Class 10 NCERT Solutions History Chapter 1 - The Rise of Nationalism in Europe

Guiseppe Mazzini was an Italian revolutionary who made an important contribution to the unification of Italy. He was a member of the secret society called the Carbonari. He also founded the underground secret societies - Young Italy in Marseilles and Young Europe in Berne. Through these organisations have sought to involve Italian youth in revolutionary activities and inspired them with nationalist ideas. Following his footsteps, many others formed secret societies in other parts of Europe. Because his activities were seen as treacherous by the old conservative order then existent in Europe, he was sent into exile in 1831. This was done under the pretext that he tried to initiate a revolution in Ligunia. Though he did not succeed in achieving the unification of Italy, he did contribute a lot in awakening the spirit of nationalism among Italians.

Count Camillo de Cavour was an Italian statesman who founded the original Italian Liberal Party. He had served as the Chief Minister of Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia-Piedmont. In that sense, he was a diplomat rather than a revolutionary like Mazzini or Garibaldi. He was a staunch believer in liberalism, free trade, public right of opinion and secularism. Through a tactful diplomatic alliance with France, he neutralized the French threat whereby Sardinia-Piedmont succeeded in defeating Austria in 1859 and uniting the northern states of Lombardy, Parma, Modena and Tuscany.

Greece had been a part of the Ottoman empire since the 15^th century. With the growth of liberal and Nationalist ideas in Europe in the 19^th century, the educated elite among the Greeks mobilized nationalist feelings and began a movement for Greek independence in the year 1821. Poets and artists eulogized Greece as the cradle of European civilisation and made attempts to galvanise the masses into action. Through continuous struggle, the Greeks did succeed in gaining independence eventually. Through the Treaty of Constantinople of 1832, the independence of Greece was recognised.

Culture played an important role in creating the idea of the Green nation. Arts, poetry, folktales and music all helped express and articulate Greek nationalist aspirations.

When in 1848, the conservative government fell in Germany, the liberals called for the German National Assembly. It constituted of 831 elected members and primarily represented the German middle class. It was convened in the Church of St Paul’s in Frankfurt on 18 May, 1848; hence it is known as the Frankfurt Parliament.

The Assembly drafted a constitution for making Germany a Constitutional monarchy. King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm IV rejected the Parliament’s deputy’s offer of the crown. Radical political groups’ attempt to impose the Constitution through civil war soon failed.

Although the Frankfurt Parliament failed to achieve its objective, it did give Prussia a push to assume the leadership of the movement for unification of Germany.

Women participated on a large scale and played a pivotal role in the nationalist struggles of the French, the Germans and the Italians. They formed their own political associations, newspapers and journals and participated in demonstrations and political meetings. However, despite their enthusiastic participation in these struggles, they continued to play a secondary role in the social and political sphere. Even during the elections to the All German National Assembly, they were denied the right to vote. In the Frankfurt Parliament, they were allowed merely as observers and not as participants.

Following steps were taken by the French revolutionaries in order to forge a sense of collective identity among the French people:

1. The revolutionaries introduced the ideas of 'La patrie' - the fatherland ad the 'la citoyen' - the citizens.

    

2. A new French tri-colour flag replaced the former royal standard.

    

3. The Estates General was renamed as the National Assembly and elected by a body of active members.

    

4. New hymns were composed, oaths taken and martyrs were commemorated in the name of the French nation.

    

5. A centralized administrative system with uniform laws was introduced for all the citizens.

    

6. Internal custom duties and dues were altogether abolished and a uniform system of weights and measures was adopted.

    

7. Regional dialects were discouraged and French was made the common language of the French nation.

    

8. The revolutionaries also made it their stated aim to liberate the people of Europe and help them become nations.

From 1789. Females appeared in paintings as symbols of Liberty and revolution. Marianne and Germania were in fact female allegories that were used by artists in the 19^th century in order to represent the abstract idea of the ‘nation’ in concrete form; it was an attempt to personify the nation in order to popularize it. Marianne was a popular name in France hence it was used to represent the French nation. The underlying idea behind portraying Marianne with symbols of Liberty and Republic (red cap, cockade, tricolor, popular name) was to represent the French nation as people’s nation. Statues of Marianne were erected in order to persuade people to identify with it. Her images were also printed on coins and stamps.

The Germania was depicted by artist Philip Vert. She was represented as standing against a background where beams of sunlight shone through the national tricolor flag; wearing a crown of oak leaves, holding an unsheathed sword. The objective was to portray the Germans as heroic.

At the dawn of the 19^th century, Germany was still divided into a collection 39 small and big autocratic states. Middle class Germans inspired by nationalist sentiments had tried in 1848 to unite the states of the German confederation into a Parliament governed nation-state. However, this attempt was suppressed by the combined forces of the monarchy, the military; supported by the large landowners of Germany called the ‘junkers’.

From then on, the baton of a German nation-state was carried by the State of Prussia. Prussian Chief Minister Otto Von Bismarck, who is credited as the architect of the German unification, initiated the process of German unification with the help of the Prussian army and the bureaucracy. Prussia fought three wars over a period of seven years – with Austria, Denmark and France – and won them to complete the process of political unification of the German speaking territories.

