History Chapter 1 – Rise of Nationalism in Europe

Frédéric Sorrieu
 French artist presented a series of paintings in 1848
 Visualising his dream of a world made up of ‘democratic and social Republics’
o The first print shows the people of Europe and America marching in a long train and
offering homage to the Statue of Liberty as they pass it. The torch of Enlightenment was
carried by a female figure in one hand and the Charter of the Rights of Man in the other.
o On the earth in the foreground lie the shattered remains of the symbols of absolutist
institutions.
o In Sorrieu’s utopian vision, the people of the world are grouped as distinct nations,
identified through their flags and national costume.
o The procession was led by the United States and Switzerland, followed by France and
Germany. Following the German people are the people of Austria, the Kingdom of the Two
Sicilies, Lombardy, Poland, England, Ireland, Hungary and Russia.
o From the heavens above, Christ, saints and angels gaze upon the scene. They have been
used by the artist to symbolise fraternity among the nations of the world.

French Revolution
 First clear expression of nationalism in 1789
 French revolutionaries introduced various measures and practices that could create a sense of
collective identity amongst the French people
1. Innovative ideas of la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen – notion of a united community
enjoying equal rights
2. Creation of a new French flag
3. Election of National Assembly (renamed from Estates General to National Assembly)
4. New hymns were composed, oaths taken and martyrs commemorated
5. Centralised Administrative systems put in place
6. Uniform laws for all citizens
7. Internal customs duties and dues were abolished
8. A uniform system of weights and measures was adopted
9. French became the common language of the nation

Napoleonic Code
 Napoleon destroyed democracy in France
 Incorporated revolutionary principles in the administrative field to make it more rational &
efficient – Civil Code of 1804 - Napoleonic Code
 Feature of the Napoleonic Code
1. Abolishing of all birth rights & privileges
2. Establishment of Equality before law
3. Secured the right to property
4. Guild restrictions were removed
 History Chapter 1 – Rise of Nationalism in Europe

5. Napoleon simplified administrative divisions, abolished the feudal system and freed
peasants from serfdom and manorial dues
6. Transport and communication systems were improved
7. Businessmen and small-scale producers of goods, in particular, began to realise that uniform
laws, standardised weights and measures, and a common national currency would facilitate
the movement and exchange of goods and capital from one region to another
8. Limited suffrage (right to vote) and reduced women to the status of a minor, subject to the
authority of fathers and husbands
 New administrative arrangements did not go hand in hand with political freedom - Increased
taxation, censorship, forced conscription into the French armies required to conquer the rest of
Europe, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of the administrative changes.

Aristocracy & New Middle Class

 Aristocrats were the dominant class on the continent, politically and socially
 United by common way of life – Owned countryside estates and town houses, spoke French,
families connected by ties of marriage – small group though
 Majority of the population was peasants – Western lands farmed by tenants and small owners
while Eastern/central Europe, vast estates cultivated by serfs (servants/labourers)
 Since Industrialization in England – new social groups emerged - working-class population, and
middle classes made up of industrialists, businessmen, professionals

Liberalism
 Derived from Latin root liber, meaning free
 Politically, it emphasized 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
 Stressed on the inviolability of private property
 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
 Economically, liberalism stood for the freedom of markets and the abolition of state-imposed
restrictions on the movement of goods 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
 reduced the number of currencies from over thirty to two
 creation of a network of railways further stimulated mobility, harnessing economic interests to
national unification
 History Chapter 1 – Rise of Nationalism in Europe

New Conservatism After 1815

In 1815, major European powers like Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria defeated Napoleon. They met at
Vienna & hosted by the Austrian Chancellor Duke Metternich to drew up the Treaty of Vienna (to undo
the changes in Europe during Napoleon wars). As per this Treaty
 Bourbon dynasty was restored to power
 France lost its territories annexed by Napoleon
 A series of states (borders) were set up on the boundaries of France to prevent French expansion in
future (North – Netherlands + Belgium, South – Piedmont + Genoa, West – Prussia, East – Russia
+ Poland & Prussia was given part of Saxony)
 German confederation of 39 states that had been set up by Napoleon was left untouched
 Restored the monarchies that had been overthrown by Napoleon, and create a new conservative
order in Europe
 Conservative regimes set up in 1815 were autocratic – Did not tolerate critics and dissent, curb
questionable activities, censorship laws

Revolutionaries
 Giuseppe Mazzini - Born in Genoa in 1807 - he became a member of the secret society of the
Carbonari
 Founded two underground societies - Young Italy in Marseilles and Young Europe in Berne
 Main aim was to unify Italy as a Republic
 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’

