NATIONALISM

IN EUROPE
Fig 1— The Dream of Worldwide Democratic and Social Republics – The Pact Between
Nations, a print prepared by Frédéric Sorrieu, 1848.

Q1. Explain Fredric Sorrieu’s vision/ his painting/ his

print/Utopian vision of Frederic sorrieu.

• 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

• In the print The Dream of Worldwide Democratic and

Social Republics – The Pact Between Nations 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
• Artist during the time period of the French Revolution
personified Liberty as a female figure.you can recognise
the torch of Enlightenment she bears in one hand and
the Charter of the Rights of Man in the other.

• 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.
• From the heavens above, Christ, saints and angels gaze
upon the scene.

Q2.Definations:
Absolutist – a government or system of rule that has no
restraints on the power exercised. In history, the term
refers to a form of monarchical government that was
centralised, militarised and repressive
Utopian – A vision of a society that is so ideal that it is
unlikely to actually exist
Plebiscite – A direct vote by which all the people of a region
are asked to accept or reject a proposal
Q3. Elaborate changes was the emergence of the nation-
state in place of the multi-national dynastic empires of
Europe
 1. During the nineteenth century, nationalism emerged
as a force which brought about sweeping changes in
the political and mental world of Europe.

2. The end result of these changes was the emergence of

the nation-state in place of the multi-national dynastic
empires of Europe.

Q4. What is a Nation? Explain from Ernst Renans

Lecture?

A nation is the culmination of a long past of endeavours,

sacrifice and devotion.
A heroic past, great men, glory, that is the social capital
upon which one bases a national idea.
To have common glories in the past,
to have a common will in the present,
to have performed great deeds together,
to wish to perform still more, these are the essential
conditions of being a people.

A nation is therefore a large-scale solidarity .Its existence is

a daily plebiscite. A province is its inhabitants; if anyone
has the right to be consulted, it is the inhabitant. A nation
never has any real interest in annexing or holding on to a
country against its will. The existence of nations is a good
thing, a necessity even. Their existence is a guarantee of
liberty, which would be lost if the world had only one law
and only one master.’
Q5. Define ‘modern states’

The concept and practices of a modern state, in which a

centralised power exercised sovereign control over a clearly
defined territory, had been developing over a long period of
time in Europe.
Q6. Nation states:

- 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.

- This commonness did not exist from time immemorial; it

was forged through struggles, through the actions of
leaders and the common people.

The French Revolution:

Q7. how did the French revolution spread the idea of
nationalism throughout Europe?

• 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.
• The revolution proclaimed that it was the people who
would henceforth constitute the nation and shape its
destiny

• 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.

• The revolutionaries further declared that it was the

mission and the destiny of the French nation to liberate
the peoples of Europe from despotism

Q 8. Mention the steps taken by the french

revolutionaries to create the sense of collective identity
the French revolutionaries introduced various measures
and practices that could create a sense of collective identity
amongst the French people:

- 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. 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.
Q 9. What changes did Napoleon Bonaparte introduce to
make administrative system more efficient in territories
annexed by him

- Napoleon set about introducing many of the reforms that

he had already introduced in France

- Despite destroying democracy in France, in the

administrative field he had incorporated revolutionary
principles in order to make the whole system more
rational and efficient.

- The Civil Code of 1804 (the Napoleonic Code) took away

all 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 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.

Q10 What outweighed the advantages of the new

administrative changes introduced by Napoleon ?
Initially, in many places such as Holland and Switzerland,
as well as in certain cities like Brussels, Mainz, Milan and
Warsaw, the French armies were welcomed 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.

Making nationalism in Europe

.Q 11 How were the aristocratic class socially and politically
united?

aristocratic class socially and politically united in the following

ways :
- 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.
Q12 What led to the emergence of new middle class

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.

In its wake, new social groups came into being: a working-

class population, and middle classes made up of industrialists,
businessmen, professionals.

In Central and Eastern Europe these groups were smaller in

number till late nineteenth century.

