Nationalism in Europe

Who was Frederic Sorrieu? Explain his painting

1. Fredreric Sorrieu was a French artist who in 1948 prepared a series of four prints visualizing his dream of a world made up of ‘Democratic & Social Republics.’

2. The first print of the series, shows the people of Europe & America -men & women of all ages & social classes -marching in a long train, & offering homage to the Statue of Liberty as they pass by it which holds the torch of enlightenment in one hand & the Charter of Rights of Man in the other.

3. On the Earth in the foreground of the image lie the shattered remains of the symbols of absolutist institutions.

4. In Sorrieu’s vision, the people of the world are grouped as distinct nations, identified through their flags & national costume.

5. Leading the procession, way past the Statue of Liberty, are the United States & Switzerland, which by this time were already nation states. France has just reached the statue & is followed by the people of Germany, people of Austria, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, etc.

6. From the heavens above, Christ, Saints & angels gaze upon the scene which symbolize fraternity among the nations of the world.

Define Modern State

It refers to a state in which a centralized power exercised sovereign control over a clearly defined territory.

Define Nation state

It refers to a nation state in which the majority of its citizens along with the rulers develop a sense of common identity & shared history.

State the factors that created a sense of common identity among the french people

1.The ideas of la patrie (the fatherland) & le citoyen (the citizen) emphasized on the notion of a united community enjoying equal rights under a Constitution.

2. A new tricolour French flag, was chosen to replace the royal flag.

3. The Estates General was elected by the body of active citizens & renamed as the National Assembly.

4. A Centralised administrative system was established & it made uniform laws for all citizens within its territory.

5. French became the common language of the nation.

7. A uniform system of weights & measures was adopted.

Explain Napoleonic Code/ Civil Code of 1804

1. It abolished all privileges based on birth.

2. It established equality before law.

3. It secured the Right to Property.

4. Napoleon simplified administrative divisions & abolished the feudal system.

5. Transport & Communication systems were improved.

6. Standardised weights & measures were adopted.

Explain Liberal Nationalism

1. Ideas of national unity in early 19^th century Europe were closely allied to the ideology of liberalism. The term ‘Liberalism’ derives from the Latin word Liber, meaning free.

2.For the new middle classes, liberalism stood for freedom of all individuals & equality of all before the law.

3. Politically, it emphasized on the concept of government by consent.

4.  Since the French Revolution, liberalism has stood for the end of autocracy & clerical privileges.

5. In the economic sphere, liberalism stood for the freedom of markets & the abolition of state-imposed restrictions on the movement of goods & capital.

Explain the economic condition of the 39 German states in the 19th century, which led to the formation of zolverain

1.Napoleon’s administrative measures had created a Confederation of 39 states.

2.Each of these possessed its own currency & weights & measures.

3. Duties ( tax) were often imposed according to the weight or measurement of goods.

4. As each region had its own system of weights & measures, this involved time consuming calculation.

5. Such conditions were viewed as obstacles to economic growth & exchange by the new commercial classes, who argued for the creation of a unified economic territory allowing the unhindered movement of goods, people & capital.

Explain the birth of Zolverain

1. In 1834, a customs union or Zollverein was formed at the initiative of Prussia & was joined by most of the German states.

2.The Union abolished tariff barriers & reduced the number of currencies from over 30 to 2.

3. The creation of a network of railways further stimulated mobility, harnessing economic interests to national unification.

What happened in the congress of Vienna 1815?

1. In 1815, representatives of the European powers—PRUSSIA, RUSSIA, AUSTRIA & BRITAIN—who had collectively defeated Napoleon, met at Vienna to draw up a settlement for Europe.

2. The Congress was hosted by the Austrian Chancellor-Duke Metternich.

3. The delegates drew up the Treaty of Vienna 1815 with the aim of undoing most of the changes that had come about in Europe during the Napoleonic Wars.  

Explain the features of the treaty of vienna 1815

1.The Bourbon Dynasty, which had been deposed during the French Revolution, was restored to power, & France lost the territories it had annexed under Napoleon.

2. A series of states were set up on the boundaries of France to prevent French expansion in future.

3. Austria was given the control of northern Italy.

4. Russia was given a part of Poland.

5. Prussia was given a portion of Saxony.

6. But the German Confederation of 39 states that had been set up by Napoleon was left untouched.

The main intention was to restore the monarchies that had been overthrown by Napoleon & create a new conservative order in Europe.

Who was Giuseppe Mazzini?

1. Giuseppe Mazzini was an Italian revolutionary.

2.Born in Genoa in 1807, he became a member of the Secret Society of Carbonari.