The Age of Revolutions: 1830-1848

 Revolutions were led by the liberal-nationalists belonging to the educated middle-class elite and
commercial middle classes
 First upheaval - in France in July 1830 – Bourbon kings were overthrown to set up a constitutional
monarchy
 Uprising in Brussels which led to Belgium breaking away from the United Kingdom of the
Netherlands
 Greek, which was part of Muslim Ottoman empire, became an independent nation as per the T reaty
of Constantinople of 1832
 Romanticism, a cultural movement which sought to develop a particular form of nationalist
sentiment
o Romantic artists and poets - criticised the glorification of reason and science and focused
instead on emotions, intuition and mystical feelings
 History Chapter 1 – Rise of Nationalism in Europe

o effort was to create a sense of a shared collective heritage, a common cultural past, as the
basis of a nation
o German philosopher, Johann Gottfried Herder discovered the culture in common people
through folk songs, poetry and dances
o Emphasis on vernacular language and local folklore – to pass the nationalist message to
large illiterate audience
o Language - Use of Polish came to be seen as a symbol of the struggle against Russian
dominance
 1830s – Years of economic hardship
o Increased population
o Unemployment
o Migration from rural areas to cities to live in overcrowded slums
o Small producers in town (especially textile producers) faces stiff competition from imports
of cheap machine-made goods from England
o peasants struggled under the burden of feudal dues and obligations
o The rise of food prices or a year of bad harvest led to widespread pauperism in town and
country – 1848
o In 4 June 1845, weavers in Silesia had led a revolt against contractors who supplied them
raw material and gave them orders for finished textiles but drastically reduced their
payments (price of goods ordered)

 1848 – Revolution of the Liberals (IMPORTANT)

o In 1848, a revolution led by the educated middle classes was underway. Men and women of
the liberal middle class demanded the creation of a nation-state on parliamentary principles
– a constitution, freedom of the press and freedom of association.
o A large number of political associations came together in Frankfurt to vote for an all-
German National Assembly. On 18 May 1848, 831 elected representatives marched to take
their places in the Frankfurt parliament convened in the Church of St Paul.
o The Constitution drafted for the German nation was headed by a monarchy, subject to a
Parliament. The Crown was offered to Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia, but he
rejected it and joined other monarchs to oppose the elected assembly. The middle class
dominated the Parliament, and a large number of women participated in the liberal
movement.
o Women formed their own political associations, founded newspapers and took part in
political meetings and demonstrations, but they were still denied suffrage rights during the
election of the Assembly.
o In the years after 1848, the autocratic monarchies of Central and Eastern Europe began to
introduce the changes that had already taken place in Western Europe before 1815. Thus,
serfdom and bonded labour were abolished both in the Habsburg dominions and in Russia.
o The Habsburg rulers granted more autonomy to the Hungarians in 1867

 Making of Germany (IMPORTANT)

 History Chapter 1 – Rise of Nationalism in Europe

o Nationalist feelings were widespread among middle-class Germans, who in 1848 tried to
unite the different regions of the German confederation into a nation-state governed by an
elected parliament
o This liberal initiative to nation-building was oppressed by combined forces of monarchy and
military supported by the large landowners (junkers) of Prussia
o From then on, Prussia took on the leadership of the movement for national unification under
the leadership of Otto von Bismarck with the help of Prussian army and bureaucracy.
o Three wars over seven years – with Austria, Denmark and France – ended in Prussian
victory and completed the process of unification
o In January 1871, the Prussian king, William I, was proclaimed German Emperor in a
ceremony held at the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles
o The nation-building process in Germany had demonstrated the dominance of Prussian state
power.
o The new state placed a strong emphasis on modernising the currency, banking, legal and
judicial systems in Germany

 Making of Italy
o Italy also had a long history of political fragmentation. During the middle of the nineteenth
century, Italy was divided into seven states, of which only one, Sardinia-Piedmont, was
ruled by an Italian princely house.
o The north was under Austrian Habsburgs, the centre was ruled by the Pope and the southern
regions were under the domination of the Bourbon kings of Spain.
o Even the Italian language had many regional and local variations
o During the 1830s, Giuseppe Mazzini had sought to put together a coherent programme for a
unitary Italian Republic. He had also formed a secret society called Young Italy for the
dissemination of his goals.
o The failure of revolutionary uprisings both in 1831 and 1848 meant that the mantle now fell
on Sardinia-Piedmont under its ruler King Victor Emmanuel II to unify the Italian states
through war
o Chief Minister Cavour led the movement to unify the regions of Italy. Through a tactful
diplomatic alliance with France engineered by Cavour, Sardinia-Piedmont succeeded in
defeating the Austrian forces in 1859
o Apart from regular troops, a large number of armed volunteers under the leadership of
Giuseppe Garibaldi joined the fray.
o In 1860, they marched into South Italy and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and succeeded
in winning the support of the local peasants in order to drive out the Spanish rulers.
o In 1861 Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of united Italy. However, much of the
Italian population, among whom rates of illiteracy were very high, remained blissfully
unaware of liberalnationalist ideology.
o The peasant masses who had supported Garibaldi in southern Italy had never heard of Italia,
and believed that ‘La Talia’ was Victor Emmanuel’s wife.