It was among the educated, liberal middle classes that ideas of

national unity following the abolition of aristocratic privileges
gained popularity

Q 13 BRIEFLY DESCRIBE THE CONCEPT OF

LIBERALISM IN THE POLITICAL SPHERE

- . The term ‘liberalism’ derives from the Latin root liber,

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

- Politically, it emphasised the concept of government by

consent.

- Since the French Revolution, liberalism had stood for the

end of autocracy and clerical privileges, a constitution and
representative government through parliament.
Q 14 BRIEFLY DESCRIBE THE CONCEPT OF
LIBERALISM IN THE ECONOMIC SPHERE
- 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.

- During the nineteenth century this was a strong demand of

the emerging middle classes.

- Such conditions were viewed as obstacles to economic

exchange 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.

15.Explain ZOLLVEREIN:

In 1834, a customs union or Zollverein was formed at the

initiative of Prussia and joined by most of the German states.

The union abolished tariff barriers and reduced the number of

currencies from over thirty to two.

The creation of a network of railways further stimulated

mobility, harnessing economic interests to national unification.

A wave of economic nationalism strengthened the wider

nationalist sentiments growing at the time

Q16. DEFINATION:
Conservatism – A political philosophy that stressed the importance of
tradition, established institutions and customs, and preferred
gradual development to quick change

Q17. Conservatism In 1815:

- the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, European governments were
driven by a spirit of conservatism.
- Conservatives believed that established, traditional
institutions of state and society – like the monarchy, the
Church, social hierarchies, property and the family – should
be preserved.
- Most conservatives, however, did not propose a return to the
society of pre-revolutionary days.
- they realised, from the changes initiated by Napoleon, that
modernisation could in fact strengthen traditional
institutions like the monarchy. It could make state power
more effective and strong.
- A modern army, an efficient bureaucracy, a dynamic
economy, the abolition of feudalism and serfdom could
strengthen the autocratic monarchies of Europe
- The main intention was to restore the monarchies that had
been overthrown by Napoleon, and create a new
conservative order in Europe
- Conservative regimes set up in 1815 were autocratic. They
did not tolerate criticism and dissent, and sought to curb
activities that questioned the legitimacy of autocratic
governments.
- Most of them imposed censorship laws to control what was
said in newspapers, books, plays and songs and reflected the
ideas of liberty and freedom associated with the French
Revolution.
- The memory of the French Revolution nonetheless
continued to inspire liberals. One of the major issues taken
up by the liberal-nationalists, who criticised the new
conservative order, was freedom of the press.

Q18. the treaty of Vienna:

- 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.
- The Congress was hosted by the Austrian Chancellor Duke
Metternich.
- The delegates drew up the Treaty of Vienna of 1815 with the
object of undoing most of the changes that had come about
in Europe during the Napoleonic wars.
- 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.
- A series of states were set up on the boundaries of France to
prevent French expansion in future. Thus the kingdom of
the Netherlands, which included Belgium, was set up in the
north and Genoa was added to Piedmont in the south.
- Prussia was given important new territories on its western
frontiers, while Austria was given control of northern Italy.
But the German confederation of 39 states that had been set
up by Napoleon was left untouched.
- In the east, Russia was given part of Poland while Prussia
was given a portion of Saxony.
- The main intention was to restore the monarchies that had
been overthrown by Napoleon, and create a new
conservative order in Europe.
Q 19 The revolutionaries:

During the years following 1815, the fear of repression drove

many liberal-nationalists underground. Secret societies sprang
up in many European states to train revolutionaries and
spread their ideas. To be revolutionary at this time meant a
commitment to oppose monarchical forms that had been
established after the Vienna Congress, and to fight for liberty
and freedom. Most of these revolutionaries also saw the
creation of nation-states as a necessary part of this struggle for
freedom.

