Study sheet: The Rise of Nationalism in Europe

📋 Course Outline

1. Nationhood and National Identity
2. French Revolution and Nationalism
3. Napoleonic Reforms and Resistance
4. Social Foundations of Nationalism
5. Liberal Nationalism and Zollverein
6. Conservatism after 1815
7. Revolutionaries and Mazzini
8. Revolutions from 1830 to 1848
9. Culture and Popular Nationalism
10. Germany and Italy Unified
11. Britain and Nation-Building
12. National Allegories and Symbols
13. Nationalism and Imperialism

📅 Key Dates

1. 1789the French Revolution transferred sovereignty from the absolute monarchy to a body of French citizens and gave the idea of the nation its first clear political expression
2. 1815the Congress of Vienna restored monarchies and created a conservative order intended to reverse most changes produced by the Napoleonic wars
3. 1914nationalism aligned with imperialism helped produce the European disaster of the First World War

📖 1. Nationhood and National Identity

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Nation-state : A state in which a centralised power exercises sovereign control over a defined territory and most citizens share a common identity and history or descent.
• Ernst Renan’s nation : What is a Nation?, 1882 — For Ernst Renan, a nation is a large-scale solidarity based on shared past sacrifices, common glories, a common present will and a desire to perform further great deeds, expressed through a daily plebiscite.

💡 Memory Hook

Nation-state identity contrasts with dynastic empire allegiance.

📖 2. French Revolution and Nationalism

📝 Essential Points

• The French revolutionaries created collective identity through:
  • the ideas of la patrie and le citoyen
  • the tricolour flag
  • the National Assembly
  • national hymns and oaths
  • commemorations
  • uniform laws
  • abolished internal customs duties
  • standard weights and measures
  • French as a common language

💡 Memory Hook

People → citizenship → constitution → nation.

📖 3. Napoleonic Reforms and Resistance

📝 Essential Points

• The Napoleonic Code of 1804 abolished privileges based on birth, established equality before the law and secured the right to property.

• In territories under French control, Napoleon:

  • simplified administration
  • abolished feudalism
  • freed peasants from serfdom and manorial dues
  • removed guild restrictions
  • improved transport and communication

💡 Memory Hook

Administrative reform → economic integration; taxation and conscription → resistance.

📖 4. Social Foundations of Nationalism

★ Must-know

• Before nationalism, Europe contained diverse dynastic territories, including the Habsburg Empire, whose peoples spoke different languages and shared mainly allegiance to the emperor.

Further detail

• The landed aristocracy was a small dominant class owning rural estates and town houses, while most Europeans were peasants and eastern and central European estates were often cultivated by serfs.

💡 Memory Hook

Small landed aristocracy versus expanding middle classes.

📖 5. Liberal Nationalism and Zollverein

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Liberalism : Liberalism stood for individual freedom, equality before the law, government by consent, constitutional and representative government, private property, free markets and the abolition of state restrictions on goods and capital.

📝 Essential Points

• In 1834, Prussia formed the Zollverein customs union with most German states, abolishing tariff barriers and reducing the number of currencies from over thirty to two.

💡 Memory Hook

Common markets → economic integration → national feeling.

📖 6. Conservatism after 1815

📝 Essential Points

📌 Conservative regimes after 1815 used censorship to control newspapers, books, plays and songs that expressed liberty or freedom and to suppress criticism of autocratic government.

💡 Memory Hook

Napoleon defeated → Vienna settlement → restored monarchies → censorship.

📖 7. Revolutionaries and Mazzini

📝 Essential Points

• Giuseppe Mazzini believed that nations were the natural units of humanity and founded Young Italy and Young Europe to promote unified democratic republics against monarchy.

💡 Memory Hook

Mazzini’s underground societies link young revolutionaries across Europe.

📖 8. Revolutions from 1830 to 1848

📝 Essential Points

• The Greek struggle for independence began in 1821 and the Treaty of Constantinople recognised Greece as an independent nation in 1832.

• The 1848 liberal revolutions demanded constitutional government, freedom of the press, freedom of association and nation-states based on parliamentary principles.

💡 Memory Hook

France → Belgium → Greece → liberal revolutions of 1848.

📖 9. Culture and Popular Nationalism

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Romanticism : A cultural movement that rejected the exclusive glorification of reason and science and used emotions, intuition, art, poetry, stories and music to express shared national heritage.

📝 Essential Points

• Johann Gottfried Herder argued that true German culture lived among the common people and was expressed through folk songs, folk poetry and folk dances as the Volksgeist.

• The Grimm Brothers published their first collection of German folktales in 1812 and treated folklore and the German language as tools for resisting French domination and building national identity.

💡 Memory Hook

Folk culture and language → shared heritage → national identity.

📖 10. Germany and Italy Unified

📝 Essential Points

• German unification was achieved under Prussian leadership through Bismarck’s army and bureaucracy and three wars against Denmark, Austria and France, culminating in the proclamation of William I as German Emperor at Versailles in January 1871.

• Italian unification involved Cavour’s alliance with France and victory over Austria in 1859, Garibaldi’s conquest of southern Italy in 1860, and Victor Emmanuel II’s proclamation as king of united Italy in 1861.

💡 Memory Hook

Prussia and Bismarck → three wars → Germany; Cavour, Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel → Italy.

📖 11. Britain and Nation-Building

📝 Essential Points

• Britain became a nation-state through the long expansion of English political power, the Act of Union with Scotland in 1707, the incorporation of Ireland in 1801, and the promotion of English symbols, language and institutions.

💡 Memory Hook

English political dominance → cultural assimilation → British nation.

📖 12. National Allegories and Symbols

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Marianne and Germania : Marianne was the female allegory of republican France, while Germania was the female allegory of the German nation, with symbols such as the oak-leaf crown representing German heroism.

💡 Memory Hook

Marianne represents republican France; Germania represents the German nation.

📖 13. Nationalism and Imperialism

📝 Essential Points

• By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, nationalism had shifted from liberal-democratic ideals toward an intolerant creed linked to imperialism and rivalry among European powers.

• Balkan nationalism intensified because the Ottoman Empire was disintegrating, Slavic nationalities sought independence, Balkan states competed for territory, and Russia, Germany, England and Austria-Hungary rivalled one another for control.

💡 Memory Hook

Imperial rivalry and Balkan nationalism → conflict → First World War.

📊 Synthesis Tables

Paths to National Unification

Country	Main actors	Method	Outcome
Germany	Bismarck and Prussia	Army, bureaucracy and three wars	German Empire proclaimed in 1871
Italy	Cavour, Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II	Diplomacy, war and popular volunteers	United Italy proclaimed in 1861
Britain	English Parliament and ruling elite	Gradual political expansion and cultural assimilation	United Kingdom consolidated