The rise of nationalism in

Europe

-Iyangar Pillai – Dept. of S. Sc.

 KEY WORDS
Utopian – A vision of a
society that is so ideal that it is
unlikely to actually exist.
Absolutist – A government or
system of rule that has no
restraints on the power
exercised. It refers to a form of
monarchical government that
was centralised, militarised
and repressive.
 KEY WORDS
Plebiscite – A direct vote
by which all the people of
a region are asked to
accept or reject a
proposal.
THE RISE OF NATIONALISM IN EUROPE
In what way do you think this print (Fig. 1)
depicts a utopian vision?
 In 1848, Frédéric Sorrieu, a French
artist, prepared a series of four prints
visualising his dream of a world made
up of ‘democratic and social Republics’,
as he called them.
 It shows the peoples 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.
 The artists of the time of the French
Revolution personified Liberty as a
female figure – the torch of
Enlightenment she bears in one hand and
the Charter of the Rights of Man in the
other.
In what way do you think this print (Fig. 1)
depicts a utopian vision?
 On the earth in the foreground of the
image lie the shattered remains of the
symbols of absolutist institutions.
 In Sorrieu’s utopian vision, the peoples
of the world are grouped as distinct
nations, identified through their flags and
national costume.
 Leading the procession, way past the
statue of Liberty, are the United States
and Switzerland, which by this time
were already nation-states.
 France identifiable by the revolutionary
tricolour, has just reached the statue. She
is followed by the peoples of Germany,
bearing the black, red and gold flag.
In what way do you think this print (Fig. 1)
depicts a utopian vision?
At the time when Sorrieu created this
image, the German peoples did not yet exist
as a united nation – the flag they carry is an
expression of liberal hopes in 1848 to unify
the numerous German-speaking
principalities into a nation-state under a
democratic constitution.
Following the German peoples are the
peoples of Austria, the Kingdom of the Two
Sicilies, Lombardy (Italy), Poland,
England, Ireland, Hungary and Russia.
 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.
 Nation States Vs Modern States
Nation State emerged after Modern states have been
overthrowing monarchy and developing since the emergence of
dynasty rule in Europe. Nation state.

In a Nation state, citizens Modern states are ruled by a

came to develop a common centralised power and authority
identity based on shared exercised sovereign control over a
language, traditions and clearly defined territory, had been
customs. developing over a long period of
time in Europe.
In Modern states, people
This commonness did not
speaking different languages,
exist from time immemorial;
following various traditions and
it was forged through struggles,
cultures live together.
through the actions of leaders Nations states have now
and the common people. developed as Modern states.
The first clear expression of nationalism came with the
French Revolution in 1789. Explain the Statement.
 France, was a full-fledged territorial state in 1789
under the rule of an absolute monarch, Bourbon
Dynasty ruler Louis XVI.

 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.

Its main object was to limit the powers of the

monarch. These powers instead of being concentrated
in the hands of one person, were now separated and
assigned to different institutions – the legislature,
executive and judiciary.

This made France a constitutional monarchy. The

revolution proclaimed constitute the nation and
shape its destiny.
 RULERS OF FRANCE
1774 – 1793 - LOUIS XVI
1793 – 1795 - LOUIS XVII (the younger son of
King Louis XVI of France)
1804 – 1815 - NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
1815 - VIENNA CONGRESS
1815 – 1824 - LOUIS XVIII (Grandson of Louis XV
& Younger Brother of Louis XVI)
1825 – 1830 - CHARLES X (Grandson of Louis XV &
Younger Brother of Louis XVI and Louis XVIII)
1830 – 1848 - LOUIS PHILIP I (Fifth cousin of Louis XVI,
Louis XVIII and Charles X
1848 – 1852 - LOUIS NAPOLEON or
1852 – 1870 - NAPOLEON III (Nephew of Napoleon I)
 DIFFERENT DYNASTIES
FRANCE – BOURBON DYNASTY

AUSTRIA – HUNGARY - HABSBURG DYNASTY

RUSSIA - ROMONOV DYNASTY

TURKEY - OTTOMAN EMPIRE

The French Revolution and the Idea of the Nation
 The ideas of la patrie (the
fatherland) and le citoyen (the
citizen) emphasised 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.
The French Revolution and the Idea 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 French Revolution and the Idea 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.
When the news of the events in France
reached the different cities of Europe, students
and other members of educated middle classes
began setting up Jacobin clubs.
Their activities and campaigns prepared the
way for the French armies which moved into
Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and much of
Italy in the 1790s.
With the outbreak of the revolutionary wars,
the French armies began to carry the idea of
nationalism abroad.
Europe after VIENNA Congress
 Napoleonic Code of 1804
 Within the wide swathe of territory that came
under his control, Napoleon set about
introducing many of the reforms that he
had already introduced in France.