1. GIUSEPPE MAZZINI:
One such individual was the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe
Mazzini. Born in Genoa in 1807, he became a member of the
secret society of the Carbonari. As a young man of 24, he was
sent into exile in 1831 for attempting a revolution in Liguria.

He subsequently founded two more underground societies,

first, Young Italy in Marseilles, and then, Young Europe in
Berne, whose members were like-minded young men from
Poland, France, Italy and the German states.
Mazzini believed that God had intended nations to be the
natural units of mankind. So Italy could not continue to be a
patchwork of small states and kingdoms.

It had to be forged into a single unified republic within a

wider alliance of nations. This unification alone could be the
basis of Italian liberty.
Following his model, secret societies were set up in Germany,
France, Switzerland and Poland. Mazzini’s relentless
opposition to monarchy and his vision of democratic republics
frightened the conservatives. Metternich described him as ‘the
most dangerous enemy of our social order’.

THE AGE OF REVOLUTION:1830-1848:

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.

These revolutions were led by the liberal-nationalists

belonging to the educated middle-class elite, among whom
were professors, schoolteachers, clerks and members of the
commercial middle classes.

1.July Revolution:
- in France in July 1830, The Bourbon kings who had been
restored to power during the conservative reaction after
1815, were now overthrown by liberal revolutionaries who
installed a constitutional monarchy with Louis Philippe
at its head.

- The July Revolution sparked an uprising in Brussels

which led to Belgium breaking away from the United
Kingdom of the Netherland.

- Metternich once remarked ‘When France sneezes, the rest of

Europe catches cold.’

2. Greek Revolution:

- An event that mobilised nationalist feelings among the

educated elite across Europe was the Greek war of
independence.

- 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.

- Nationalists in Greece got support from other Greeks

living in exile and also from many West Europeans who
had sympathies for ancient Greek culture.

- Poets and artists lauded Greece as the cradle of

European civilisation and mobilised public opinion to
support its struggle against a Muslim empire.

- The English poet Lord Byron organised funds and later

went to fight in the war, where he died of fever in 1824.

- Finally, the Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognised

Greece as an independent nation.

The Romantic Imagination and National

Feeling:
- The development of nationalism did not come about
only through wars and territorial expansion. Culture
played an important role in creating the idea of the
nation: art and poetry, stories and music helped express
and shape nationalist feelings.

- Romanticism 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 focused instead
on emotions, intuition and mystical feelings. Their effort
was to create a sense of a shared collective heritage, a
common cultural past, as the basis of a nation.
Germany:
- Other Romantics such as the German philosopher
Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) claimed that true
German culture was to be discovered among the
common people – das volk.

- It was through folk songs, folk poetry and folk dances

that the true spirit of the nation (volksgeist) was
popularised. So collecting and recording these forms of
folk culture was essential to the project of nation-
building.

Poland :
- The emphasis on vernacular language and the collection
of local folklore was not just to recover an ancient
national spirit, but also to carry the modern nationalist
message to large audiences who were mostly illiterate.

- In the case of Poland, which had been partitioned at the

end of the eighteenth century by the Great Powers –
Russia, Prussia and Austria.

- Even though Poland no longer existed as an

independent territory, national feelings were kept alive
through music and language.

- Karol Kurpinski, for example, celebrated the national

struggle through his operas and music, turning folk
 dances like the polonaise and mazurka into nationalist
symbols

- Language played an important role in developing

nationalist sentiments.

- After Russian occupation, the Polish language was

forced out of schools and the Russian language was
imposed everywhere.
- In 1831, an armed rebellion against Russian rule took
place which was ultimately crushed. Following this,
many members of the clergy in Poland began to use
language as a weapon of national resistance.

- Polish was used for Church gatherings and all religious

instruction.

- 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 Russian.

- The use of Polish came to be seen as a symbol of the

struggle against Russian dominance.

Hunger , Hardship and popular revolt:

1. The 1830s were years of great economic hardship in

Europe. The first half of the nineteenth century saw an
enormous increase in population all over Europe.
2. In most countries there were more seekers of jobs than
employment. Population from rural areas migrated to
the cities to live in overcrowded slums.