 Strange case of Britain

o Great Britain was the model of the nation, and prior to the eighteenth century, there was no
British nation.
 History Chapter 1 – Rise of Nationalism in Europe

o The English parliament, which had seized power from the monarchy in 1688 at the end of a
protracted conflict, was the instrument through which a nation-state, with England at its
centre, came to be forged.
o The Act of Union (1707) between England and Scotland that resulted in the formation of the
‘United Kingdom of Great Britain’ meant, in effect, that England was able to impose its
influence on Scotland. British Parliament was dominated by its English members.
o In 1801, Ireland was forcibly incorporated into the United Kingdom after the failed revolt
led by Wolfe Tone and United Irishmen
o The symbols of the new Britain – the British flag (Union Jack), the national anthem (God
Save Our Noble King), and the English language – were actively promoted.

 Visualising the Nation

o In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, artists represented a country as a person and
nations as female figures. Female figures became an ‘allegory’ of the nation.
o During the French Revolution, female figures portray ideas such as Liberty, Justice and the
Republic. Liberty is represented as a red cap or the broken chain, and justice as a
blindfolded woman carrying a pair of weighing scales.
o France – Marianne (red cap, tricolor & cockade), Germany – Germania with crown of oak
leaves.

 Nationalism and Imperialism (Balkans)

o Nationalism was no longer retained after the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
o After 1871, the most tensioned area was called the Balkans, a region comprising modern-
day Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro.
o Ottoman Empire made the Balkans region explosive, and all through the nineteenth century,
they strengthened themselves through modernisation and internal reforms. Due to various
conflicts, Balkan became an area of intense conflict.
o During this period, intense rivalry built among the European powers over trade and colonies
as well as naval and military might, which led to a series of wars in the region and, finally,
the First World War.
o In 1914, Europe was disastered because of Nationalism, aligned with imperialism. Anti-
imperial movements were developed, but they all struggled to form independent nation-
states. But the idea of ‘nation-states’ was accepted as natural and universal.
 History Chapter 1 – Rise of Nationalism in Europe

1707 Act of Union between England & Scotland - ‘United Kingdom of Great
Britain’
1789 French Revolution
1797 Napoleon invaded Italy, Napoleonic wars began
1801 Ireland incorporated to Britain
1804 Civil Code
1815 Battle of Waterloo; Treaty of Vienna
1821 Greek struggle for independence started
1824 Lord Byron died
1830 July Revolution in Paris, France; Brussels Revolution
1832 Treaty of Constantinople – Greek independence
1834 Zollverein (customs union) formed
1845 Silesian Revolt
1848 Revolution of the Liberals in Europe; Frederic Sorrie’s Art
1859 Sardinia-Piedmont succeeded in defeating the Austrian forces
1859 - 70 Unification of Italy
1861 Victor Emmanuel II proclaimed king of united Italy
1866 – 71 Unification of Germany
1871 William I proclaimed king of unified Germany
Post 1871 Balkan started conflict
1905 Slav nationalism gathers force in Habsburg & Ottoman Empires
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1859 Inland Emigration Act

1914 – 1918 First World War
1915 Gandhiji returned to India
1917 Champaran Satyagraha, Kheda Satyagraha
1918 Ahmedabad Satyagraha
1919 March Khilafat Committee formed; Rowlatt Act Passed
1919 April Hartal nationwide
13th April 1919 Jaliawala Bagh Massacre
1920 Sep Calcutta session of INC
1920 Dec Nagpur session of INC
1921 Jan Non-cooperation started
1921 – 1922 Non-cooperation Movement in India
1922 Chauri Chaura Incident – NCM called off
1928 Simon Commission to India
1929 Dec Lahore session of INC
11th March 1930 Dandi March started
6th April 1930 Salt law was broken; start of civil disobedience
1930 Depressed classes association
5th March 1931 Gandhi-Irwin Pact; CDM called off
1931 Dec Second Round Table Conference
1932 POONA Pact
1932 – 1934 CDM started again

Important Congress Sessions

Calcutta session Swaraj & Khilafat issues were combined to form NCM
Nagpur session NCM adopted
Lahore session Purna Swaraj was demanded by Jawahar Lal Nehru ji