THE RISE OF NATIONALISM IN EUROPE

THE RISE OF NATIONALISM IN EUROPE

STEPS TO CREATE COLLECTIVE IDENTITY AMONG THE FRENCH PEOPLE BY THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARIES

  • A NEW FRENCH FLAG THE TRICOLOUR WAS CHOSEN TO REPLACE THE FORMAL ROYAL STANDARD.
  • THE ESTATES-GENERAL WAS ELECTED BY THE BODY OF ACTIVE CITIZENS AND RENAMED THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
  • THE IDEAS OF LA PATRIE (THE FATHERLAND) AND LE CITOYEN (THE CITIZEN) EMPHASISED THE NATION OF A UNITED COMMUNITY ENJOYING EQUAL RIGHTS.
  • NEW HYMNS WERE COMPOSED OATHS TAKEN AND MARTYRS COMMEMORATED.
  • A CENTRALISED ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM PRACTISING UNIFORM LAWS FOR ALL CITIZENS.
  • INTERNAL CUSTOM DUTIES AND DUES WERE ABOLISHED.
  •  A UNIFORM SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES WAS ADOPTED.
  • REGIONAL LANGUAGES WERE DISCOURAGED AND FRENCH WAS ADOPTED AS THE COMMON LANGUAGE OF THE NATION.

PROCESS OF THE GERMAN UNIFICATION-

  • GERMAN UNIFICATION WAS A LONG AND COMPLICATED PROCESS.
  • AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 19TH CENTURY GERMANY WAS NOT A UNIFIED COUNTRY BUT A COLLECTION OF 39 AUTOCRATIC STATES.
  • BISMARK‘ THE CHIEF MINISTER OF PRUSSIA WAS THE CHIEF ARCHITECT OF THE GERMAN NATION.
  • HE FOLLOWED THE BLOOD AND IRON POLICY FOR GERMAN UNIFICATION.
  • THREE WARS WERE FOUGHT OVER SEVEN YEARS WITH DENMARK, AUSTRIA, AND FRANCE.
  • DANISH-PRUSSIAN WAR IN 1864– THE DANISH WAR HELPED BISMARK STRENGTHEN HIS INTERNAL POSITION IN PRUSSIA. WITHOUT MUCH EFFORT, PRUSSIA DEFEATED DENMARK. THE DANISH WAR WAS THE FIRST STEP IN THE UNIFICATION OF GERMANY.
  • FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR IN 1870-71– TO COMPLETE GERMAN UNIFICATION BISMARK HAD TO DEAL WITH FRANCE. IN 1870 BISMARK PURPOSELY CREATED WAR WITH FRANCE.  PRUSSIA WAS COMPLETELY VICTORIOUS OVER FRANCE AT THE BATTLE OF SEDAN IN 1870 AND GAINED CONTROL OVER ALSACE-LORRAINE.
  • AUSTRO-PRUSSIAN WAR IN 1886– IN 1886 RELATIONS BETWEEN AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA WORSENED. THE SEVEN WEEKS WAR BROKE OUT BETWEEN PRUSSIA AND AUSTRIA. AUSTRIA WAS CRUSHED BY PRUSSIAN FORCES AT THE BATTLE OF SADOWA.
  • THESE WARS ENDED IN PRUSSIAN VICTORY WHICH COMPLETED THE PROCESS OF GERMAN UNIFICATION.
  • FINALLY THE PRUSSIAN KING KAISER WILLIAM-I WAS PROCLAIMED HEAD OF UNITED GERMANY.

NAPOLEAN’S ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES IN THE TERRITORIES-

  • THE NAPOLEONIC CODE OF 1804 WAS A MAJOR STEP IN ESTABLISHING THE RULE OF LAW.
  • ALL PRIVILEGES BASED ON BIRTH WERE TAKEN AWAY.
  • THE EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW WAS ESTABLISHED.
  • TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS WERE IMPROVED.
  • FEUDALISM WAS ABOLISHED AND PEASANTS WERE FREED FROM SERFDOM AND MANORIAL DUES.
  • NEW STANDARDISED WEIGHTS AND MEASURES AND A COMMON CURRENCY WERE INTRODUCED.

