Chapter I

The Rise of Nationalism in Europe

T h e NRa t i oinsa l ies m inoEfu r o p eN a t i o n a l i s m i n E u r o p e

Fig. 1 — The Dream of Worldwide Democratic and Social Republics – The Pact Between Nations, a print prepared by
Frédéric Sorrieu, 1848.

In 1848, Frédéric Sorrieu, a French artist, prepared a series of four

New words
prints visualising his dream of a world made up of ‘democratic
and social Republics’, as he called them. The first print (Fig. 1) of the Absolutist – Literally, a government or
series, shows the peoples of Europe and America – men and women system of rule that has no restraints on
of all ages and social classes – marching in a long train, and offering the power exercised. In history, the term
homage to the statue of Liberty as they pass by it. As you would refers to a for m of monarchical
recall, artists of the time of the French Revolution personified Liberty government that was centralised,
as a female figure – here you can recognise the torch of Enlightenment militarised and repressive
she bears in one hand and the Charter of the Rights of Man in the Utopian – A vision of a society that is so
other. On the earth in the foreground of the image lie the shattered ideal that it is unlikely to actually exist
remains of the symbols of absolutist institutions. In Sorrieu’s
utopian vision, the peoples of the world are grouped as distinct Activity
nations, identified through their flags and national costume. Leading
In what way do you think this print (Fig. 1)
the procession, way past the statue of Liberty, are the United States
depicts a utopian vision?
and Switzerland, which by this time were already nation-states. France,

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 identifiable by the revolutionary tricolour, has just reached the statue. Source A
She is followed by the peoples of Germany, bearing the black, red
Ernst Renan, ‘What is a Nation?’
and gold flag. Interestingly, at the time when Sorrieu created this
In a lecture delivered at the University of
image, the German peoples did not yet exist as a united nation – the
Sorbonne in 1882, the French philosopher Ernst
flag they carry is an expression of liberal hopes in 1848 to unify the Renan (1823-92) outlined his understanding of
numerous German-speaking principalities into a nation-state under what makes a nation. The lecture was
subsequently published as a famous essay entitled
a democratic constitution. Following the German peoples are the
‘Qu’est-ce qu’une nation?’ (‘What is a Nation?’).
peoples of Austria, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Lombardy, In this essay Renan criticises the notion suggested
Poland, England, Ireland, Hungary and Russia. From the heavens by others that a nation is formed by a common
language, race, religion, or territory:
above, Christ, saints and angels gaze upon the scene. They have
‘A nation is the culmination of a long past of
been used by the artist to symbolise fraternity among the nations of endeavours, sacrifice and devotion. A heroic past,
the world. great men, glory, that is the social capital upon
which one bases a national idea. To have
This chapter will deal with many of the issues visualised by Sorrieu common glories in the past, to have a common
in Fig. 1. During the nineteenth century, nationalism emerged as a will in the present, to have performed great deeds
together, to wish to perform still more, these
force which brought about sweeping changes in the political and
are the essential conditions of being a people. A
mental world of Europe. The end result of these changes was the nation is therefore a large-scale solidarity … Its
emergence of the nation-state in place of the multi-national dynastic existence is a daily plebiscite … A province is its
inhabitants; if anyone has the right to be
empires of Europe. The concept and practices of a modern state, in
consulted, it is the inhabitant. A nation never
which a centralised power exercised sovereign control over a clearly has any real interest in annexing or holding on to
defined territory, had been developing over a long period of time a country against its will. The existence of nations
is a good thing, a necessity even. Their existence
in Europe. But a nation-state was one in which the majority of its
is a guarantee of liberty, which would be lost if
citizens, and not only its rulers, came to develop a sense of common the world had only one law and only one master.’
identity and shared history or descent. This commonness did not
exist from time immemorial; it was forged through struggles, through Source
the actions of leaders and the common people. This chapter will
look at the diverse processes through which nation-states and
New words
nationalism came into being in nineteenth-century Europe.
Plebiscite – A direct vote by which all the
people of a region are asked to accept or reject
India and the Contemporary World

a proposal

Discuss
Summarise the attributes of a nation, as Renan
understands them. Why, in his view, are nations
important?

