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, as he called them.
2.
Artists of the time of
the French Revolution personified Liberty as a female figure.
3.
According to
Sorrieu’s utopian vision,
the peoples of the world are grouped as distinct nations, identified through
their flags and national costume.
4.
This chapter will deal
with many of the issues visualized by Sorrieu.
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.
This chapter will look
at the diverse processes through which nation-states and nationalism came into
being in nineteenth-century Europe.
The French Revolution and the idea of the Nation
1. The first clear expression of nationalism came with the French Revolution in 1789.
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) emphasized the notion of a united
community enjoying equal rights under a constitution.
4.
The Estates General was
elected by the body of the active citizens and renamed the National Assembly.
5.
Internal customs duties
and dues were abolished and a uniform system of weights and measures was
adopted.
6.
The revolutionaries
further declared that it was the mission and the destiny of the French nation
to liberate the peoples of Europe from despotism.
7.
Students and other
members of educated middle classes began setting up Jacobin club.
8.
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.
9.
The French armies began
to carry the idea of nationalism abroad.
10.
Through a return to
monarchy Napoleon had, no doubt, 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.
11.
The Civil Code of 1804 –
usually known as the Napoleonic Code - did away with all privileges based on
birth, established equality before the Law and secured the right to property.
12.
Napoleon simplified
administrative divisions, abolished the feudal system and freed peasants from
serfdom and manorial dues.
13.
Transport and communication
systems were improved.
14.
Businessmen and
small-scale producers of goods, in particular, began to realize 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.
15.
In many places such as
Holland and Switzerland, Brussels, Mainz, Milan, Warsaw, the French armies were
welcomed as harbingers of Liberty.
16.
It became clear that the
new administrative arrangements did not go hand in hand with political freedom.
17.
Increased taxation,
censorship, forced conscription into the French armies required to conquer the
rest of the Europe, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of the administrative
changes.
The Making of Nationalism in Europe
1. Germany, Italy and Switzerland were divided into kingdoms, duchies and cantons whose rulers had their autonomous territories.
2.
They did not see
themselves as sharing a collective identity or a common culture.
3.
The Habsburg Empire
ruled over Austria Hungary.
4.
In Hungary, half of the
population spoke Magyar while the other half of the spoke a variety of
dialects.
5.
Besides these three
dominant groups, there also lived within the boundaries of the empire.
6.
The only tie binding
these diverse groups together was a common allegiance to the emperor.
The 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 ties if marriages.
4.
This powerful
aristocracy was, however, numerically a small group. The growth of towns and
the emergence of commercial classes whose existence was based on production for
the market.
5.
Industrialization 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.
6.
In its wake, new social
groups came into being: a working-class population, and middle classes made up
of industrialists, businessmen, professional.
7.
It was among the
educated, liberal middle classes that ideas of national unity following the
abolition of aristocratic privileges gained popularity.
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.
A constitution and
representative government through parliament.
6.
The right to vote and to
get elected was generated exclusively to property-owning men.
7.
Men without property and
all women were excluded from political rights.
8.
Women and non-propertied
men and women organised opposition movements demanding equal political rights.
9.
The abolition of
state-imposed restrictions on the movement of goods and capital.
10.
A merchant travelling in
1833 from Hamburg to Nuremberg to sell his goods would have to pass through 11
customs barriers and pay a customs duty of about 5% at each one of them.
11.
Obstacles to economics
exchanges and growth by the new commercial classes, who argued for the creation
of a unified economic territory allowing the unhindered movement of goods, people
and capital.
12.
The union abolished
tariff barriers and reduced the number of currencies from over thirty to two.
A 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 modernization 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.
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’.
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.
The Romantic Imagination and national Feeling
1. The development of nationalism did not come about only through wars and territorial expansions.
2.
Culture played an
important role in creating the idea of the nation: art and poetry, stories and
music helped express and shape nationalist feeling.
3.
Let us look at
Romanticism, a culture movement which sought to develop a particular form of
nationalist sentiments.
4.
Romantic artists and
poet generally criticised the glorification of reason and science and focused
instead on emotions, institution and mystical feelings.
5.
Other romantics were
through folk song, folk poetry and folk dances that the true spirit of the
nation.
6.
National feelings were
kept alive through music and languages.
7.
Karol Kurpinski,
celebrated the national struggles through his operas and music, turning folk
dances like the polonaise and mazurka into nationalist symbols.
8.
Language too played an
important role in developing nationalist sentiments.
