Rise Of Nationalism In Europe
This chapter tries to explain the meaning of nationalism and how nationalism evolved in mankind’s history. Starting with French Revolution the nationalism spread to other parts of Europe and later on paved the way for development of modern democratic nations across the world.
MEANING OF NATIONALISM:
Nationalism is the idea of a sense of common identity and a sense of belongingness to a particular geographical area. Apart from this it is also a sense of attachment to a particular culture. It should be kept in mind that culture encompasses a variety of factors, like language, cuisine, costumes, folklores, etc.
THE RISE OF NATIONALISM IN EUROPE:
The concept and practices of a modern state had been developing over a long period of time in Europe. The state in which, a centralised power exercised sovereign control over a clearly defined territory. But a nation-state was one 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. This commonness did not exist from time immemorial. Rather it was forged through struggles, through the actions of leaders and the common people. During the nineteenth century, nationalism emerged as a force which brought about sweeping changes in the political and mental world of Europe. The end result of these changes was the emergence of the nation-state in place of the multi-national dynastic empires of Europe.
THE THEME OF FREDERIC SORRIEU'S PAINTING:
(i) The first print of the series, shows the people of Europe and America - men and women of all ages and social classes - marching in a long train and offering homage to the statue of Liberty as they pass by it.
(ii) A female figure was shown with the torch of Enlightenment in one hand and the Charter of the Rights of Man in the other.
(iii) On the earth in the foreground of the iage lie the shattered remains of the symbols of absolutist institutions.
(iv) In Sorrieu's utopian vision, the peoples of the world are grouped as distinct nations, identified through their flags and national costume.
The French Revolution And The Idea Of The Nation
The first clear expression of nationalism came with the French Revolution in 1789. France was a full-fledged territorial state in 1789 under the rule of an absolute monarch. The political and constitutional changes that came in the wake of the French Revolution led to the transfer of sovereignty from the monarchy to a body of French citizens. The revolution proclaimed that it was the people who would henceforth constitute the nation and shape its destiny.
From the very beginning, the French revolutionaries introduced various measures and practices that could create a sense of collective identity amongst the French people. The ideas of la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen) emphasized the notion of a united community enjoying equal rights under a constitution. A new French flag, the tricolour, was chosen to replace the former royal standard. The Estates General was elected by the body of active citizens and renamed the National Assembly. New hymns were composed, oaths taken and martyrs commemorated, all in the name of the nation. A centralised administrative system was put in place and it formulated uniform laws for all citizens within its territory. Internal customs duties and dues were abolished and a uniform system of weights and measures was adopted.
Regional dialects were discouraged and French, as it was spoken and written in Paris, became the common language of the nation. The revolutionaries further declared that it was the mission and the destiny of the French nation to liberate the peoples of Europe from despotism, in other words to help other peoples of Europe to become nations.
The cover of a German almanac designed by the journalist Andreas Rebmann in 1798.
The Image of the French Bastille being stormed by the revolutionary crowd has been placed next to a similar fortress meant to represent the bastion of despotic rule in the German province of Kassel.
Accompanying the illustration is the slogan: ‘The people must seize their own freedom!’ Rebmann lived in the city of Mainz and was a member of a German Jacobin group.
Contribution Of Napoleon In Bringing Nationalism
This chapter tries to explain the meaning of nationalism and how nationalism evolved in mankind’s history. Starting with French Revolution the nationalism spread to other parts of Europe and later on paved the way for development of modern democratic nations across the world.
MEANING OF NATIONALISM:
Nationalism is the idea of a sense of common identity and a sense of belongingness to a particular geographical area. Apart from this it is also a sense of attachment to a particular culture. It should be kept in mind that culture encompasses a variety of factors, like language, cuisine, costumes, folklores, etc.
THE RISE OF NATIONALISM IN EUROPE:
The concept and practices of a modern state had been developing over a long period of time in Europe. The state in which, a centralised power exercised sovereign control over a clearly defined territory. But a nation-state was one 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. This commonness did not exist from time immemorial. Rather it was forged through struggles, through the actions of leaders and the common people. During the nineteenth century, nationalism emerged as a force which brought about sweeping changes in the political and mental world of Europe. The end result of these changes was the emergence of the nation-state in place of the multi-national dynastic empires of Europe.