3. Small producers in towns were often faced with stiff

competition from imports of cheap machine-made
goods from England, where industrialisation was more
advanced than on the continent.

4. This was especially so in textile production, which was

carried out mainly in homes or small workshops and
was only partly mechanised.

5. In those regions of Europe where the aristocracy still

enjoyed power, peasants struggled under the burden of
feudal dues and obligations.

6. The rise of food prices or a year of bad harvest led to

widespread pauperism in town and country.

7. The year 1848 was one such year. Food shortages and
widespread unemployment brought the population of
Paris out on the roads. Barricades were erected and
Louis Philippe was forced to flee.

8. A National Assembly proclaimed a Republic, granted

suffrage to all adult males above 21, and guaranteed the
right to work. National workshops to provide
employment were set up.

9. Earlier, in 1845, weavers in Silesia had led a revolt

against contractors who supplied them raw material
 and gave them orders for finished textiles but
drastically reduced their payments.

10. The journalist Wilhelm Wolff described the events in a

Silesian village as follows: In these villages (with 18,000
inhabitants) cotton weaving is the most widespread
occupation … The misery of the workers is extreme.
The desperate need for jobs has been taken advantage
of by the contractors to reduce the prices of the goods
they order …

11. 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 contractor demanding higher wages.
12. They were treated with scorn and threats alternately.
Following this, a group of them forced their way into
the house, smashed its elegant windowpanes, furniture,
porcelain …
13. another group broke into the storehouse and
plundered it of supplies of cloth which they tore to
shreds … The contractor fled with his family to a
neighbouring village which, however, refused to shelter
such a person.

14. He returned 24 hours later having requisitioned the

army. In the exchange that followed, eleven weavers
were shot.

1848: The Revolution of the Liberals

- Parallel to the revolts of the poor, unemployed and
starving peasants and workers in many European
countries in the year 1848, a revolution led by the
educated middle classes was under way.

- 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

- 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.

- 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.

- In the German regions a large number of political

associations whose members were middle-class
professionals, businessmen and prosperous artisans came
together in the city of Frankfurt and decided to vote for an
all-German National Assembly.
- On 18 May 1848, 831 elected representatives marched in
a festive procession to take their places in the Frankfurt
parliament convened in the Church of St Paul.

- They drafted a constitution for a German nation to be

headed by a monarchy subject to a parliament. When the
deputies offered the crown on these terms to Friedrich
 Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia, he rejected it and joined
other monarchs to oppose the elected assembly.

- While the opposition of the aristocracy and military

became stronger, the social basis of parliament eroded.
The parliament was dominated by the middle classes
who resisted the demands of workers and artisans and
consequently lost their support. In the end troops were
called in and the assembly was forced to disband.

- 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 taken part in political meetings
and demonstrations. Despite this they were denied
suffrage rights during the election of the Assembly.

- When the Frankfurt parliament convened in the Church

of St Paul, women were admitted only as observers to
stand in the visitors’ gallery. Though conservative forces
were able to suppress liberal movements in 1848, they
could not restore the old order.

- Monarchs were beginning to realise that the cycles of

revolution and repression could only be ended by
granting concessions to the liberal-nationalist
revolutionaries. Hence, in the years after 1848, the
autocratic monarchies of Central and Eastern Europe
began to introduce the changes that had already taken
place in Western Europe before 1815.
- Thus serfdom and bonded labour were abolished both
in the Habsburg dominions and in Russia. The
Habsburg rulers granted more autonomy to the
Hungarians in 1867.
 GERMANY
- After 1848, nationalism in Europe moved away from its
association with democracy and revolution. 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.

- nationalist feelings were widespread among middle-class

Germans, who in 1848 tried to unite the different
regions of the German confederation into a nation-state
governed by an elected parliament.

- This liberal initiative to nation-building was, however,

repressed by the combined forces of the monarchy and
the military, supported by the large landowners (called
Junkers) of Prussia.