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 1 The French Revolution and the Idea of the Nation

The first clear expression of nationalism came with

the French Revolution in 1789. France, as you
would remember, was a full-fledged territorial state
in 1789 under the rule of an absolute monarch.
The political and constitutional changes that came
in the wake of the French Revolution led to the
transfer of sovereignty from the monarchy to a
body of French citizens. The revolution proclaimed
that it was the people who would henceforth
constitute the nation and shape its destiny.

From the very beginning, the French revolutionaries

introduced various measures and practices that
could create a sense of collective identity amongst
the French people. The ideas of la patrie (the
fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen) emphasised
the notion of a united community enjoying equal rights under a Fig. 2 — The cover of a German almanac
designed by the journalist Andreas Rebmann in
constitution. A new French flag, the tricolour, was chosen to replace 1798.
the former royal standard. The Estates General was elected by the The image of the French Bastille being stormed
by the revolutionary crowd has been placed
body of active citizens and renamed the National Assembly. New next to a similar fortress meant to represent the
hymns were composed, oaths taken and martyrs commemorated, bastion of despotic rule in the German province
of Kassel. Accompanying the illustration is the
all in the name of the nation. A centralised administrative system slogan: ‘The people must seize their own
was put in place and it formulated uniform laws for all citizens freedom!’ Rebmann lived in the city of Mainz
and was a member of a German Jacobin group.
within its territory. Internal customs duties and dues were abolished
and a uniform system of weights and measures was adopted.
Regional dialects were discouraged and French, as it was spoken
and written in Paris, became the common language of the nation.

The revolutionaries further declared that it was the mission and the
destiny of the French nation to liberate the peoples of Europe Europe

from despotism, in other words to help other peoples of Europe

to become nations.
N a t i o n a l i s m in

When the news of the events in France reached the different cities
of Europe, students and other members of educated middle classes
began setting up Jacobin clubs. Their activities and campaigns
prepared the way for the French armies which moved into Holland,
Belgium, Switzerland and much of Italy in the 1790s. With the
outbreak of the revolutionary wars, the French armies began to
carry the idea of nationalism abroad.

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 ICELAND
(DENMARK)

ATLANTIC SEA
NORWAY
(SWEDEN)

SWEDEN
SCOTLAND

IRELAND GREAT
BRITAIN DENMARK
RUSSIAN EMPIRE
WALES HABOVER
ENGLAND (G.B.)
PRUSSIA
NETHERLANDS POLAND

GALICIA
BAVARIA
AUSTRIAN EMPIRE
FRANCE
SWITZERLAND AUSTRIA

HUNGARY

SMALL ROMANIA
AL

STATES SERBIA GEORGIA

TUG

SPAIN CORSICA BULGARIA

POR

ARMENIA
OTTOMAN EMPIRE

PER
KINGDOM
SARDINIA OF THE

SIA
TWO
SICILIES

GREECE MESOPOTAMIA
TUNIS
ALGERIA CRETE SYRIA
MOROCCO CYPRUS
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
PALESTINE

EGYPT Fig. 3 — Europe after the

Congress of Vienna, 1815.

Within the wide swathe of territory that came under his control,
Napoleon set about introducing many of the reforms that he had
already introduced in France. Through a return to monarchy
India and the Contemporary World

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. The
Civil Code of 1804 – usually known as the Napoleonic Code –
did away with all privileges based on birth, established equality
before the law and secured the right to property. This Code was
exported to the regions under French control. In the Dutch Republic,
in Switzerland, in Italy and Germany, Napoleon simplified
administrative divisions, abolished the feudal system and freed
peasants from serfdom and manorial dues. In the towns too, guild
restrictions were removed. Transport and communication systems
were improved. Peasants, artisans, workers and new businessmen