THE THEME OF FREDERIC SORRIEU'S PAINTING:
(i) The first print of the series, shows the people of Europe and America - men and women of all ages and social classes - marching in a long train and offering homage to the statue of Liberty as they pass by it.
(ii) A female figure was shown with the torch of Enlightenment in one hand and the Charter of the Rights of Man in the other.
(iii) On the earth in the foreground of the iage lie the shattered remains of the symbols of absolutist institutions.
(iv) In Sorrieu's utopian vision, the peoples of the world are grouped as distinct nations, identified through their flags and national costume.
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The Making Of Nationalism In Europe
In the mid-eighteenth century Germany, Italy and Switzerland were divided into kingdoms, duchies and cantons whose rulers had their autonomous territories of diverse peoples. They did not see themselves as sharing common identity. They spoke different languages and belonged to different ethnic groups. Such differences did not easily promote a sense of political unity. The only tie binding these diverse groups together was a common allegiance to the emperor.
THE ARISTOCRACY AND THE NEW MIDDLE CLASS:
The Aristocracy Socially and politically, a landed aristocracy was the dominant class on the continent. The members of this class were united by 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 marriage. This powerful aristocracy was, however, numerically a small group. The majority of the population was made up of the peasantry. To the west, the bulk of the land was farmed by tenants and small owners, while in Eastern and Central Europe the pattern of landholding was characterised by vast estates which were cultivated by serfs.
NEW MIDDLE CLASS:
In Western and parts of Central Europe the growth of industrial production and trade meant the growth of towns and the emergence of commercial classes whose existence was based on production for the market. Industrialisation began in England in the second half of the eighteenth century, but in France and parts of the German states it occurred only during the nineteenth century. In its wake, new social groups came into being: a working-class population, and middle classes made up of industrialists, businessmen, professionals.
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.
VIEWS OF LIBERALS:
- The term ‘liberalism’ derives from the Latin root ‘liber’, meaning free. For the new middle classes liberalism stood for freedom for the individual and equality of all before the law.
- Since the French Revolution, 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. The right to vote and to get elected was granted exclusively to property-owning men. Men without property and all women were excluded from political rights. Only for a brief period under the Jacobins did all adult males enjoy suffrage.
- Napoleonic code went back to limited suffrage and reduced women to the status of a minor, subject to the authority of fathers and husbands.
- 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. During the nineteenth century this was a strong demand of the emerging middle classes.
Idea of Liberal Nationalism
Ideas of national unity in early-nineteenth-century Europe were closely allied to the ideology of liberalism. The term ‘liberalism’ derives from the Latin root liber, meaning free. For the new middle classes liberalism stood for freedom for the individual and equality of all before the law. Politically, it emphasised the concept of government by consent. Since the French Revolution, 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.
RIGHT TO VOTE:
Yet, equality before the law did not necessarily stand for universal suffrage. You will recall that in revolutionary France, which marked the first political experiment in liberal democracy, the right to vote and to get elected was granted exclusively to property-owning men. Men without property and all women were excluded from political rights. Only for a brief period under the Jacobins did all adult males enjoy suffrage. However, the Napoleonic Code went back to limited suffrage and reduced women to the status of a minor, subject to the authority of fathers and husbands. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries women and non-propertied men organised opposition movements demanding equal political rights.
FREEDOM OF ACCESS TO MARKETS:
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. During the nineteenth century this was a strong demand of the emerging middle classes. Let us take the example of the German-speaking regions in the first half of the nineteenth century. Napoleon’s administrative measures had created out of countless small principalities a confederation of 39 states. Each of these possessed its own currency, and weights and measures. A merchant travelling in 1833 from Hamburg to Nuremberg to sell his goods would have had to pass through 11 customs barriers and pay a customs duty of about 5 per cent at each one of them. Duties were often levied according to the weight or measurement of the goods. As each region had its own system of weights and measures, this involved time-consuming calculation. The measure of cloth, for example, was the elle which in each region stood for a different length. An elle of textile material bought in Frankfurt would get you 54.7 cm of cloth, in Mainz 55.1 cm, in Nuremberg 65.6 cm, in Freiburg 53.5 cm.