9.
Russian language was
imposed everywhere.
10.
Many members of the
clergy in Poland began to use language as a weapon of national resistance.
11.
As a result, a large
number of priests and bishops were put in jail or sent to Siberia by the
Russian authorities as punishment for their refusal to preach in Russians.
Hunger, Hardship and Popular Revolt
1. The 1830s were years of great economic hardship in Europe.
2.
The first half of the
nineteenth century saw an enormous increase in population.
3.
In most countries there
were more seekers of jobs than employment.
4.
Population from rural
areas migrated to the cities to live in overcrowded slum.
5.
Food shortage and
widespread unemployment brought the population of Paris out on the roads.
6.
National Assembly
proclaimed a republic, granted suffrage to all adult males above 21, and
guaranteed the right to work.
7.
Earlier, in 1845,
weavers in Silesia had lead a revolt against contractors who supplied them raw
material and gave them orders for finished textile.
8.
On 4 June at 2 p.m. a
large crowd of weavers emerged from their homes and marched in pairs up to the
mansion of their contractors demanding higher wages.
9.
The contractors fled
with his family to a neighbouring village which, however, refused to shelter
such a person.
10.
He returned 24 hours
later having requisitioned the army.
11.
In the exchange that
followed, eleven weavers were shot.
1848: The Revolution of the Liberals
1. The poor, unemployment and starving peasants and workers in many European countries in the years 1848, a revolution led by the educated middle classes was under way.
2.
Men and women of the
liberal middle classes combined their demands for constitutionalism with national
unification.
3.
They drafted a
constitution for a German nation to be headed by a monarchy subject to a
parliament.
4.
Wilhelm IV, King of
Prussia, rejected it and joined other monarchs to oppose the elected assembly.
5.
While the opposition of
the aristocracy and military became stronger, the social basis of parliament
eroded.
6.
The issue of extending
political rights to women was a controversial one within the liberal movement.
7.
Women had formed their
own political associations, founded newspaper and taken part in political
meeting and demonstrations.
8.
Women were admitted only
as observers to stand in the visitors’ gallery.
9.
Monarchs were beginning
to realize that the cycles if revolution and repression could be ended by
granting concessions to the liberal-nationalist revolutionaries.
The Making of German and Italy
Germany – can the Army be the Architect of a National
1. After 1848, nationalism in Europe moved away from its association with democracy and revolution.
2.
This can be observed in
the process by which Germany and Italy came to be unified as nation-states.
3.
Nationalist feelings
were widespread among middle-class Germans.
4.
This liberal initiative
to nation-building was, however, repressed by the combined forces of the
monarchy and the military, supported by the large landowners of Prussia.
5.
Prussia took on the
leadership of the movement.
6.
Three wars overseen
years-with Austria, Denmark, and France-ended in Prussian victory and completed
the process of unification.
7.
The nation-building
process in Germany had demonstrated the dominance of Prussian state power.
8.
The new state placed a
strong emphasis on modernising the currency, banking, legal and judicial
systems in Germany.
Italy Unified
1.
Like Germany, Italy too
had a long history of political fragmentation.
2.
Italians were scattered
over several dynastic states as well as the multi-national Habsburg Empire.
3.
Italy was divided into
seven states.
4.
Italian language had not
acquired one common form and still had many regional and local variations.
5.
Giuseppe Mazzini had
sought to put together a coherent programme for a unitary Italian Republic.
6.
Young Italy for the
dissemination of his goals.
7.
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.
8.
Italy offered them the
possibility of economic development and political dominance.
9.
Italy was neither a
revolutionary nor a democrat.
10.
Italian population,
among whom rates of illiteracy were high, remained blissfully unaware of
liberal-nationalist ideology.
The strange case of Britain
1.
The model of the nation
or the nation-state, some scholars have argued, is Great Britain.
2.
It was the result of a
long-drawn-out process.
3.
There was no British
nation prior to the eighteenth century.
4.
‘United Kingdom of great
Britain’ meant, in effect, that England was able to impose its influence on
Scotland.
5.
The British parliament
was henceforth dominated by its English members.
6.
Ireland was forcibly
incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801.
7.
British flag, the
national anthem, the English language – were actively promoted and the older
nations survived only as subordinate partners on this union.
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.
Nationalism and Imperialism
1.
By the quarter of the
nineteenth century nationalism no longer retained its idealistic
liberal-democratic sentiment of the first half of the century, but became a
narrow creed with limited ends.
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.
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