Class 10 History · Chapter 1 NotesThe Rise of Nationalism in Europe

The first clear expression of nationalism came with the French Revolution of 1789. France was already a full-fledged territorial state under an absolute monarch, but the Revolution transferred sovereignty from the monarchy to a body of French citizens. The revolutionaries introduced many measures to create a collective identity: ideas like la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen), a new tricolour flag, the Estates General renamed the National Assembly, new hymns and oaths, a centralised administration with uniform laws, abolition of internal customs, a uniform system of weights and measures, and French as the common language. They also declared it France's mission to liberate the peoples of Europe from despotism. Jacobin clubs set up by educated middle classes prepared the way for French armies, which carried these ideas abroad in the 1790s.

• la patrie means the fatherland; le citoyen means the citizen
• The tricolour replaced the former royal standard
• The Estates General was renamed the National Assembly

Napoleon destroyed democracy in France by returning to monarchy, but in administration he kept revolutionary principles to make the system more rational and efficient. The Civil Code of 1804, known as the Napoleonic Code, removed privileges based on birth, established equality before the law and secured the right to property. It was exported to regions under French control. In the Dutch Republic, Switzerland, Italy and Germany, Napoleon simplified administrative divisions, abolished the feudal system, freed peasants from serfdom and manorial dues, removed guild restrictions in towns, and improved transport and communication. Businessmen and small producers gained from uniform laws, standardised weights and measures, and a common national currency. Reactions were mixed: French armies were at first welcomed as harbingers of liberty, but enthusiasm turned to hostility because the new arrangements did not bring political freedom, and increased taxation, censorship and forced conscription outweighed the benefits.

• Napoleonic Code (1804)equality before the law, right to property, no birth privileges
• Abolished feudalism and serfdom in areas under French control
• Initial welcome changed to hostility due to taxation, censorship and forced conscription

In mid-eighteenth-century Europe there were no nation-states as we know them. Germany, Italy and Switzerland were divided into kingdoms, duchies and cantons, and Eastern and Central Europe were under autocratic monarchies with diverse peoples. The Habsburg Empire was a patchwork of regions and peoples bound only by common allegiance to the emperor. Socially and politically, a landed aristocracy was the dominant class, though numerically small; the majority were peasants. Industrialisation brought new social groups: a working-class population and middle classes of industrialists, businessmen and professionals. It was among the educated, liberal middle classes that ideas of national unity gained popularity. Liberalism, from the Latin root liber meaning free, stood for freedom for the individual, equality before the law, government by consent, a constitution and representative government through parliament, and the inviolability of private property. However, equality before the law did not mean universal suffrage: in revolutionary France only property-owning men could vote, and the Napoleonic Code reduced women to the status of a minor. Economically, liberalism demanded freedom of markets and the abolition of state-imposed restrictions on the movement of goods and capital. In 1834, a customs union called the zollverein was formed at Prussia's initiative, abolishing tariff barriers and reducing the number of currencies from over thirty to two.

• Liberalismfrom Latin liber (free); individual freedom, equality before law, government by consent
• Suffrage means the right to vote
• Zollverein (1834)a customs union of most German states

After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, European governments followed conservatism, believing that traditional institutions like monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family should be preserved. In 1815, representatives of Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria met at Vienna under Austrian Chancellor Duke Metternich and drew up the Treaty of Vienna to undo most changes of the Napoleonic wars. The Bourbon dynasty was restored, France lost annexed territories, and states were set up on France's boundaries to prevent future expansion. Conservative regimes were autocratic, imposed censorship and did not tolerate criticism. Liberal-nationalists went underground and formed secret societies. Giuseppe Mazzini, born in Genoa in 1805, founded Young Italy in Marseilles and Young Europe in Berne, and believed nations were the natural units of mankind. The first upheaval took place in France in July 1830, when Bourbon kings were overthrown and Louis Philippe became head of a constitutional monarchy. This sparked an uprising in Brussels, leading to Belgium breaking away from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Greek war of independence began in 1821, and the Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognised Greece as an independent nation.

