Heritage Public School

Class 10:- Social Science “ History”

Chapter- 1 The Rise of Nationalism in Europe
Notes:
1.Introduction
1. In 1848, Frederic Sorrieu, a French artist, prepared a series of four print
visualizing his dream of a world made up of ‘democratic and social
republic. It marked the downfall of feudalism and the beginning of
Renaissance which literally means ‘Rebirth’.

2. Artists of the time of the French Revolution personified Liberty as a

female figure..

3. The painting depicted his dream of a world free of the absolutist

institutions and the establishment of democratic and social republics. It
also illustrated the Statue of Liberty holding a torch of Enlightenment and
the Charter of the Rights of Man.

4.According to Sorrieu’s utopian vision, the peoples of the world are grouped
as distinct nations, identified through their flags and national costume.

5. During the nineteenth century, nationalism emerged as a force which

brought about sweeping changes in the political and mental world of Europe.

6. The end result of these changes was the emergence of the nation-state in
the place of the multi-national dynastic empires of Europe.

7. A modern state, in which a centralized power exercised sovereign control

over a clearly defined territory, had been developing over a long period of
time in Europe.

8. 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.
9. Nationalism is a political and socio-economic philosophy that promotes
the interests of a nation as a whole.

10.The concepts of liberty, equality, fraternity and nationalism dominated the

social and political scene of Europe in the 19th century.

2.The French Revolution and the idea of the Nation :

1. The first clear expression of nationalism came with the French Revolution
in 1789. Till 1789 France was under absolute monarchy.

2. 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.

3. The ideas of La patrie (the fatherland) and Le citoyen (the citizen) were
adopted.

4. The Estates General was renamed the National Assembly, which was
elected by the body of active citizens.

5. French armies moved into Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy in the
1790s with a promise of liberating the people from their despotic rulers.

However, the French Revolution in 1789 was an influential event that

marked the age of revolutions in Europe.

6. The revolutionaries further declared that it was the mission and the
destiny of the French nation to liberate the peoples of Europe.

7. Students and other members of educated middle classes began setting

up Jacobin club. Their activities and campaigns prepared the way for
the French armies which moved into Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and
much of Italy in the 1790’s.

8. The French armies began to carry the idea of nationalism abroad.

9. Napoleon had destroyed democracy in France, but in the administrative

field he had incorporated revolutionary principles in order to make the whole
system more rational and efficient.

3.The Civil Code of 1804 –

1.The Civil Code in 1804 which also came to be known as the Napoleonic
Code.

2.The code established equality before the law and abolished all privileges
based on birth.

3. It also abolished the feudal system and freed peasants from serfdom.

4. Taxation and censorship were imposed and military services were made
mandatory.

5.Standardised weights and measures, and a common national currency

would facilitate the movement and exchange of goods and capital from one
region to another.

4.Advent of Liberalism in Europe:-

1.During the mid-18th century, Europe was divided into several small
kingdoms and principalities. The concept of nation states did not exist at all.
People from diverse ethnic groups lived in Eastern and Central Europe.

2. The prominent empires in Europe were the autocratic Ottoman Empire that
ruled over Eastern and Central Europe, and Greece and the Habsburg
Empire that ruled over Austria-Hungary.

5.Aristocracy and the new middle class:-

1. Socially and politically, a landed aristocracy was the dominant class on

the continent.

2. The members of this class were by a common way of life that cut across
regional divisions.

3. Their families were often connected by marriages.

4. Industrialisation began in England in the second half of the eighteenth

century, but in France and in the German states it occurred only during the
nineteenth century.

6.What did Liberal Nationalism Stand for?

1. In early-nineteenth-century Europe were closely allied to the ideology of
liberalism.

2. The term ‘liberalism’ derives from the Latin root liber, meaning free.

3. Liberalism stood for freedom for the individual and equality of all before
the law.

4. It emphasized the concept of government by consent.

5. Men without property and all women were excluded from political rights.
6. Women and non-propertied men and women organised opposition
movements demanding equal political rights.

7.The union abolished tariff barriers and reduced the number of currencies
from over thirty to two.

7.New Conservation after 1815 :-

1. Following the defect of Napoleon in 1815, European governments were

driven by a spirit of conservatism.

2. Most conservatives, however, did not propose a return to the society of

pre-revolutionary days.

3. That modernisation could in fact strengthen traditional institutions like the

monarchy.

4. A modern army, an efficient bureaucracy, a dynamic economy, the

abolition of feudalism and serfdom could strengthen the autocratic
monarchies of Europe.

5. In 1815, representatives of the European powers – Britain, Russia,

Prussia and Austria – who had collectively defeated Napoleon, met at
Vienna to draw up a settlement for Europe.

6. 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.

7. German confederation of 39 states that has been set up by Napoleon

was left untouched.

8. Autocratic did not tolerate criticism and dissent, and sought to curb
activities that questioned the legitimacy of autocratic government

8.The Revolutionaries
1. During the years following 1815, the fear of repression drove many
liberal-nationalists underground.

2. Revolutionary at this time meant a commitment to oppose monarchical

forms and to fight for liberty and freedom.

3. Giuseppe Mazzini, born in Genoa in 1807, he became a member of the

secret society of the Carbonari.

4. He was sent into exile in 1831 for attempting a revolution in Liguria.

5. Mazzini believed that god had intended nations to be the natural units of
mankind.

6. Secret societies were set up in Germany, France, Switzerland and

Poland.