3. At the age of 24, he was sent into exile for attempting a revolution in Liguria.

4. He founded 2 underground societies - (a) YOUNG ITALY in Marseilles &

                                                                         (b) YOUNG EUROPE in Berne.

5. Mazzini believed that God wanted nations to be the natural units of mankind.

6. Mazzini’s continuous opposition to monarchy & his vision of democratic republics frightened the Conservatives.

METTERNICH described him as ‘THE MOST DANGEROUS ENEMY OF OUR SOCIAL ORDER’

The Age of Revolutions was from _____ to _____

1830-1848

Explain the revolt in france

1. The 1^st upheaval took place in France in July 1830.

2. The Bourbon dynasty who had been restored to power during the Conservative reaction after 1815, were overthrown by Liberal Revolutionaries who installed a Constitutional Monarchy with Louis Philippe as the head.

Explain the revolt in Belgium

1.The July Revolution in France sparked an uprising in BRUSSELS which led to Belgium breaking away from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Explain the Greek war of independence

1. Greece had been a part of the Ottoman Empire since the 15^th century.

2.The growth of revolutionary nationalism in Europe sparked off a struggle for independence amongst the Greeks which began in 1821.

3. Nationalists in Greece got support from other Greeks living in exile & also from many west Europeans who had sympathies for ancient Greek culture.

4. Poets & artists mobilized public opinion to support its struggle against a Muslim Empire.

5. Finally, the TREATY OF CONSTANTINOPLE of 1832 recognised Greece as an independent nation.

Explain the Silesia Revolt

1. In 1845, weavers in Silesia revolted against the contractors who supplied them raw material & gave them orders for finished textiles but drastically reduced their payments.

2. A large group of weavers marched towards the mansion of their contractor demanding higher wages.

3. They were treated with scorn & threats alternately.

3. Following this, a group of them forced their way into the house & destroyed window panes, furniture, etc.

4. The contractor fled with his family to a neighbouring village which, however, refused to shelter such a person.

5.He returned 24 hours later with the support of the army in which 11 weavers were shot.

Explain the Paris revolt

1. Paris Revolt again took place in 1848.

2. Food shortages & widespread unemployment brought the population of Paris out on the roads.

3. Barricades were erected & Louis Philippe was forced to flee.

4. A National Assembly proclaimed a Republic, granted suffrage to all adult males above 21 & guaranteed the Right to work.

5. National Workshops were set up to provide employment.  

Explain Romanticism

1. Romanticism was a cultural movement which sought to develop a particular form of nationalist sentiment.

2. Romantic artists & poets generally criticized the glorification of reason & science & focused instead on emotions, intuition & mystical feelings.

3. Their effort was to create a sense of shared collective heritage of common cultural past.

4. They thought that through folk songs, folk poetry & folk dances, the true spirit of the nation can be popularized.

5. Eg. KAROL KURPINSKI celebrated the national struggle through his operas & music, turning folk dances like Polonaise & Mazurka into nationalist symbols.

Explain the role of language in developing nationalist sentiments

1. After Russian occupation, the Polish language was forced out of schools & the Russian language was imposed everywhere.

2. Many members of the Clergy in Poland began to use language as a weapon of national resistance.

3. Polish was used for Church gatherings & all religious instructions.

4. As a result, a large number of priests & bishops were put in jail or sent to Siberia by the Russian authorities as punishment.

5. The use of Polish came to be seen as a symbol of the struggle against Russian dominance.

Why were the 1830s known as the years of great economic depression?

1. An enormous increase in population all over Europe.

2. There were more seekers of jobs than employment.

3. Population from rural areas migrated to cities to live in overcrowded slums.

4. Small producers in towns faced stiff competition from imports of cheap machine-made goods.

5. Peasants were over burdened with feudal dues.      

What is ‘Allegory’?

1.When an abstract idea is expressed in the form of a person or a thing, it is called an allegory

2. Artists in 18​​ and 19​ centuries personified nations i.e. they represented a country as if it was a person. Nations were then portrayed as female figures i.e. the female figures became an allegory of the nation.
3. a. In ​France, ​she was christened ​MARIANNE, ​ a popular Christian name, which depicted the idea of a people’s nation.
b. Her ​characteristics ​were drawn from those of Liberty and the Republic-​the red cap, the tricolour and the cockade.
c. 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 them.
d. Marianne images were also marked on coins and stamps.
4.a. ​GERMANIA​ became an allegory of the German nation.
b. Germania wears the ​crown of oak leaves ​as the German oak stands for heroism.