NATIONALISTS TENSIONS EMERGED IN THE BALKANS-

  • THE BALKANS CONSISTED OF REGIONS OF MODERN-DAY ROMANIA BULGARIA ALBANIA GREECE MACEDONIA CROATIA BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA SLOVENIA SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO.
  • THEIR INHABITANTS WERE BROADLY KNOWN AS SLAVS.
  • SINCE A LARGE PART OF THE BALKANS WAS UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE OTTOMAN TURKS.
  • DESPITE MANY ATTEMPTS AT MODERNISATION AND INTERNAL REFORMS IN THE 19TH CENTURY SAW THE WEAKENING OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.
  • MANY AREAS BROKE AWAY FROM ITS CONTROL AND DECLARED THEIR INDEPENDENCE.
  • WHEN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE COLLAPSED, IT INITIATED NATIONALISM IN THE BALKANS STATES.
  • SOON THE FEELING OF NATIONALISM SPREAD AND THE SITUATION BECAME VERY UNSTABLE.
  • IN THE RACE TO EXPAND THEIR TERRITORIES AND IMPOSE THEIR SUPREMACY ON EACH OTHER. BALKANS ALSO BECAME THE SCENE OF BIG POWER RIVALRY.
  • THERE WAS ALSO INTENSE RIVALRY AMONG THE EUROPEAN POWERS OVER TRADE AND COLONIES AS WELL AS NAVAL AND MILITARY.

PROCESS OF THE ITALIAN UNIFICATION.

  • LIKE GERMANY, ITALY TOO HAD A LONG HISTORY OF POLITICAL FRAGMENTATION.
  • ITALIANS WERE SCATTERED OVER SEVERAL DYNASTIC STATES AS WELL AS THE MULTINATIONAL HABSBURG EMPIRE.
  • DURING THE 19TH CENTURY ITALY WAS DIVIDED INTO SEVEN DYNASTIC STATES.
  • ONLY SARDINIAPIEDMONT WAS RULED BY AN ITALIAN PRINCELY HOUSE.
  • THE UNIFICATION PROCESS WAS LED BY THREE REVOLUTIONARIES- GUISEPPE MAZZINI, COUNT CAMILLO DE CAVOUR AND GUISEPPE GARIBALDI.
  • GUISEPPE MAZZINI SOUGHT TO PUT TOGETHER A COHERENT PROGRAMME FOR A UNITARY ITALIAN REPUBLIC AND FORMED A NEW POLITICAL SOCIETY CALLED YOUNG ITALY.
  • IN 1860 SARDINIA PIEDMONT GAINED CONTROL OVER  THE KINGDOM OF TWO SICILIES.
  • IN 1861 THE PROCESS OF THE UNIFICATION  OF ITALY WAS COMPLETED.
  • VICTOR EMMANUEL-I WAS PROCLAIMED KING OF THE UNITED ITALY.

PROCESS OFUNIFICATION OF GREAT BRAITAIN

  • There was no British nation prior in the 18th century.
  • The primary identities of the people who inhabited the British Isles were ethnic ones such as English, Welsh, Scot, or Irish.
  • 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 Act of Union(1707) between England and Scotland resulted in the formation of the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain’.
  • 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 forcible driven out of their homeland.
  • Ireland 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 WolfeTone 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 dominant English culture.
  • 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.

CONSERVATIVES REGIMES WERE SET UP IN 1815 IN EUROPE

  • THE CONSERVATIVE REGIMES WERE AUTOCRATIC. THEY DID NOT  TOLERATE CRITICISM OR DISSENT.
  • THEY SOUGHT TO CURB  ACTIVITIES THAT QUESTIONED THE LEGITIMACY OF AUTOCRATIC REGIMES.
  • MOST OF THEM IMPOSED CENSORSHIP LAWS TO CONTROL IDEAS OF LIBERTY AND FREEDOM.
  • THEY BELIEVE IN THE PRESERVATION OF ESTABLISHED TRADITIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF STATE AND SOCIETY LIKE MONARCHY, CHURCH, SOCIAL HIERARCHIES, AND PRIVATE PROPERTY.
  • THEY REALISED THAT MODERN ARMY, EFFICIENT BUREAUCRACY, A DYNAMIC ECONOMY, AND ABOLITION OF FEUDALISM AND SERFDOM COULD STRENGTHEN AUTOCRATIC MONARCHIES OF EUROPE.