- From then on, Prussia took on the leadership of the

movement for national unification. Its chief minister,
Otto von Bismarck, was the architect of this process
carried out with the help of the Prussian army and
bureaucracy.
- Three wars over seven years – with Austria, Denmark
and France – ended in Prussian victory and completed
the process of unification. In January 1871, the Prussian
king, William I, was proclaimed German Emperor in a
ceremony held at Versailles
- . On the bitterly cold morning of 18 January 1871, an
assembly comprising the princes of the German states,
representatives of the army, important Prussian ministers
including the chief minister Otto von Bismarck gathered
in the unheated Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of
Versailles to proclaim the new German Empire headed
by Kaiser William I of Prussia.
- The nation-building process in Germany had
demonstrated the dominance of Prussian state power.
The new state placed a strong emphasis on modernising
the currency, banking, legal and judicial systems in
Germany. Prussian measures and practices often became
a model for the rest of Germany.
ITALY
- Italy had a long history of political fragmentation.
Italians were scattered over several dynastic states as well
as the multi-national Habsburg Empire.

- During the middle of the nineteenth century, Italy was

divided into seven states, of which only one, Sardinia-
Piedmont, was ruled by an Italian princely house.

- The north was under Austrian Habsburgs, the centre was

ruled by the Pope and the southern regions were under
the domination of the Bourbon kings of Spain.

- Even the Italian language had not acquired one common

form and still had many regional and local variations.

- During the 1830s, Giuseppe Mazzini had sought to put

together a coherent programme for a unitary Italian
Republic. He had also formed a secret society called
Young Italy for the dissemination of his goals.

- The failure of revolutionary uprisings both in 1831 and

1848 meant that the mantle now fell on Sardinia-
Piedmont under its ruler King Victor Emmanuel II to
unify the Italian states through war. In the eyes of the
ruling elites of this region, a unified Italy offered them
the possibility of economic development and political
dominance.

- Chief Minister Cavour who led the movement to unify

the regions of Italy was neither a revolutionary nor a
democrat.
- Like many other wealthy and educated members of the
Italian elite, he spoke French much better than he did
Italian. Through a tactful diplomatic alliance with France
engineered by Cavour, Sardinia-Piedmont succeeded in
defeating the Austrian forces in 1859

- Apart from regular troops, a large number of armed

volunteers under the leadership of Giuseppe Garibaldi
joined the fray

- In 1860, they marched into South Italy and the Kingdom

of the Two Sicilies and succeeded in winning the
support of the local peasants in order to drive out the
Spanish rulers. In 1861 Victor Emmanuel II was
proclaimed king of united Italy.

- However, much of the Italian population, among whom

rates of illiteracy were very high, remained blissfully
unaware of liberal-nationalist ideology.

- The peasant masses who had supported Garibaldi in

southern Italy had never heard of Italia, and believed
that ‘La Talia’ was Victor Emmanuel’s wife
 Britain
-The model of the
nation or the
nation-state, some
scholars have
argued, is Great
Britain.

-It was the result

of a long-drawn-
out process. There
was no British
nation prior to the
eighteenth
century. The
primary identities of the people who inhabited the
British Isles were ethnic ones – such as English, Welsh,
Scot or Irish.

- All of these ethnic groups had their own cultural and

political traditions. But as the English nation steadily
grew in wealth, importance and power, it was able to
extend its influence over the other nations of the islands.

- The English parliament, which had seized power from

the monarchy in 1688 at the end of a protracted conflict,
was the instrument through which a nation-state, with
England at its centre, came to be forged. The Act of
Union (1707) between England and Scotland that
resulted in the formation of the ‘United Kingdom of
Great Britain’ meant, in effect, that England was able to
impose its influence on Scotland.
- The British parliament was henceforth dominated by its
English members. The growth of a British identity meant
that Scotland’s distinctive culture and political
institutions were systematically suppressed.

