NATIONALISM IN EUROPE

1 - THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE IDEA OF A NATION

● France pre-1789: Full-fledged territorial state under absolute monarch.

● French Revolution - 1789: Political, constitutional changes - transfer of sovereignty from
monarchy to people.
● Revolutionaries introduced measures to create a sense of collective identity:
○ Ideas of La Patrie (fatherland) and Le Citoyen (citizen) - notion of united community
enjoying equal rights under constitution.
○ New French Flag - Tricolour - chosen to replace old royal standard.
○ Estates General elected by body of active citizens, later renamed National Assembly.
○ New hymns composed, oaths taken, martyrs commemorated, all in name of nation.

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○ Centralised administrative system put in place, formulated uniform laws for all citizens
within its territory.

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○ Uniform system of weights and measures adopted.
○ Regional dialects discouraged - French, spoken in Paris, became common language.
○ French further declared - It was the mission, destiny of French people to liberate
European people from despotism.
● Students, other members of educated middle class set up Jacobin Clubs - Activities prepared
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way for French armies which moved into Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy (1790s).
● French armies carried idea of nationalism abroad.

● Napoleon set up new reforms - despite destroying democracy - incorporated revolutionary

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principles to make system more rational, efficient.
● Civil Code of 1804:
○ Did away with all privelages based on birth.
○ Established equality before law.
○ Guaranteed right to property.
● This code exported to regions under French Control - Dutch republic, Germany, Switzerland,
Italy
○ Napoleon simplified administrative divisions, abolished feudalism, freed peasants from
serfdom, manorial dues.
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○ In towns guild restrictions removed.

○ Transport and communication systems were improved.
○ Peasants, artisans, workers enjoyed newfound freedom.
○ Businessmen, small-scale goods producers realised uniform laws, standardised
weights, measures, common currency facilitated movement and exchange of goods,
capital.
● In conquered areas, reactions mixed - in places like Holland, Switzerland, cities like Brussels,
Mainz, Milan, Warsaw, French armies welcomed as harbringers of liberty.
● Enthusiasm soon became hostility - new administrative arrangements did not go hand in
hand with political freedom - Increased taxation, censorship, forced conscription into French
armies required to conquer rest of Europe, outweighed advantages of administrative changes
2 - THE MAKING OF NATIONALISM IN EUROPE

● In mid-1700s, no nation states in europe - Germany divided into kingdoms, Italy into duchies,
Switzerland into cantons - autocratic monarchies
● East, central europe under autocratic monarchies - within kingdoms lived diverse people - No
common identity, culture.
● Habsburg empire ruled Austria-Hungary - patchwork of different regions and peoples:
○ Alpine regions: Tyrol, Austria, Sudentenland, Bohemia, where Aristocracy spoke
german.
○ Italian speaking provinces of Lombardy, Venetia.
○ In Hungary half population spoke magyar, other half spoke dialects.
○ Galacia, aristocracy spoke Polish.
○ Mass of subject peasant peoples - Bohemians, slovaks to North - Slovenes in Carolina
- Croats to South - Roumans to east in Transylvania.

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○ Only thing binding these peoples was allegiance to emperor.

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2.1 - The Aristocracy and New Middle Class

● Socially, Politically aristocracy was dominant class - Members of aristocracy united by

common way of life cutting across regional divisions:
○ They owned estates in countryside and also town-houses.
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○ They spoke french for purposes of diplomacy and in high society.
○ Families connected by ties of marriage.
● This aristocracy was numerically small group.
● Majority of population was made up of peasantry.
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● Towards west, bulk of land farmed by tenants, small owners - Eastern, central europe,
landholding was vast estates cultivated by serfs.
● In western, parts of central europe, growth of industrial production, trade meant growth of
towns, emmergence of commercial classes - existence based on production for market.
● Industrialisation began in England (latter half of 1700s), occured in Germany and France
(1800s).
● New social groups came into being - Working class population, middle classes made of
industrialists, businessmen, professionals
● In central, eastern europe - smaller in number.
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● Among educated, liberal middle class - emerged ideas of national unity following abolition of
aristocratic privellages.

2.2 - What did Liberal Nationalism Stand For?

● Ideas of national unity closely allied to ideology of liberalism.