• Conservatismpreserving tradition, established institutions and customs
• Treaty of Vienna (1815) hosted by Duke Metternich
• Mazzini founded Young Italy and Young Europe

Culture played an important role in creating the idea of the nation. Romanticism, a cultural movement, criticised the glorification of reason and science and focused on emotions, intuition and mystical feelings, aiming to create a shared collective heritage. Johann Gottfried Herder claimed true German culture was to be found among the common people, das volk, and that the true spirit of the nation, volksgeist, was popularised through folk songs, folk poetry and folk dances. Emphasis on vernacular language and local folklore also carried the nationalist message to largely illiterate audiences, as in Poland, where national feelings were kept alive through music and language after partition by Russia, Prussia and Austria. The 1830s were years of great economic hardship: population increased, jobs were fewer than seekers, rural people migrated to overcrowded slums, and small producers faced competition from cheap machine-made English goods. In 1845, weavers in Silesia revolted against contractors who reduced their payments; eleven weavers were shot. In 1848, food shortages and unemployment brought people of Paris onto the roads, Louis Philippe fled, a Republic was proclaimed, suffrage was granted to all adult males above 21, and national workshops were set up. In the German regions, an all-German National Assembly met at Frankfurt on 18 May 1848, but the King of Prussia rejected the crown offered on parliamentary terms and the assembly was forced to disband. Women had participated actively but were denied suffrage rights and admitted only as observers. After 1848, monarchs began granting concessions: serfdom and bonded labour were abolished in the Habsburg dominions and Russia, and the Habsburg rulers granted more autonomy to the Hungarians in 1867.

• das volkthe common people; volksgeist: the true spirit of the nation
• Silesian weavers' revolt, 1845
• Frankfurt parliament convened in the Church of St Paul, 18 May 1848

After 1848, nationalism in Europe moved away from democracy and revolution and was often mobilised by conservatives. In Germany, nationalist feelings were widespread among middle-class Germans, but the liberal initiative of 1848 was repressed by the monarchy, the military and the large landowners called Junkers. Prussia then took leadership of unification. Its chief minister, Otto von Bismarck, was the architect of the process, carried out with the help of the Prussian army and bureaucracy. Three wars over seven years with Austria, Denmark and France ended in Prussian victory. In January 1871, Prussian king William I was proclaimed German Emperor at Versailles. The new state emphasised modernising the currency, banking, legal and judicial systems. Italy was similarly fragmented into seven states, with only Sardinia-Piedmont ruled by an Italian princely house. Mazzini had sought a unitary Italian Republic, but after the failure of uprisings in 1831 and 1848, the leadership passed to Sardinia-Piedmont under King Victor Emmanuel II. Chief Minister Cavour made a diplomatic alliance with France and defeated Austrian forces in 1859. Giuseppe Garibaldi and his armed volunteers, known as Red Shirts, marched into South Italy and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1860. In 1861, Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of united Italy. Many peasants were unaware of the ideology and believed 'La Talia' was the king's wife.

• Bismarckarchitect of German unification; Junkers: large landowners of Prussia
• Three warswith Austria, Denmark and France
• Garibaldi's volunteers were called Red Shirts

In Britain, the nation-state was not the result of a sudden upheaval but of a long-drawn-out process. There was no British nation before the eighteenth century; primary identities were ethnic, such as English, Welsh, Scot or Irish. As the English nation grew in wealth and power, it extended its influence over the other nations. The English parliament, which had seized power from the monarchy in 1688, was the instrument through which a nation-state with England at its centre was forged. The Act of Union (1707) between England and Scotland formed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and the British parliament was dominated by English members. Scotland's culture and institutions were suppressed, and Catholic clans of the Scottish Highlands suffered repression. Ireland was forcibly incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801 after a failed revolt led by Wolfe Tone and his United Irishmen in 1798. A new British nation was forged through the propagation of a dominant English culture, with symbols like the Union Jack, the national anthem and the English language. Artists personified nations as female figures: Marianne in France, with the red cap, tricolour and cockade, and Germania in Germany, wearing a crown of oak leaves standing for heroism. By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, nationalism became a narrow creed, and the Balkans became the most serious source of tension, leading to a series of wars and finally the First World War.

• Act of Union (1707) formed the United Kingdom of Great Britain
• Marianneallegory of France; Germania: allegory of Germany
• Balkansregion of geographical and ethnic variation, inhabitants broadly called Slavs