- The Catholic clans that inhabited the Scottish

Highlands suffered terrible repression whenever they
attempted to assert their independence. The Scottish
Highlanders were forbidden to speak their Gaelic
language or wear their national dress, and large numbers
were forcibly driven out of their homeland. Ireland
suffered a similar fate.
- It was a country deeply divided between Catholics and
Protestants. The English helped the Protestants of
Ireland to establish their dominance over a largely
Catholic country. Catholic revolts against British
dominance were suppressed.
- After a failed revolt led by Wolfe Tone and his United
Irishmen (1798), Ireland was forcibly incorporated into
the United Kingdom in 1801.
- A new ‘British nation’ was forged through the
propagation of a dominant English culture. The symbols
of the new Britain – the British flag (Union Jack), the
national anthem (God Save Our Noble King), the
English language – were actively promoted and the older
nations survived only as subordinate partners in this
union.
VISUALISING NATION

Artists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries found a

way out by personifying a nation. In other words they
represented a country as if it were a person.
Nations were then portrayed as female figures. The female
form that was chosen to personify the nation did not stand
for any particular woman in real life; rather it sought to
give the abstract idea of the nation a concrete form.

That is, the female figure became an allegory of the nation.

You will recall that during the French Revolution artists
used the female allegory to portray ideas such as Liberty,
Justice and the Republic. These ideals were represented
through specific objects or symbols.

the attributes of Liberty are the red cap, or the broken

chain, while Justice is generally a blindfolded woman
carrying a pair of weighing scales. Similar female
allegories were invented by artists in the nineteenth
century to represent the nation.

In France she was christened Marianne, a popular

Christian name, which underlined the idea of a people’s
nation. 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. Marianne images were
marked on coins and stamps. Similarly, 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.

Allegory – When an abstract idea (for instance, greed, envy,

freedom, liberty) is expressed through a person or a thing.
An allegorical story has two meanings, one literal and one
symbolic

The Grimm Brothers: Folktales and Nation-building

Grimms’ Fairy Tales is a familiar name.

The brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were born in the

German city of Hanau in 1785 and 1786 respectively. While
both of them studied law, they soon developed an interest in
collecting old folktales.

They spent six years travelling from village to village, talking to

people and writing down fairy tales, which were handed down
through the generations. These were popular both among
children and adults. In 1812, they published their first
collection of tales.

Subsequently, both the brothers became active in liberal

politics, especially the movement for freedom of the press. In
the meantime they also published a 33-volume dictionary of
the German language. The Grimm brothers also saw French
domination as a threat to German culture, and believed that
the folktales they had collected were expressions of a pure and
authentic German spirit. T

hey considered their projects of collecting folktales and

developing the German language as part of the wider effort to
oppose French domination and create a German national
identity

How were liberty and equality for women to be defined?

The liberal politician Carl Welcker, an elected member of the

Frankfurt Parliament, expressed the following views:

‘Nature has created men and women to carry out different

functions … Man, the stronger, the bolder and freer of the two,
has been designated as protector of the family, its provider,
meant for public tasks in the domain of law, production,
defence. Woman, the weaker, dependent and timid, requires
the protection of man. Her sphere is the home, the care of the
children, the nurturing of the family … Do we require any
further proof that given such differences, equality between the
sexes would only endanger harmony and destroy the dignity of
the family’

Louise Otto-Peters (1819-95) was a political activist who

founded a women’s journal and subsequently a feminist
political association. The first issue of her newspaper (21 April
1849) carried the following editorial:

‘Let us ask how many men, possessed by thoughts of living

and dying for the sake of Liberty, would be prepared to fight
for the freedom of the entire people, of all human beings?
When asked this question, they would all too easily respond
with a “Yes!”, though their untiring efforts are intended for the
benefit of only one half of humanity – men. But Liberty is
indivisible! Free men therefore must not tolerate to be
surrounded by the unfree.