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 Fig. 4 — The Planting of Tree of Liberty in Zweibrücken, Germany.
The subject of this colour print by the German painter Karl Kaspar Fritz is the occupation of the town of Zweibrücken
by the French armies. French soldiers, recognisable by their blue, white and red uniforms, have been portrayed as
oppressors as they seize a peasant’s cart (left), harass some young women (centre foreground) and force a peasant
down to his knees. The plaque being affixed to the Tree of Liberty carries a German inscription which in translation
reads: ‘Take freedom and equality from us, the model of humanity.’ This is a sarcastic reference to the claim of the
French as being liberators who opposed monarchy in the territories they entered.

enjoyed a new-found freedom. Businessmen and small-scale

producers of goods, in particular, began to realise that uniform
laws, standardised weights and measures, and a common national
currency would facilitate the movement and exchange of goods
and capital from one region to another.

However, in the areas conquered, the reactions of the local

populations to French rule were mixed. Initially, in many places such Europe
as Holland and Switzerland, as well as in certain cities like Brussels,
Mainz, Milan and Warsaw, the French armies were welcomed as
N a t i o n a l i s m in

harbingers of liberty. But the initial enthusiasm soon turned to hostility,

as it became clear that the new administrative arrangements did not
go hand in hand with political freedom. Increased taxation,
censorship, forced conscription into the French armies required to
Fig. 5 — The courier of Rhineland loses all that
conquer the rest of Europe, all seemed to outweigh the advantages
he has on his way home from Leipzig.
of the administrative changes. Napoleon here is represented as a postman on
his way back to France after he lost the battle of
Leipzig in 1813. Each letter dropping out of his
bag bears the names of the territories he lost.

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 2 The Making of Nationalism in Europe

If you look at the map of mid-eighteenth-century Europe you will

find that there were no ‘nation-states’ as we know them today.
Some important dates
What we know today as Germany, Italy and Switzerland were 1797
Napoleon invades Italy; Napoleonic wars
divided into kingdoms, duchies and cantons whose rulers had their begin.
autonomous territories. Eastern and Central Europe were under
1814-1815
autocratic monarchies within the territories of which lived diverse Fall of Napoleon; the Vienna Peace
peoples. They did not see themselves as sharing a collective identity Settlement.

or a common culture. Often, they even spoke different languages 1821

and belonged to different ethnic groups. The Habsburg Empire Greek struggle for independence begins.
that ruled over Austria-Hungary, for example, was a patchwork of 1848
many different regions and peoples. It included the Alpine regions Revolutions in Europe; artisans, industrial
workers and peasants revolt against
– the Tyrol, Austria and the Sudetenland – as well as Bohemia, economic hardships; middle classes
where the aristocracy was predominantly German-speaking. It also demand constitutions and representative
governments; Italians, Germans, Magyars,
included the Italian-speaking provinces of Lombardy and Venetia. Poles, Czechs, etc. demand nation-states.
In Hungary, half of the population spoke Magyar while the other
1859-1870
half spoke a variety of dialects. In Galicia, the aristocracy spoke Unification of Italy.
Polish. Besides these three dominant groups, there also lived within
1866-1871
the boundaries of the empire, a mass of subject peasant peoples – Unification of Germany.
Bohemians and Slovaks to the north, Slovenes in Carniola, Croats
1905
to the south, and Roumans to the east in Transylvania. Such
Slav nationalism gathers force in the
differences did not easily promote a sense of political unity. The Habsburg and Ottoman Empires.
only tie binding these diverse groups together was a common
allegiance to the emperor.

How did nationalism and the idea of the nation-state emerge?

2.1 The Aristocracy and the New Middle Class

India and the Contemporary World

Socially and politically, a landed aristocracy was the dominant class

on the continent. The members of this class were united by a
common way of life that cut across regional divisions. They owned
estates in the countryside and also town-houses. They spoke French
for purposes of diplomacy and in high society. Their families were
often connected by ties of marriage. This powerful aristocracy was,
however, numerically a small group. The majority of the population
was made up of the peasantry. To the west, the bulk of the land
was farmed by tenants and small owners, while in Eastern and
Central Europe the pattern of landholding was characterised by
vast estates which were cultivated by serfs.