● Liberalism derives root from latin ‘liber’ (free).
● For new middle class, liberalism meant freedom for individual, equality before law - politically
emphasised concept of government by consent.
● Since french revolution, liberalism stood for abolition of autocracy and clerical privelages,
constitution, representative government through parliament.
● 19th century liberals stressed inviolability of private property.
 ● Equality before law didn’t mean universal suffrage - only property-owning men had voting
rights - men without property, women were excluded.
● Under jacobins, all men enjoyed suffrage - under napoleon, limited suffrage reintroduced -
women were reduced to minor, subject to authority of fathers, husbands.
● Throughout 19th, early 20th century, women, non-propertied men organised opposition
movements demanding equal political rights.
● In Economy, liberalism meant freedom of markets, abolition of state imposed restritions on
movement of goods, capital/
● During 19th century, this was strong demand of emerging middle class.
● Napoleon’s invasion created a confederation of 39 German states - each possesed its own
currency, weights, measures.
● These viewed as obstacles to economic exchange and growth by new commercial classes,
arguing for creation of a unified economic territory allowing unhindered movement of goods,
people, capital.

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● 1834: Customs union, Zollverein, founded by iniative of Prussia, joined by most German
states - Union abolished tarrif barriers, reduced currencies from 30+ to 2 - creation of railway

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network stimulated mobility, harnessing economic interests
● This strengthened wider nationalist sentiments growing at the time

2.3 - A new conservatism after 1815

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● Defeat of napoleon in 1815 - European governments driven by sense of conservatism.
● Conservatives believed:
○ Traditional institutions: Monarchy, Church, Social heirarchies, property, family
○ Some modernisation from napoleon that strengthened monarchies: Modern army,
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dynamic economy, efficient bureaucracy, abolition of feudalism, serfdom.
● 1815 - Congress of Vienna:
○ Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria met in Vienna to draw settlement for Europe.
○ Hosted by Austrian chancellor Duke Metternich. Delegates signed Treaty Of Vienna of
1815 - objective of undoing changes brought by napoleon:
■ Bourbon dynasty, which was deposed after French Revolution, restored to
power.
■ France lost territories annexed under Napoleon.
■ Series of states set up on the boundaries of France to prevent expansion -
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Kingdom of netherlands which included Belgium, set up - Genoa added to

piedmont in South.
■ Prussia gained important new territories on western frontiers, Austria given
control of northern Italy.
■ German confederation of 39 states was left untouched.
■ Russia given part of Poland, Prussia gained part of saxony.
■ Main intention was to restore monarchies overthrown by Napoleon, creating
new conservative order.
● Conservatives did not tolerate critisism and dissent, sought to curb activities questioning
legitimacy of autocratic governments - most of them introuced censorship laws to control
newspapers, books, plays, songs, curbing ideas of liberty, freedom.
● Memory of french revolution continued to inspire liberals.
● One of the main issues taken by liberal nationalists was freedom of press.
2.4 - The Revolutionaries

● After 1815: Fear of repression drove liberal-nationalists underground.

● Secret societies came up in european states to train revolutionaries, spread ideas.
● To be a revolutionary meant opposing monarchial forms established after Vienna Congress.
● Most Revolutionaries thought creation of nation-states was necessary.
● Guiseppe Mazzini:
○ Born in Genoa in 1805.
○ Became a member of secret society of Carbonari.
○ Exiled in 1831 for attempting revolution in Linguria.
○ Formed 2 underground societies - Young Italy in Marseilles, Young Europe in Berne -

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whose members were like minded young revolutionaries from Poland, France, Italy,
German states.

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○ He believed god had intended nations to be natural units of mankind - so Italy could
not be patchwork of different kingdoms and small states - unification of italy could be
the basis of Italian liberty.
○ Metternich called him ‘The most dangerous enemy of our social order’.
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3 - AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: 1830 - 1848

● Liberalism and nationalism were being associated with revolution in many parts of Europe,
such as Italy, German states, Ottoman empire, Ireland, Poland - Led by liberal-nationalists
belonging to the middle class elite, professors, school-teachers, clerks, members of
commercial middle class.
● July 1830, France: Bourbon king overthrown by liberals - constitutional monarch Louis
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Phillipe installed.
● July revolution sparked upheaval in Belgium, leading to independence from the Netherlands.
● Greek war of independence:
○ Greece part of Ottoman empire since 1400s.
○ Revolutionary nationalism in Europe sparked struggle for independence in 1821.
○ Nationalists supported by Greeks living in exile, west Europeans sympathising with
ancient Greek culture. Poets, artists lauded Greece as cradle for European civilization,
mobilised public opinion to support struggle against Muslim empire.
○ English poet Lord Byron organised funds for and fought in Greek War of
independence, and died of fever in 1824.
○ Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognised Greece as independent nation.
3.1 - The Romantic Imagination and National Feeling