 

Explain the making of the british nation

1. In Britain the formation of the nation state was not the result of a sudden
revolution. It was the result of a long drawn out process. There was no
British nation prior to the 18th century.
2. There were ethnic groups that inhabited the British Isles such as English,
Welsh, Scot or Irish.
3. All these ethnic groups had their own cultural & political tradition. But as
English nation slowly grew in wealth, power & importance, it influenced the
other nation of the island.
4. The Act of Union 1707 between England & Scotland resulted in the
formation of the “United Kingdom of Great Britain “.
5. The growth of the Britain meant that Scotland’s distinctive culture &
political institution was systematically suppressed.
6. IRELAND was a country deeply divided between Catholic and Protestants.
The English helped the Protestants of Ireland to establish their dominance over a
largely Catholic country.
7. Catholic revolt against British dominance were suppressed. After a failed
revolt led by WOLFE TONE & his United Irishmen, Ireland was forcibly
incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801
8. The symbol of the new Britain: -
a) The British flag (Union Jack)
b) The National Anthem (God save our Noble King)
c) The English language—were actively promoted &the older nation
survived only as subordinate partner in this union.

 

Why were the Balkan states a source of nationalist tension in europe?

The Balkans comprised modern day Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, etc whose inhabitants were called SLAVS.

1.A large part of the Balkans was under the control of the Ottoman Empire. But with the weakening and disintegration of the Ottoman empire, nationalist tensions emerged in the area.
2. Its European subject nationalities broke away and declared themselves independent.
3. People of the Balkans argued that they were once independent before the foreign powers controlled them. So they wanted to regain their lost independence.
4. Nationalist tensions emerged due to rivalries of the European powers i.e. Russia, England, Austria, Hungary.
5. All these powers wanted to establish their control for one reason or the other.

Explain rivalries among the Balkan states

The Balkan states were very jealous of each other and each one of them wanted to extend their territory at the expense of the others.

Rivalry among the European powers and the Balkan states led to a series of wars and finally the First World War.

Explain the unification of Germany

1) Nationalist feelings were widespread among middle class Germans, who in 1848 tried to unite different regions of the German confederation into a nation state governed by an elected parliament.

2) This initiative towards nation building was suppressed by the combined
forces of the monarchy and the military, supported by the large landowners
(called JUNKERS) of Prussia.
3) From then on, Prussia led the movement of German unification.
4) Its Chief Minister, Ottovon Bismarck, was the architect of this process which
was carried out with the help of Prussian army and bureaucracy.
5) Three wars were fought over 7 years with Austria, Denmark and France
which ended in Prussian victory and completed the process of German
unification.
6) In January 1871, the Prussian King, WILLIAM I, was declared as German
Emperor in a ceremony held at Versailles.

Explain the Impact of Unification of germany

1) The nation building process in Germany showed the dominance of Prussian
state power.
2) The new state emphasised strongly on modernising currency, banking, legal
and judicial systems in Germany.
3) Prussian measures and practices often became a model for the rest of
Germany.

What were the causes of Unification of italy

1) During the mid-19th century, Italy was divided into 7 states of which only
one, SARDINIA PIEDMONT, was ruled by an Italian Princely house.
2) The north was under Austrian Habsburgs, the centre was ruled by the
Pope and the southern part was controlled by the Bourbon kings of Spain.
3) Even the Italian language had not acquired one common form and still
had many regional and local variations.

Explain the role of giueseppe mazzini in unification of italy

a) He aimed towards creating a Unitary/unified Italian Republic.
b) He also formed a secret society called YOUNG ITALY for achieving his
goal.

c) There were two revolutionary uprisings in 1831 and 1848 for
unification of Italy but both failed.
d) This meant that the responsibility to unify Italy fell on Sardinia
Piedmont under its ruler King Victor Emmanuel II.
e) Ruling elites of this region believed that a unified Italy would offer a
great possibility of economic development and political dominance.

Explain the role of count cavour in unification of italy

a) Chief Minister Count Cavour , who led the unification movement was
neither a revolutionary nor a democrat but he was known as the REAL
MAKER OF ITALY.
b) He designed a tactful diplomatic alliance with France due to which
Sardinia Piedmont defeated Austrian forces in 1859.

Explain the role of giuseppe garibaldi in unification of italy

a) Apart from regular troops, a large number of armed volunteers under
the leadership of Giuseppe Garibaldi joined the movement.
b) In 1860, they marched into south Italy and the Kingdom of the two
Sicilies and won the support of local peasants to drive out the Spanish
rulers.
4) In 1861, Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed the King of united Italy.