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In Western and parts of Central Europe the growth of industrial
production and trade meant the growth of towns and the emergence
of commercial classes whose existence was based on production
for the market. Industrialisation began in England in the second
half of the eighteenth century, but in France and parts of the German
states it occurred only during the nineteenth century. In its wake,
new social groups came into being: a working-class population, and
middle classes made up of industrialists, businessmen, professionals.
In Central and Eastern Europe these groups were smaller in number
till late nineteenth century. It was among the educated, liberal middle
classes that ideas of national unity following the abolition of
aristocratic privileges gained popularity.

2.2 What did Liberal Nationalism Stand for?

Ideas of national unity in early-nineteenth-century Europe were closely
allied to the ideology of liberalism. The term ‘liberalism’ derives
from the Latin root liber, meaning free. For the new middle classes
liberalism stood for freedom for the individual and equality of all
before the law. Politically, it emphasised the concept of government
by consent. Since the French Revolution, liberalism had stood for
the end of autocracy and clerical privileges, a constitution and
representative government through parliament. Nineteenth-century
liberals also stressed the inviolability of private property.

Yet, equality before the law did not necessarily stand for universal
New words
suffrage. You will recall that in revolutionary France, which marked
the first political experiment in liberal democracy, the right to vote Suffrage – The right to vote
and to get elected was granted exclusively to property-owning men.
Men without property and all women were excluded from political
rights. Only for a brief period under the Jacobins did all adult males
enjoy suffrage. However, the Napoleonic Code went back to limited Europe
suffrage and reduced women to the status of a minor, subject to
the authority of fathers and husbands. Throughout the nineteenth
N a t i o n a l i s m in

and early twentieth centuries women and non-propertied men

organised opposition movements demanding equal political rights.

In the economic sphere, liberalism stood for the freedom of markets

and the abolition of state-imposed restrictions on the movement
of goods and capital. During the nineteenth century this was a strong
demand of the emerging middle classes. Let us take the example of
the German-speaking regions in the first half of the nineteenth
century. Napoleon’s administrative measures had created out of

9
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 countless small principalities a confederation of 39 states. Each of Source B
these possessed its own currency, and weights and measures. A
Economists began to think in terms of the national
merchant travelling in 1833 from Hamburg to Nuremberg to sell economy. They talked of how the nation could
his goods would have had to pass through 11 customs barriers and develop and what economic measures could help
pay a customs duty of about 5 per cent at each one of them. Duties forge this nation together.

were often levied according to the weight or measurement of the Friedrich List, Professor of Economics at the
University of Tübingen in Germany, wrote in 1834:
goods. As each region had its own system of weights and measures,
‘The aim of the zollverein is to bind the Germans
this involved time-consuming calculation. The measure of cloth, economically into a nation. It will strengthen the
for example, was the elle which in each region stood for a different nation materially as much by protecting its
length. An elle of textile material bought in Frankfurt would get you interests externally as by stimulating its internal
productivity. It ought to awaken and raise
54.7 cm of cloth, in Mainz 55.1 cm, in Nuremberg 65.6 cm, in national sentiment through a fusion of individual
Freiburg 53.5 cm. and provincial interests. The German people have
realised that a free economic system is the only
Such conditions were viewed as obstacles to economic exchange means to engender national feeling.’
and growth by the new commercial classes, who argued for the
creation of a unified economic territory allowing the unhindered
Source
movement of goods, people and capital. In 1834, a customs union
or zollverein was formed at the initiative of Prussia and joined by Discuss
most of the German states. The union abolished tariff barriers and
Describe the political ends that List hopes to
reduced the number of currencies from over thirty to two. The
achieve through economic measures.
creation of a network of railways further stimulated mobility,
harnessing economic interests to national unification. A wave of
economic nationalism strengthened the wider nationalist sentiments
growing at the time.

