Notes : The Rise of Nationalism in Europe (Source: India and the Contemporary World-II
published by the NCERT)
[Link] a note on Frederic Sorrieu’s The Dream of worldwide Democratic and Social
Republics.
● In his painting, Frederic Sorrieu showed peoples of Europe and America, men and
women of all ages and social groups marching in a long train and offering homage to the
Statue of Liberty as they pass by it.
● In Sorrieu's utopian vision, the people of the world are grouped as distinct nations,
identified through their flags and national costumes
2. Mention the measures introduced by the French Revolutionaries to create a sense of
collective identity amongst the Fench people. 3M /5M
The first clear expression of nationalism came with the French Revolution in 1789.
● The ideas of la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen) emphasised the notion
of a united community.
● 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.
● Internal customs duties and dues were abolished and a uniform system of weights and
measures was adopted.
3. ‘Through a return to monarchy Napoleon had, no doubt, destroyed democracy in
France, but in the administrative field he had incorporated revolutionary principles
in order to make the whole system more rational and efficient.’ Justify. 3M /5M
The Civil Code of 1804 – usually known as the Napoleonic Code – was introduced by Napoleon
o make the system more efficient.
● It did away with all privileges based on birth, established equality before the law and
secured the right to property.
● In the towns, guild restrictions were removed.
● Transport and communication systems were improved.
● Peasants, artisans, workers and new businessmen enjoyed a new-found freedom.
THE MAKING OF NATIONALISM OF EUROPE
1. ‘In the areas conquered, the reactions of the local populations to French rule were
mixed.’ Justify. OR ‘The initial enthusiasm among the local population soon turned to
hostility towards Napoleon’s army.’ Reason out.
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
change.
2. What was the meaning of liberalism in political and economic spheres?
The term ‘liberalism’ derives from the Latin root liber, meaning free.
In political sphere liberalism meant:
• government by consent
• end of autocracy
• adoption of constitution
• representative Government through parliament
• inviolability of private property
• equality before law
In economic sphere, liberalism meant
• freedom of markets
• removal of state-imposed restrictions on movement of goods and capital
3. What was Zollverein and why was it formed? 2M
● 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.
4. What is the meaning of New Conservatism after 1815? 2M/3M
● Conservatives believed that established, traditional institutions of state and society – like
the monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family – should be
preserved.
● A modern army, a dynamic economy, the abolition of feudalism could strengthen the
autocratic monarchies of Europe.
5. Write about the provisions under the Treaty of Vienna. (3M/4M)
After defeating Napoléon - Britain,Russia,Prussia and Austria-drew the Treaty of Vienna of
1815. The Congress was hosted by the Austrian Chancellor Duke Metternich.
Main motive was to undo the changes initiated by Napoléon and to restore monarch
● 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. 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, and create a new conservative order in Europe.
6. What was the role played by Giuseppe Mazzini towards the nationalism in
Europe? 3M/5M
Secret societies sprang up in many European states to train revolutionaries and spread their
ideas.
One of the Italian revolutionaries was Giuseppe Mazzini.
● Born in Genoa in 1807, he became a member of the secret society of Carbonari.
● He founded two more underground societies, first, Young Italy in Marseilles, and then,
Young Europe in Berne.
● Mazzini believed that God had intended nations to be the natural units of mankind. He
also believed that unification alone could be the basis of Italian liberty
● 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’.
[Link] Age of Revolutions : 1830-1848
1. Write a brief note on The July Revolution. (2M/3M)
● The first upheaval by the liberal-nationalists took place 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.
● ‘When France sneezes,’ Metternich once remarked, ‘the rest of Europe catches cold.’
● The July Revolution sparked an uprising in Brussels which led to Belgium breaking away
from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
2. “An event that mobilised nationalist feelings among the educated elite across
Europe was the Greek war of independence.” Explain. (3M/4M)
● Greece had been part of the Ottoman Empire since the fifteenth century.
● Nationalists in Greece got support 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.
● Finally, the Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognised Greece as an independent
nation.
3. Did culture play an important role in creating the idea of the nation in Europe?
Justify your answer. OR What was the role of Romanticism in building of nationalism
in Europe? (3M/4M)
● 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.
● German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder claimed that true German culture was to
be discovered among the common people das volk through folk songs, folk poetry and
folk dances.
● In Poland, that no longer existed as an independent territory, national feelings were kept
alive through music and language.
4. Why were the 1830s the years of great economic hardship in Europe? (2M or 3M)
• The first half of the nineteenth century saw an enormous increase in population all over
Europe. In most countries there were more seekers of jobs than employment.
• Population from rural areas migrated to the cities to live in overcrowded slums.
• Small producers in towns were often faced with stiff competition from imports of cheap
machine-made goods from England.
• The rise of food prices or a year of bad harvest led to widespread pauperism in town and
country.
The Making of Germany and Italy
1. Write the events that led to the unification of Germany. (4M or 5M)
• The liberal initiative to nation-building was 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.
• On the bitterly cold morning of 18 January 1871, an assembly 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. Prussian measures and practices often became a model for the rest of
Germany.
2. Write how the Unification of Italy happened. (4M)
• 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.
• Giuseppe Mazzini had formed a secret society called Young Italy for the dissemination
of his goals. The responsibility fell on Sardinia-Piedmont under its ruler King Victor
Emmanuel II to unify the Italian states through war.
• Through a tactful diplomatic alliance with France engineered by the Chief Minister
Cavour, Sardinia-Piedmont succeeded in defeating the Austrian forces in 1859. Giuseppe
Garibaldi along with his volunteers 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.
3. How was the Great Britain formed?
• In Britain the formation of the nation-state was not the result of a sudden upheaval or
revolution. It was the result of a long-drawn-out process. The primary identities of the people
who inhabited the British Isles were ethnic ones such as English, Welsh, Scot or Irish.
• The Act of Union (1707) between England and Scotland resulted in the formation of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain.
• The growth of a British identity meant that Scotland’s distinctive culture and political
institutions were systematically suppressed.
• The English helped the Protestants of Ireland to establish their dominance over a largely
Catholic country. 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.
Visualising the Nation
1. What is an allegory? (1M)
When an abstract idea (for instance, greed, envy, freedom, liberty) is expressed through a
person or a thing, it is called as an allegory. An allegorical story has two meanings, one literal
and one symbolic
2. Why were allegories used in nation building? Explain with an example. (2M)
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.
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.
Nationalism and Imperialism
1. ‘The most serious source of nationalist tension in Europe after 1871 was the area
called the Balkans.’ Explain. (3M/4M)
● 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.
● One by one, its European subject nationalities broke away from Ottoman empire’s
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.
2. How did imperialism contribute to the World War I? (2M or 3M)
OR ‘Nationalism, aligned with imperialism, led Europe to disaster in 1914.’ Explain.
• 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. During this period, there was intense rivalry among the
European powers over trade and colonies as well as naval and military might.
• 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.