia
  • Magyar and other dialects in Hungary
  • Polish-speaking aristocracy in Galicia
  • Bohemians, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats, Romanians
• The only tie binding the diverse groups in the Habsburg Empire was a common allegiance to the emperor
• Aristocracy in Europe


  • Dominant socially and politically
  • United by a common way of life that cut across regional divisions
  • Spoke French for diplomacy and high society
  • Numerically a small group
• Majority of the population in Europe

  • Peasantry
  • In Western Europe, tenants and small owners
  • In Eastern and Central Europe, vast estates cultivated by serfs
• Growth of industrial production and trade in Western and Central Europe

  • Growth of towns
  • Emergence of commercial classes based on production for the market
  • New social groups - working class, middle classes of industrialists, businessmen, professionals
• Liberalism


  An ideology that stood for freedom for the individual, equality before the law, and government by consent
• Ideas of national unity in early-19th century Europe were closely allied to the ideology of liberalism
• In France and parts of the German states, the rise of new social groups like the working-class population and middle classes made up of industrialists, businessmen, professionals occurred only during the nineteenth century
• In Central and Eastern Europe these groups were smaller in number till late nineteenth century
• It was among the educated, liberal middle classes that ideas of national unity following the abolition of aristocratic privileges gained popularity
• Liberalism


  The ideology that stood for freedom for the individual and equality of all before the law, and emphasised the concept of government by consent
• Liberalism had stood for the end of autocracy and clerical privileges, a constitution and representative government through parliament
• Nineteenth-century liberals also stressed the inviolability of private property
• Equality before the law did not necessarily stand for universal suffrage, as in revolutionary France the right to vote and get elected was granted exclusively to property-owning men
• Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries women and non-propertied men organised opposition movements demanding equal political rights
• In the economic sphere, liberalism stood for

  The freedom of markets and the abolition of state-imposed restrictions on the movement of goods and capital
• In the first half of the nineteenth century, the German-speaking regions had numerous small principalities with their own currencies, weights and measures, creating obstacles to economic exchange and growth
• In 1834, a customs union or zollverein was formed at the initiative of Prussia and joined by most of the German states, abolishing tariff barriers and reducing the number of currencies
• The creation of a network of railways further stimulated mobility, harnessing economic interests to national unification
• Conservatism


  A political philosophy that stressed the importance of tradition, established institutions and customs, and preferred gradual development to quick change
• Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, European governments were driven by a spirit of conservatism, seeking to preserve established, traditional institutions of state and society
• The Congress of Vienna in 1815 drew up a settlement for Europe, restoring the Bourbon dynasty in France and setting up a series of states on the boundaries of France to prevent French expansion
• The conservative regimes set up in 1815 were autocratic, did not tolerate criticism and dissent, and sought to curb activities that questioned the legitimacy of autocratic governments
• The memory of the French Revolution continued to inspire liberals, who criticised the new conservative order and took up issues like freedom of the press
• Following 1815, the fear of repression drove many liberal-nationalists underground, and secret societies sprang up in many European states to train revolutionaries and spread their ideas
• Giuseppe Mazzini


  An Italian revolutionary who founded secret societies like Young Italy and Young Europe, and believed that Italy had to be forged into a single unified republic within a wider alliance of nations
• The first upheaval took place in France in July 1830, when the Bourbon kings were overthrown by liberal revolutionaries who installed a constitutional monarchy