Such conditions were viewed as obstacles to economic exchange and growth by the new commercial classes, who argued for the creation of a unified economic territory allowing the unhindered movement of goods, people and capital. In 1834, a customs union or zollverein was formed at the initiative of Prussia and joined by most of the German states. The union abolished tariff barriers and reduced the number of currencies from over thirty to two. The creation of a network of railways further stimulated mobility, harnessing economic interests to national unification. A wave of economic nationalism strengthened the wider nationalist sentiments growing at the time.
A NEW CONSERVATISM AFTER 1815:
Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, European governments were driven by a spirit of conservatism. Conservatives believed that established, traditional institutions of state and society – like the monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family – should be preserved. Most conservatives, however, did not propose a return to the society of pre-revolutionary days. Rather, they realised, from the changes initiated by Napoleon, that modernisation could in fact strengthen traditional institutions like the monarchy. It could make state power more effective and strong. A modern army, an efficient bureaucracy, a dynamic economy, the abolition of feudalism and serfdom could strengthen the autocratic monarchies of Europe.
MAJOR PROPOSALS OF THE VIENNA CONGRESS:
In 1815, representatives of the European powers who had collectively defected Napoleon, met at Vienna to draw up a settlement for Europe. The delegates drew up the Treaty of Vienna of 1815 with the object of undoing most of the changes that had come about in Europe during the Napoleonic wars.
(i) The Bourbon dynasty, which had been deposed during the French Revolution, was restored to power and France lost the territories it had annexed under Napoleon.
(ii) A series of states were set up on the boundaries of France to prevent French expansion in future. Thus the kingdom of the Netherlands, which included Belgium, was set up in the north and Genoa was added to Piedmont in the south.
(iii) Prussia was given important new territories on its western frontiers, while Austria was given control of northern Italy.
(iv) The German confederation of 39 states that had been set up by Napoleon was left untouched.
(v) In the east, Russia was given part of Poland while Prussia was given a portion of Saxony.
(vi) The main intention of the Congress was to restore the monarchies that had been overthrown by Napoleon and to create a new conservative order in Europe.
CRITICISM OF CONSERVATIVE REGIMES:
(i) 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.
(ii) Most of them imposed censorship laws to control what was said in newspapers, books, plays and songs and reflected the ideas of liberty and freedom associated with the French Revolution.
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The Revolutionaries
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Rise Of Nationalism In Europe of Class 10
- During the years following 1815, the fear of repression drove many liberal-nationalists underground.
- Secret societies sprang up in many European states to train revolutionaries and spread their ideas.
- To be revolutionary at this time meant a commitment to oppose monarchical forms that had been established after the Vienna Congress and to fight for liberty and freedom.
CONTRIBUTION OF MAZZINI:
- One such individual was the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini. Born in Genoa in 1807, he became a member of the secret society of the Carbonari.
- As a young man of 24, he was sent into exile in 1831 for attempting a revolution in Liguria.
- He subsequently founded two more underground societies, first, Young Italy in Marseilles and then, Young Europe in Berne, whose members were like-minded young men from Poland, France, Italy and the German states.
- Mazzini believed that God had intended nations to be the natural units of mankind. So Italy could not continue to be a patchwork of small states and kingdoms. It had to be forged into a single unified republic within a wider alliance of nations.
- This unification alone could be the basis of Italian liberty. Secret societies were set up in Germany, France, Switzerland and Poland.
- Mazzini’s relentless opposition to monarchy and his vision of democratic republics frightened the conservatives. Metternich described him as ‘the most dangerous enemy of our social order’.
Giuseppe Mazzini and the founding of Young Europe in Berne, 1833.
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. These revolutions were led by the liberal-nationalists belonging to the educated middle-class elite, among whom were professors, schoolteachers, clerks and members of the commercial middle classes. The first upheaval took place in France in July 1830. The Bourbon kings who had been restored to power during the conservative reaction after 1815, were now overthrown by liberal revolutionaries who installed a constitutional monarchy with Louis Philippe at its head.
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