Chapter 1: The Rise of Nationalism in Europe

During the 1830s, Giuseppe Mazzini had sought to put together a coherent programme for the unitary Italian Republic. He had also formed a secret society called ‘Young Italy’ for the dissemination of his goals.

b. Count Camillo de Cavour

1. Led the movement to unify Italy
2. He was neither a revolutionary nor a democrat.
3. Through a tactful diplomatic alliance engineered by Cavour, Sardini-Piedmont succeeded in defeating the Austrian forces in 1859.

c. The Greek war of independence

1. Greece had been part of the Ottoman Empire since the fifteenth century. The growth of revolutionary nationalism in Europe sparked off a struggle for independence amongst the Greeks, which began in 1821.
2. Poets and artists lauded Greece as the cradle of European civilisation and mobilised public opinion to support its struggle against a Muslim empire.
3. Nationalists in Greece got support from other Greeks living in exile and also from many West Europeans, who had sympathies for ancient Greek culture.
4. Finally, the Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognised Greece as an independent nation.

d. Frankfurt parliament

1. It was an all-German National assembly formed by middle-class professionals, businessmen and prosperous artisans belonging to different German regions.
2. It was convened on 18 May 1848.
3. It was disbanded on 31 May 1849 as it lost support.

e. The role of women in nationalist struggles

1. Women of the liberal middle classes combined their demands for constitutionalism with national unification. They took advantage of the growing popular unrest to push their demands for the creation of a nation-state on parliamentary principles – a constitution, freedom of the press and freedom of association.
2. Women had formed their own political associations, founded newspapers and taken part in political meetings and demonstrations.

1. 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.
2. A new French flag, the tricolour, was chosen to replace the former royal standard.
3. New hymns were composed, oaths taken and martyrs commemorated, all in the name of the nation.
4. A centralised administrative system was put in place, and it formulated uniform laws for all citizens within its territory.
5. Internal customs duties and dues were abolished, and a uniform system of weights and measures was adopted.
6. Regional dialects were discouraged and French, as it was spoken and written in Paris, became the common language of the nation.
7. 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.

Female allegories were invented by artists in the nineteenth century to represent the nation.

1. Marianne, a popular Christian name – underlined the idea of a people’s nation.
2. Her characteristics were drawn from those of Liberty and the Republic – the red cap, the tricolour, the cockade. Statues of Marianne were erected in public squares to remind the public of the national symbol of unity and to persuade them to identify with it.
3. The image of Marianne was marked on coins and stamps.

Germania became the allegory of the German nation. In visual representations, Germania wears a crown of oak leaves, as the German oak stands for heroism.

1. Nationalist sentiments were often mobilised by conservatives for promoting state power and achieving political domination over Europe. This can be observed in the process by which Germany and Italy came to be unified as nation-states.
2. Middle-class Germans tried to unite the different regions of German Confederation, but their plans were not materialised due to actions of large landowners called Junkers of Prussia. Three wars over seven years with Austria, Denmark and France ended in a Prussian victory. In Jan 1871, Prussian King William I was proclaimed German emperor.
3. Importance was given to modernising the currency, banking, legal and judicial systems in Germany.

The Civil Code of 1804 – usually known as the Napoleonic Code – did away with all the privileges based on birth, established equality before the law and secured the right to property. This Code was exported to the regions under French control. In the Dutch Republic, in Switzerland, in Italy and Germany, Napoleon simplified the 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 new-found freedom. Businessmen and small-scale producers of goods, in particular, began to realise that uniform law, standardised weights and measures, and a common national currency would facilitate the movement and exchange of goods and capital from one region to another.