An anonymous reader of the same newspaper sent the

following letter to the editor on 25 June 1850:

‘It is indeed ridiculous and unreasonable to deny women

political rights even though they enjoy the right to property
which they make use of. They perform functions and assume
responsibilities without however getting the benefits that
accrue to men for the same … Why this injustice? Is it not a
disgrace that even the stupidest cattle-herder possesses the
right to vote, simply because he is a man, whereas highly
talented women owning considerable property are excluded
from this right, even though they contribute so much to the
maintenance of the state?

Feminist – Awareness of women’s rights and interests based on

the belief of the social, economic and political equality of the
genders

GUISEPPE GARABALDI.:

Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-82) is perhaps the most celebrated of

Italian freedom fighters. He came from a family engaged in
coastal trade and was a sailor in the merchant navy. In 1833 he
met Mazzini, joined the Young Italy movement and
participated in a republican uprising in Piedmont in 1834.
The uprising was suppressed and Garibaldi had to flee to
South America, where he lived in exile till 1848.

In 1854, he supported Victor Emmanuel II in his efforts to

unify the Italian states. In 1860, Garibaldi led the famous
Expedition of the Thousand to South Italy. Fresh volunteers
kept joining through the course of the campaign, till their
numbers grew to about 30,000. They were popularly known as
Red Shirts. In 1867, Garibaldi led an army of volunteers to
Rome to fight the last obstacle to the unification of Italy, the
Papal States where a French garrison was stationed. The Red
Shirts proved to be no match for the combined French and
Papal troops.

It was only in 1870 when, during the war with Prussia, France
withdrew its troops from Rome that the Papal States were
finally joined to Italy
Nationalism and Imperialism
By the last 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. During this period
nationalist groups became increasingly intolerant of each
other and ever ready to go to war.

The major European powers, in turn, manipulated the

nationalist aspirations of the subject peoples in Europe to
further their own imperialist aims.

The most serious source of nationalist tension in Europe

after 1871 was the area called the Balkans.

The Balkans was a region of geographical and ethnic

variation comprising modern-day Romania, Bulgaria,
Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro whose inhabitants were
broadly known as the Slavs. A large part of the Balkans was
under the control of the Ottoman Empire.

The spread of the ideas of romantic nationalism in the

Balkans together with the disintegration of the Ottoman
Empire made this region very explosive.

All through the nineteenth century the Ottoman Empire

had sought to strengthen itself through modernisation and
internal reforms but with very little success.

One by one, its European subject nationalities broke away

from its control and declared independence. The Balkan
peoples based their claims for independence or political
rights on nationality and used history to prove that they
had once been independent but had subsequently been
subjugated by foreign powers.

Hence the rebellious nationalities in the Balkans thought

of their struggles as attempts to win back their long-lost
independence. As the different Slavic nationalities
struggled to define their identity and independence, the
Balkan area became an area of intense conflict.

The Balkan states were fiercely jealous of each other and

each hoped to gain more territory at the expense of the
others. Matters were further complicated because the
Balkans also became the scene of big power rivalry.

During this period, there was intense rivalry among the

European powers over trade and colonies as well as naval
and military might. These rivalries were very evident in the
way the Balkan problem unfolded.

Each power – Russia, Germany, England, Austro-Hungary –

was keen on countering the hold of other powers over the
Balkans, and extending its own control over the area. This
led to a series of wars in the region and finally the First
World War.

27 Nationalism in Europe Nationalism, aligned with

imperialism, led Europe to disaster in 1914.

But meanwhile, many countries in the world which had

been colonised by the European powers in the nineteenth
century began to oppose imperial domination.
The anti-imperial movements that developed everywhere
were nationalist, in the sense that they all struggled to form
independent nation-states, and were inspired by a sense of
collective national unity, forged in confrontation with
imperialism.

European ideas of nationalism were nowhere replicated,

for people everywhere developed their own specific variety
of nationalism. But the idea that societies should be
organised into ‘nation-states’ came to be accepted as
natural and universal.