2.3 A New Conservatism after 1815 New words

Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, European governments Conservatism – A political philosophy that
were driven by a spirit of conservatism. Conservatives believed stressed the importance of tradition, established
that established, traditional institutions of state and society – like the institutions and customs, and preferred gradual
monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family – development to quick change
India and the Contemporary World

should be preserved. Most conservatives, however, did not propose

a return to the society of pre-revolutionary days. Rather, they realised,
from the changes initiated by Napoleon, that modernisation could
in fact strengthen traditional institutions like the monarchy. It could
make state power more effective and strong. A modern army, an
efficient bureaucracy, a dynamic economy, the abolition of feudalism
and serfdom could strengthen the autocratic monarchies of Europe.

In 1815, representatives of the European powers – Britain, Russia,

Prussia and Austria – who had collectively defeated Napoleon, met
at Vienna to draw up a settlement for Europe. The Congress was
hosted by the Austrian Chancellor Duke Metternich. The delegates

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drew up the Treaty of Vienna of 1815 with the object of undoing
most of the changes that had come about in Europe during the
Napoleonic wars. 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. Thus the kingdom of the Netherlands, which included
Belgium, was set up in the north and Genoa was added to Piedmont
in the south. Prussia was given important new territories on its western
frontiers, while Austria was given control of northern Italy. But the Activity
German confederation of 39 states that had been set up by Napoleon
Plot on a map of Europe the changes drawn
was left untouched. In the east, Russia was given part of Poland
up by the Vienna Congress.
while Prussia was given a portion of Saxony. The main intention
was to restore the monarchies that had been overthrown by
Napoleon, and create a new conservative order in Europe.

Conservative regimes set up in 1815 were autocratic. They did not

tolerate criticism and dissent, and sought to curb activities that
questioned the legitimacy of autocratic governments. Most of them Discuss
imposed censorship laws to control what was said in newspapers,
What is the caricaturist trying to depict?
books, plays and songs and reflected the ideas of liberty and freedom

Europe
N a t i o n a l i s m in

Fig. 6 — The Club of Thinkers, anonymous caricature dating to c. 1820.

The plaque on the left bears the inscription: ‘The most important question of today’s meeting: How
long will thinking be allowed to us?’
The board on the right lists the rules of the Club which include the following:
‘1. Silence is the first commandment of this learned society.
2. To avoid the eventuality whereby a member of this club may succumb to the temptation of
speech, muzzles will be distributed to members upon entering.’

11
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 associated with the French Revolution. The memory of the French
Revolution nonetheless continued to inspire liberals. One of the major
issues taken up by the liberal-nationalists, who criticised the new
conservative order, was freedom of the press.

2.4 The Revolutionaries

During the years following 1815, the fear of repression drove
many liberal-nationalists underground. Secret societies sprang
up in many European states to train revolutionaries and spread
their ideas. To be revolutionary at this time meant a commitment
to oppose monarchical forms that had been established after
the Vienna Congress, and to fight for liberty and freedom. Most
of these revolutionaries also saw the creation of nation-states as
a necessary part of this struggle for freedom.

One such individual was the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe

Mazzini. Born in Genoa in 1805, he became a member of the
secret society of the Carbonari. As a young man of 24, he was
sent into exile in 1831 for attempting a revolution in Liguria.
He subsequently founded two more underground societies,
first, Young Italy in Marseilles, and then, Young Europe in
Berne, whose members were like-minded young men from
Poland, France, Italy and the German states. Mazzini believed
that God had intended nations to be the natural units of
mankind. So Italy could not continue to be a patchwork of
small states and kingdoms. It had to be forged into a single
unified republic within a wider alliance of nations. This
unification alone could be the basis of Italian liberty. Following
his model, secret societies were set up in Germany, France,
Fig. 7 — Giuseppe Mazzini and the founding of
Switzerland and Poland. Mazzini’s relentless opposition to
India and the Contemporary World

Young Europe in Berne 1833.

monarchy and his vision of democratic republics frightened the Print by Giacomo Mantegazza.

conservatives. Metternich described him as ‘the most dangerous

enemy of our social order’.