TREATY OF VIENNA 1815

  • THIS TREATY UNDO MOST OF THE CHANGES THAT HAD COME ABOUT IN EUROPE DURING THE NAPOLEONIC WARS.
  • IT MAINTAINS A BALANCE OF POWER IN EUROPE TO PREVENT ANY ONE POWER FROM DOMINATING TOO LARGE AN AREA IN EUROPE.
  • THIS TREATY RESTORED THE MONARCHIES THAT HAD BEEN OVERTHROWN BY NAPOLEON.
  • FRANCE LOST ITS TERRITORIES THAT HAD BEEN ANNEXED UNDER NAPOLEON. THE BOURBON DYNASTY WAS RESTORED.
  • A SERIES OF STATES WERE SET UP WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF FRANCE TO PREVENT FRENCH EXPANSION IN THE FUTURE.
  • THE GERMAN CONFEDERATION OF 39 STATES THAT HAD BEEN SET UP BY NAPOLEON WAS LEFT UNTOUCHED.

JULY REVOLUTION OF 1830 (ECONOMIC HARDSHIP)

  • ENORMOUS INCREASE IN POPULATION LEADING TO UNEMPLOYMENT IN MOST COUNTRIES OF EUROPE.
  • POPULATION MIGRATED FROM RURAL TO URBAN AREAS TO LIVE IN OVERCROWDED SLUMS.
  • SMALL PRODUCERS IN TOWNS OFTEN FACED STIFF COMPETITION FROM THE IMPORT OF CHEAP MACHINE-MADE GOODS FROM ENGLAND.
  • BAD HARVESTS AND RISING FOOD PRICES ADDED TO POVERTY IN TOWNS AND COUNTRIES.
  • IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE WHERE ARISTOCRACY STILL ENJOYED PRIVILEGES, PEASANTS STRUGGLED DUE TO FEUDAL DUES AND OBLIGATIONS.

FRANKFURT PARLIAMENT OR GERMAN LIBERAL MOVEMENT OF 1848

  • IT IS THE NAME OF THE GERMAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY FOUNDED DURING THE REVOLUTION OF 1848.
  • IT TRIED TO UNITE GERMANY IN A DEMOCRATIC WAY.
  • 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 to to vote for an allGerman 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 the German nation to be headed by a monarchy subject to a parliament.
  • When the deputies offered the crown to Friedrich Wilhelm- IV, King of Prussia, he rejected it and joined other monarchs to oppose the 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.

CONSEQUENCES OF HARDSHIPS IN FRANCE IN 1848

  • FOOD SHORTAGES AND WIDESPREAD UNEMPLOYMENT BROUGHT THE POPULATION OF PARIS ON THE ROADS.
  • BARRICADES WERE ERECTED AND LOUIS PHILIPPE WAS FORCED TO FLEE.
  • A NATIONAL ASSEMBLY PROCLAIMED A REPUBLIC AND VOTING RIGHTS WERE GRANTED TO ALL ADULT MALES ABOVE 21.
  • RIGHT TO WORK WAS GUARANTEED.
  • NATIONAL WORKSHOPS WERE SETUP TO PROVIDE EMPLOYMENT FOR PEOPLE.

THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN NATIONALISTS STRUGGLES-

  • A LARGE NUMBER OF WOMEN PARTICIPATED IN NATIONALISTS STRUGGLES OVER THE YEARS.
  • THEY FOUND THEIR POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS, NEWSPAPERS, AND JOURNALS AND TOOK PART IN DEMONSTRATIONS AND POLITICAL MEETINGS.
  • WOMEN WERE DENIED SUFFRAGE RIGHTS DURING THE ELECTIONS TO THE ALL-GERMAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, SO THEY STRUGGLE AGAINST THIS.
  • WHEN THE FRANKFURT PARLIAMENT WAS CONVENED THEY WERE MERELY ADMITTED AS OBSERVERS IN THE GALLERY.
  • WOMEN HAD THE LIBERTY TO PARTICIPATE IN NATIONALIST STRUGGLES BUT NOT EQUALITY, BUT THIS DID NOT DIMINISH THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE NATIONAL STRUGGLE.

