The Rise of Nationalism in Europe 1

 The Rise of Nationalism in Europe

 SUMMARY

1. During the nineteenth century, nationalism emerged as a force which brought about sweeping changes in the

political and mental world of Europe. The final result of these changes was the emergence of the nation-state in

place of the multinational dynastic empire of Europe.

2. The first clear expression of nationalism came with the French Revolution in 1789. France was a full-fledged

territorial state in 1789 under the rule of an absolute monarch. 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. 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 remembered, all in the name of the nation.

4. The news of the events in France reached the different cities of Europe. As a result, people in these cities began

setting up Jacobin clubs. Their activities and campaigns prepared the way for the French armies which moved

into Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy and spread there the idea of nationalism. The cities like Brussels,

Mainz, Milan and Warsaw also welcomed the French armies. They began to view the French armies as harbingers

of liberty.

5. There were no nation-states in mid-eighteenth-century Europe. Germany, Italy and Switzerland were divided

into several kingdoms. Eastern and central Europe was under autocratic monarchies within the territories of which

lived diverse peoples. Often, they spoke different languages and belonged to different ethnic groups. The only tie

binding these diverse groups together was a common allegiance to the emperor.

6. The continent of Europe was dominated by the landed aristocracy. Although it constituted a small group, it was

very powerful. The majority of the population was made up of the peasantry. With industrialization, new social

groups which included a working-class population and middle classes made up of industrialists, businessmen,

professionals etc. came into being. However, the educated, liberal middle classes began to think of ways to abolish

aristocratic privileges.

7. Ideas of national unity in early-nineteenth-century Europe were closely allied to the ideology of liberalism. For

the new middle classes liberalism stood for freedom for the individual and equality of all before the law. In the

economic sphere, liberalism stood for the freedom of markets and the abolition of state-imposed restrictions on

the movement of goods and capital.

8. Napoleon, who ruled France for more than a decade, was defeated by the collective power of Britain, Russia,

Prussia and Austria. Afterwards, the representatives of these European powers met at Vienna in 1815 and drew

up the treaty of Vienna with the object of undoing most of the changes that had come about in Europe during the

Napoleonic wars. The main intention was to restore the monarchies and create a new conservative order in Europe.

9. Conservative regimes set up in 1815 were autocratic. They did not tolerate criticism and dissent and imposed

censorship on newspapers, books, plays and songs that reflected the ideas of liberty and freedom. Many liberal-

nationalists, therefore, went underground. Secret societies in many European states began to train revolutionaries

who aimed at the creation of nation-states.

10. One such revolutionary was Giuseppe Mazzini who hailed from Italy. He became a member of the secret

society of the Carbonari. Afterwards he founded two more underground societies whose members were young

men from Poland, France, Italy and the German states.

11. Revolutions led by the liberal-nationalists spread in many regions of Europe. The first upheaval took place in

France in July 1830 as a result of which the Bourbon kings were overthrown and a constitutional monarchy with

Louis Philippe as its head was installed. The July Revolution sparked an uprising in Brussels which led to Belgium

breaking away from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

12. The growth of revolutionary nationalism in Europe gave rise to a struggle for independence amongst the

Greeks. In 1832, the Treaty of Constantinople took place which finally recognized Greece as an independent

nation.