● Culture played important role in creating idea of nation - Art, poetry, stories, music helped
express, shape national feelings.
● Romanticism:
○ Romantic Artists, poets criticised glorification of reason and science - focused on
emotions, intuition and mystical feelings.
○ Effort was to create sense of shared collective heritage, common cultural past, as the
basis of nation.
○ Romantics like german philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder claimed true German
culture was to be discovered among common people (Das Volk) - folk songs, poetry,
folk dances - true spirit of nation (Volksgeist) was popularised.
○ Collecting, recording folk culture was essential to nation building.
○ The emphasis was on vernacular language - collection of folklore to recover ancient

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national spirit, carry modern nationalist message to large audiences, who were mostly
illiterate.

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● Poland:
○ Partitioned at the end of 1700s by Russia, Prussia, Austria.
○ Despite no longer existing, nationalist feelings kept alive through music, language.
○ Karol Kurpinski celebrated national struggles through opera, music, turning folk
dances like Polonaise, Mazurka into nationalist symbols.
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○ After Russian occupation, Polish was forced out of schools, Russian imposed
everywhere.
○ 1831: Armed rebellion took place, failed.
○ Clergy in Poland began to use language as a weapon of national resistance.
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○ Polish used for church gatherings, all religious instructions.
○ Large number of priests, bishops arrested or sent to Siberia as punishment.
○ Polish language used as symbol of struggle against Russia

3.2 - Hunger, Hardship and Popular revolt

● 1830s economic hardship:

○ Large increase in population across europe.
○ In most countries, more job seekers than jobs.
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○ Population form rural areas came to live in cities in crowded slums.

○ Small producers in towns were faced with stiff competition with cheap goods from
England, where industrialisation was more advanced, especially in textile production.
○ In areas with aristocracy, peasants struggled under burden of feudal dues, obligations.
○ Rise of food prices or bad harvest led to extreme pauperism.
● February 1848: Food shortages, widespread unemployment brough Parisians out on streets -
Barricades erected - Louis Phillippe forced to flee.
● National assembly proclaimed a republic, granted suffrage to all males above 21, guaranteed
right to work - national workshops established to provide employment.
● 1845: weavers in Silesia had a revolt against contractors supplying raw materials - they
supplied raw materials and gave orders - but drastically reduced payments.
3.3 - The Revolution of the Liberals

● February 1848: After revolution in France, educated middle-class of Germany, Italy, Poland,
Austria-Hungary combined demands for constitutionalism with national unification.
● Taking advantage of growing political unrest, they demanded ccreation of a nation-state on
parliamentry principles - constituion, freedom of press, freedom of association.
● In German region, many political associations of middle class professionals, businessmen,
prosperous artisans came together, voted for all-german national assembly.
● 18 May 1848: 831 elected representatives constituted Frankfurt Parliament in church of Saint
Paul - they drafted constitution for German nationto be headed by monarchy subject to
parliament.
● Crown offered to Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia. He rejected, opposed it with other
German monarchs.
● It was dominated by middle class. When aristocracy, military opposed it, social basis eroded.

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It resisted demands of workers, artisans, lost their support.
● Ultimately troops were called, assembly forced to disband.

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● Issue of extending voting rights to women was conntroversial. Women formed political
associations, founded newspapers, took part in public meetings, demonstrations.
● Despite this, they were denied suffrage rights. When Frankfurt Parliament convened, women
were only allowed as observers from visitor’s gallery.
● 1848: Conservative forces suppresed liberal movements, unable to restore old order.
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● Monarchs realised cycles of revolution, repression could only be broken by granting
concessions.
● After 1848, autocratic monarchies of central, eastern europe introduced changes existing in
western europe before 1815: serfdom, bonded labour abolished in russia, habsburg
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dominions. Habsburg gave more freedom to hungarians
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