Chapter 1: The Rise of Nationalism in Europe

1. In the year 1848, parallel to the revolts of the poor, another revolution was underway.  Led by the educated middle classes,  the unemployed, the starving peasants and workers in many European countries experienced this revolution of the liberals. Events of February 1848 in France had brought about the abdication of the monarch and a republic based on universal male suffrage had been proclaimed.
2. In other parts of Europe where independent nation-states did not yet exist – such as Germany, Italy, Poland, the Austro-Hungarian Empire – men and women of the liberal middle classes combined their demands for constitutionalism with national unification.
3. 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.
4. The issue of extending political rights to women was a controversial one within the liberal movement, in which large numbers of women had participated actively over the years. Women had formed their own political associations, founded newspapers and had taken part in political meetings and demonstrations.

Language:

Language played a very important role. After the Russian occupation, the Polish language was forced out of schools, and the Russian language was imposed everywhere. The Clergy in Poland began using language as a weapon of national resistance. Polish was used for Church gatherings and all religious instructions. The use of Polish came to be seen as a symbol of struggle against Russian dominance.

Romanticism:

It was a cultural movement which sought to develop a particular form of nationalist sentiment. Romantic artists and poets generally criticised the glorification of reason and science, and focussed instead on emotions, intuition and mystic feelings. They tried to portray a common cultural past as the basis of a nation.

Folk poetry, folk dance, folk songs:

The true spirit of the nation was popularised through the above means. So collecting and recording these forms of folk culture was an essential part of nation-building.

Focus countries – Germany and Italy.

Germany

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 the German Confederation, but their plans were not materialised due to actions of large landowners called the ‘Junkers of Prussia’. Three wars over seven years with Austria, Denmark, and France ended in a Prussian victory. In Jan 1871, the Prussian King William I was proclaimed German emperor.
3. Importance was given to modernising the currency, banking, legal and judicial systems in Germany.

Italy

1. During the 1830s, Mazzini sought to unify Italy. He had formed a secret society called ‘Young Italy’, and it had failed. Hence, the responsibility fell on Sardinia-Piedmont under its ruler King Victor Emmanuel II, to unify Italian states through war.
2. Austrian forces were defeated in 1859. Apart from Sardinia-Piedmont, a large number of volunteers had joined the cause under the leadership of Giuseppe Garibaldi. In 1860, they marched to South Italy and managed to defeat Spanish rulers. In 1861, Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed as the king of Italy.

1. Formation of the nation-state was not due to sudden upheaval or revolution. It was the result of a long-drawn-out process.
2. The primary identities of people who inhabited the British Isles were ethnic ones such as English, Welsh, Scot or Irish.
3. The Act of Union between England and Scotland resulted in the formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Scottish people were forbidden from speaking their Gaelic language and from wearing their national dress. Many were driven out of their homeland.
4. Ireland was forcibly incorporated into the UK in 1801. This was achieved by the English helping the Protestants of Ireland to establish their dominance over the Catholics.
5. 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, and the older nations survived only as subordinate partners in this union.

1. It was a region of geographical and ethnic variation comprising modern-day Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro. The people of the region were broadly known as Slavs.
2. A large part was under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Gradually, independence was declared from them.
3. The spread of the ideas of romantic nationalism in the Balkans, together with disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, made this region very explosive.