Following are the administrative measures introduced by Napoleon Bonaparte which improved the administrative efficiency of the territories ruled by him: 

1. Napoleon initiated a reform drive into the French legal system and simplified the administrative divisions of France. He established uniform laws and the concept of equality before law was given state sanction. 
2. He is also credited with abolishing the privileges based on birth. He effectively abolished the feudal system and freed the peasantry from serfdom and manorial dues. 
3. Napoleon also removed the strict trade guild restrictions in the towns, thereby encouraging trade and entrepreneurship. 
4. Transport and communications facilities were improved manifold. 
5. A uniform system of weights and measures were introduced by Napoleon. He also adopted a common national currency which was a big step towards modernisation of the French national economy. It facilitated movement of goods and capital from one region to another. 
6. He secured and gave state protection to the right of property.

The 1848 revolution of liberals refers to a tide of discontent in many European countries led by the educated urban middle class. The liberals who participated in the revolution supported a variety of political, social and economic ideas.

The primary aim of the liberals was to establish freedom for the individual and equality of all before the law. They emphasised on the importance of representative government based on the consent of the people. In effect, the liberals were against autocracy and feudal privileges.

The liberals also emphasised the equality of all before the law and individual freedom and inviolability of private property. They also supported women’s right to vote and attracted wide spread participation in their campaigns.

Culture played a pivotal role in the growth of the nationalist sentiment in Europe. Art, poetry, stories, music and language often forged national feelings among populations with common ethnicity. The case of Greece, Germany and Poland stand testimony to this.

In 1821, the Greeks began their struggle for independence from the Ottoman Turk rule. The poets and artists lauded Greece as the cradle of European civilisation and mobilized support among exiled Greeks and Western European elites. For example, whereas English poet Lord Byron organized funds for the Greek cause, French painter Delacroix through his paintings sought to create sympathy for the Greek revolt.

In Germany, the nationalists popularized the concept of a German nation through folk songs, poems and dance forms. Romantics like the German philosopher Johann Gottfried claimed true German culture was to be discovered among the common people, i.e., ‘Das Volk’. Collecting and recording forms of folk culture had also become an integral part of nation building, e.g. Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

Though under Russian occupation, members of the clergy in Poland began to use language as a weapon of national resistance. Polish became a common language in church gatherings and religious instruction. Folklore was also extensively used to revive nationalist sentiment among the Polish.

Following are the examples of the development of two important European nations in the 19^th century:

The Unification of Germany

At the dawn of the 19^th century, Germany was still divided into a collection 39 small and big autocratic states. Middle class Germans inspired by nationalist sentiments had tried in 1848 to unite the states of the German confederation into a Parliament governed nation-state. However, this attempt was suppressed by the combined forces of the monarchy, the military; supported by the large landowners of Germany called the ‘junkers’.

From then on, the baton of a German nation-state was carried by the State of Prussia. Prussian Chief Minister Otto Von Bismarck, who is credited as the architect of the German unification, initiated the process of German unification with the help of the Prussian army and the bureaucracy. Prussia fought three wars over a period of seven years – with Austria, Denmark and France – and won them to complete the process of political unification of the German speaking territories.

The Unification of Italy

The unification of Italy was a result of the efforts Camillo De Cavour, the Chief Minister of King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia-Piedmont. It was a result of diplomatic alliances and a series of diplomatic maneuvers and several military engagements. The north under the Austrian-Hapsburg empire was acquired by Cavour through a tactful diplomatic alliance with France and a military victory against the Austrian forces in 1859. Guiseppe Garibaldi acquired the southern kingdom if Italy and the two Sicilies by driving out the Spanish rulers in the expedition of the Thousand of South Italy. Venetia and the Papal City of Rome were further incorporated in 1866 and 1870 respectively.

Before the 18^th century, there was no one single unified British nation, but rather a mish-mash of English, Welsh, Scott and Irish ethnicities. Hence, nationalism in Britain was not a result of a sudden upheaval or revolution. It was a slow, long drawn process forged through the propagation of the dominant English culture. The chief instrument of this process was the British Parliament. In 1688, the Parliament seized power from the monarchy in a bloodless revolution. By the Act of Union between England and Scotland in 1707, the United Kingdom of Great Britain was formed.

As the English nation grew in power, there was systematic suppression of Scotland’s distinctive culture and political associations. Even in Ireland, the English supported the protestants against the largely catholic populace of that country. Ireland was forcibly incorporated with United Kingdom in 1801.

Thus it was through Parliamentary action and not by means of revolution or war that United Kingdom was forged into a nation.

The Balkans was a region of diverse ethnic nationalities ruled by the decaying Ottoman empire. As the spread of romantic nationalism and liberalism took speed in the Balkans, it fuelled the aspirations of subject nationalities for independence. However, Balkan states were extremely jealous of each other and sought to expand their territories at each other’s expense. Also at the same time, Balkan politics became the theatre of the power game between the greater empires of Europe like Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary and England. This further made the situation and complex. As the different nationalities struggled to define their identity and independence, the Balkan area actually became an area of intense conflict and political tension.