THE GREEK WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

  • GREECE HAD BEEN A PART OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE SINCE THE 15TH CENTURY.
  • THE GROWTH OF REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISM AND LIBERALISM IN THE 19TH SPARKED OFF A STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE AMONG GREEKS IN 1821.
  • POETS AND ARTISTS LAUDED GREECE AS THE CRADLE OF EUROPEAN CIVILISATION AND MOBILISED PUBLIC OPINION TO SUPPORT ITS STRUGGLE AGAINST THE ISLAMIC EMPIRE.
  • NATIONALISTS IN GREECE GOT THE SUPPORT FROM GREEKS LIVING IN EXILE.
  • THEY ALSO GOT THE SUPPORT OF EUROPEANS WHO HAD SYMPATHIES FOR ANCIENT GREEK CULTURE.
  • THE ENGLISH POET LORD BYRON ORGANISED FUNDS AND LATER ON WENT TO FIGHT IN THE WAR, WHERE HE DIED OF FEVER IN 1824.
  • THE TREATY OF CONSTANTINOPLE (NOW ISTAMBUL) IN 1832 RECOGNISED GREECE AS AN INDEPENDENT STATE.
  • IN THIS REVOLUTION CULTURE PLAYED AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN CREATING THE IDEA OF A NATION. ART, POETRY, STORIES, AND MUSIC HELPED EXPRESS AND SHAPE GREEK NATIONALIST FEELINGS.

ZOLLVEREIN

  • A CUSTOM UNION WAS FORMED BY MOST OF THE GERMAN STATES IN 1834.
  • THE UNION ABOLISHED TARIFF BARRIERS AND REDUCED THE NUMBER OF CURRENCIES FROM OVER 30 TO 02.

IMPORTANT TERMS-

ABSOLUTISTS– A GOVERNMENT OR SYSTEM OF RULE THAT HAS NO RESTRAINT ON POWER EXERCISED.

ALLEGORY– SYMBOL REPRESENTING AN ABSTRACT IDEA, AN IDEA REPRESENTED THROUGH A PERSON OR THING.

DAS VOLK– GERMAN WORD MEANING COMMON PEOPLE.

ETHNIC– RELATES TO TOA COMMON RACIAL, TRIBAL, OR CULTURAL ORIGIN OR BACKGROUND THAT A COMMUNITY IDENTIFIES.

FEMINISTS– PEOPLE WHO RAISED VOICES FOR THE AWARENESS OF WOMENS RIGHTS AND INTERESTS.

UTOPIAN– A VISION OF SOCIETY THAT IS SO IDEAL THAT IT IS UNLIKELY TO EXIST.

MARIANNE– FEMALE FIGURE IN FRANCE. THE IDEA BEHIND PORTRAYING MARIANNE WITH SYMBOLS OF LIBERTY AND REPUBLIC WAS TO REPRESENT THE FRENCH NATION. MARIANNE’S IMAGES WERE ALSO MARKED ON COINS AND STAMPS.

GERMANIA– WAS AN ALLEGORY OF THE GERMAN NATION. GERMANIA WAS DEPICTED BY ARTIST PHILIP VEIT IN 1848. SHE WAS REPRESENTED STANDING AGAINST A BACKGROUND WHERE BEAMS OF SUNLIGHT SHINE THROUGH THE NATIONAL TRI COLOUR FLAG WEARING A CROWN OF OAK LEAVES AND HOLDING A SWORD IN HER HAND. THE IDEA WAS TO SYMBOLISE THE GERMANS AS HEROIC.

IMPORTANT STATEMENTS OF LEADERS-

  • THE MOST DANGEROUS ENEMY OF OUR SOCIAL ORDER– DUKE METTERNICH (FOR GIUSEPPE MAZZINI)
  • WHEN FRANCE SNEEZES THE REST OF EUROPE CATCHES A COLD– DUKE METTERNICH.