 Through a return to monarchy Napoleon had,

no doubt, destroyed democracy in France,
but in the administrative field he had
incorporated evolutionary principles in
order to make the whole system more
rational and efficient.
 Napoleonic Code of 1804
 It did away with all privileges based on birth,
established equality before the law and secured the
right to property.
 In the Dutch Republic, administrative divisions,
abolished the feudal system and freed peasants
from serfdom and manorial dues.
 In the towns too, guild restrictions were removed.
 Transport and communication systems were
improved.
 Peasants, artisans, workers and new businessmen
enjoyed a new-found freedom. 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.
The new administrative arrangements did not go hand in
hand with political freedom. Explain. The Battle of Leipzig or Battle
In the areas conquered by Napoleon, the reactions of the Nations
of the local populations to French rule were mixed.

 Initially, in many places such as Holland and

Switzerland, as well as in certain cities like Brussels,
Mainz (Germany), Milan (Italy) and Warsaw
(Poland), the French armies were welcomed as
harbingers of liberty.

But the initial enthusiasm soon turned to hostility, as

it became clear that the 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.
 HOME WORK
1. Describe Frederic Sorrieu’s utopian vision of the world as he
depicted in his painting in 1848.
2. Define the term ‘nation- state’. Explain any three features of
the ‘Nation State’ that emerged in Europe in the twentieth
century.
3. The first clear expression of nationalism came with the
French Revolution in 1789. Explain.
4. What did the French revolutionaries do to create a sense of
collective identity among the French People?
5. “Napoleon had destroyed democracy in France, but in the
administrative field he had incorporated revolutionary
principles”. Justify this statement.
6. The new administrative arrangements did not go hand in hand
with political freedom. Justify the statement.
 KEY WORDS
Duchy: In the medieval period, a territory or domain
ruled by a duke or duchess, a high-ranking nobleman
hierarchically second to the king or queen in
European tradition.
Canton: It is a subdivision of a country established
for political or administrative purposes.
Serf: An agricultural labourer bound by the feudal
system who was tied to working on his lord's estate.
Suffrage – The right to vote
The Making of Nationalism in Europe
 In the Mid-eighteenth-century
Europe there were no ‘nation-
states’ as we know them today.
 Germany, Italy and Switzerland
were divided into kingdoms,
duchies and cantons whose rulers
had their autonomous territories.
 Eastern and Central Europe were
under autocratic monarchies within
the territories of which lived diverse
peoples.
Europe after VIENNA Congress
The Making of Nationalism in Europe
 They did not see themselves as sharing a
collective identity or a common culture.
 Often, they even spoke different languages
and belonged to different ethnic groups.
 The Habsburg Empire that ruled over
Austria-Hungary, for example, was a
patchwork of many different regions and
peoples.
 It included the Alpine regions – the Tyrol,
Austria and the Sudetenland – as well as
Bohemia, where the aristocracy was
predominantly German-speaking.
The Making of Nationalism in Europe
 It also included the Italian-speaking provinces of
Lombardy and Venetia.
 In Hungary, half of the population spoke Magyar
while the other half spoke a variety of dialects. In
Galicia, the aristocracy spoke Polish.
 Besides these three dominant groups, there also
lived within the boundaries of the empire, a mass of
subject peasant peoples – Bohemians and Slovaks
to the north, Slovenes in Carniola, Croats to the
south, and Roumans to the east in Transylvania.
 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
 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.
 People of the Third Estate
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 People
 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.
 New social groups came into being: a working-
class population, and middle classes made up
of industrialists, businessmen, professionals.
 It was among the educated, liberal middle
classes that ideas of national unity following the
abolition of aristocratic privileges gained
popularity.