7. Metternich described him as ‘The most dangerous enemy of our social

order’.

9.The Age of Revolution: 1830 - 1848 :

1. 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.

2. ‘When the France sneezes’, Metternich once remarked, ‘the rest of

the Europe catches cold’.
3. An event that mobilized nationalist feelings among the educated elite
across Europe was the Greek war of independence.

4. Greece had been the part of the Ottoman Empire since the fifteenth
century.

5. Greeks living in exile and also from many west Europeans who had
sympathies for ancient Greek culture

10.The Romantic Imagination and national Feeling:-

1. Culture played an important role in creating the idea of the nationalism.

Art and poetry, stories and music helped express and shape nationalist
feeling.

2.Romantic artists and poet generally criticised the glorification of reason

and science and focused instead on emotions, institution and mystical
feelings.

3. Other romantics were through folk song, folk poetry and folk dances that
the true spirit of the nation.

4. National feelings were kept alive through music and languages.

5. Karol Kurpinski, celebrated the national struggles through his operas and
music, turning folk dances like the polonaise and mazurka into nationalist
symbols.

6. Language too played an important role in developing nationalist

sentiments. Russian language was imposed everywhere.

11.The Making of Germany:-

1. After 1848, nationalism in Europe moved away from its association with
democracy and revolution.

2. Nationalist feelings were widespread among middle-class Germans.

3. Prussia took on the leadership of the movement.

4. Three wars overseen years-with Austria, Denmark, and France-ended in

Prussian victory and completed the process of unification.

5. The nation-building process in Germany had demonstrated the

dominance of Prussian state power.

6. The new state placed a strong emphasis on modernising the currency,

banking, legal and judicial systems in Germany.

12.Italy Unified :-

1.Italians were scattered over several dynastic states as well as the multi-
national Habsburg Empire.

2. Italy was divided into seven states.

3.. Giuseppe Mazzini had sought to put together a coherent programme for a
unitary Italian Republic.

4.The failure of revolutionary uprising both in 1831 and 1848 meant that the
mantle now fell on Sadinia-Piedmont under its ruler King Victor Emmanuel II
to unify the Italian states through war.

13.The strange case of Britain

1. There was no British nation prior to the eighteenth century.

2. “The act of Union” 1707 between England and Scotland that resulted in
the formation of ’United Kingdom of great Britain’.

3. Ireland was forcibly incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801.

4. British flag, the national anthem, the English language – were actively
promoted .

14.Visualising the Nation

1. While it was easy enough to represent a ruler through a portrait or a

statue.

2. In other words they represented a country as if it were a person.

3. Nations were then portrayed as a female figure.

4. The female figures became an allegory of the nation.

5. Christened Marianne, a popular Christian name, which underlined the

idea of people’s nation.

15.Nationalism and Imperialism :-

1. By the quarter of the nineteenth century nationalism no longer retained
its idealistic.

2. The most serious source of nationalists tension in Europe after 1871

was the area called the Balkans.

3. The Balkans was a region of geographical and ethnic variation.

4. One by one its European subjects nationalities broke away from its
control and declared independence.

5. The Balkan area became an era of intense conflict.

6. The Balkan states were jealous of each other and each hoped to gain
more territory at the expense of each other.

7. But the idea that societies should be organized into ‘nation-states’ came
to be accepted as natural and universal

Important Terms:
1.Utopian vision:
It refers to a vision of a society that is so ideal that it is unlikely to actually
exist.

2.Absolutism: It refers to a system of rule that has no restraints on the

power exercised.

3. Plebiscite:
The direct vote of all the members of an electorate on an important public
question such as a change in the constitution.

4.Nationalism: An ideology which emphasizes faithfulness, devotion, or

allegiance to a nation.

5.Zollverein: A customs union formed in 1834 at the initiative of Prussia. It

abolished tariff barriers and reduced the number of currencies from over
thirty to two.

6.Habsburg Empire: The empire that ruled Austria Hungary including the
Alpine regions of Tyrol, Austria, the Sudetenland and Bohemia.

7. Ottoman Empire: A former Turkish empire ruled by the Caliph, the

spiritual and temporal head of the Muslims.

8.Suffrage: The right to vote in political elections.

Important Personalities:

1.Frédéric Sorrieu :

He was a French artist famous for a series of four prints prepared

in 1848 that visualized the dream of a world consisting of ‘democratic and
social Republics’.

2.Napoleon (1769-1821) :

A French military and political leader who gained prominence

during the French Revolution. He ruled France from 1799 to 1815. He
assumed absolute power in 1799 by becoming the First Consul.

3. Giuseppe Mazzini :
A famous Italian revolutionary who was born in 1807 in Genoa.
He was part of a secret society called Carbonari and founded two
underground societies called Young Italy in Marseilles and Young Europe in
Berne.
4.Duke Metternich :
An Austrian Chancellor who hosted the Congress which was
held at Vienna in 1815 and was the chief architect of the Treaty of Vienna.

Important Dates
1.1797 : Napoleon invades Italy; Napoleonic wars begin.

2 1804 : Napoleonic Code was introduced that, did away with all privileges
based on birth. Upheld equality before the law.

3.1814-15 : Fall of Napoleon; the Vienna Peace Settlement.