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 3 The Age of Revolutions: 1830-1848

As conservative regimes tried to consolidate their power, liberalism

and nationalism came to be increasingly associated with revolution
in many regions of Europe such as the Italian and German states,
the provinces of the Ottoman Empire, Ireland and Poland. These
revolutions were led by the liberal-nationalists belonging to the
educated middle-class elite, among whom were professors, school-
teachers, clerks and members of the commercial middle classes.

The first upheaval 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.

An event that mobilised nationalist feelings among the educated elite

across Europe was the Greek war of independence. Greece had
been part of the Ottoman Empire since the fifteenth century. The
growth of revolutionary nationalism in Europe sparked off a struggle
for independence amongst the Greeks which began in 1821.
Nationalists in Greece got support from other Greeks living in exile
and also 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. The English poet Lord Byron
organised funds and later went to fight in the war, where he died of
fever in 1824. Finally, the Treaty of Constantinople of 1832
recognised Greece as an independent nation. Europe

3.1 The Romantic Imagination and National Feeling

N a t i o n a l i s m in

The development of nationalism did not come about only through

wars and territorial expansion. Culture played an important role in
creating the idea of the nation: art and poetry, stories and music
helped express and shape nationalist feelings.

Let us look at Romanticism, 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

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 Fig. 8 — The Massacre at Chios, Eugene Delacroix, 1824.
The French painter Delacroix was one of the most important French Romantic
painters. This huge painting (4.19m x 3.54m) depicts an incident in which
20,000 Greeks were said to have been killed by Turks on the island of Chios. By
dramatising the incident, focusing on the suffering of women and children, and
India and the Contemporary World

using vivid colours, Delacroix sought to appeal to the emotions of the spectators,
and create sympathy for the Greeks.

and focused instead on emotions, intuition and mystical feelings.

Their effort was to create a sense of a shared collective heritage, a
common cultural past, as the basis of a nation.

Other Romantics such as the German philosopher Johann Gottfried

Herder (1744-1803) claimed that true German culture was to be
discovered among the common people – das volk. It was through
folk songs, folk poetry and folk dances that the true spirit of the
nation (volksgeist) was popularised. So collecting and recording these
forms of folk culture was essential to the project of nation-building.

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The emphasis on vernacular language and the collection of local Box 1
folklore was not just to recover an ancient national spirit, but also to
carry the modern nationalist message to large audiences who were The Grimm Brothers: Folktales and
Nation-building
mostly illiterate. This was especially so in the case of Poland, which
Grimms’ Fairy Tales is a familiar name. The brothers
had been partitioned at the end of the eighteenth century by the Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were born in the
Great Powers – Russia, Prussia and Austria. Even though Poland no German city of Hanau in 1785 and 1786
longer existed as an independent territory, national feelings were kept respectively. While both of them studied law,
they soon developed an interest in collecting old
alive through music and language. Karol Kurpinski, for example, folktales. They spent six years travelling from
celebrated the national struggle through his operas and music, turning village to village, talking to people and writing
folk dances like the polonaise and mazurka into nationalist symbols. down fairy tales, which were handed down
through the generations. These were popular
Language too played an important role in developing nationalist both among children and adults. In 1812, they
published their first collection of tales.
sentiments. After Russian occupation, the Polish language was forced Subsequently, both the brothers became active
out of schools and the Russian language was imposed everywhere. in liberal politics, especially the movement
In 1831, an armed rebellion against Russian rule took place which for freedom of the press. In the meantime they
also published a 33-volume dictionary of the
was ultimately crushed. Following this, many members of the clergy German language.
in Poland began to use language as a weapon of national resistance. The Grimm brothers also saw French domination
Polish was used for Church gatherings and all religious instruction. as a threat to German culture, and believed that
As a result, a large number of priests and bishops were put in jail or the folktales they had collected were expressions
of a pure and authentic German spirit. They
sent to Siberia by the Russian authorities as punishment for their considered their projects of collecting folktales
refusal to preach in Russian. The use of Polish came to be seen as a and developing the German language as part of
symbol of the struggle against Russian dominance. the wider effort to oppose French domination
and create a German national identity.

3.2 Hunger, Hardship and Popular Revolt

The 1830s were years of great economic hardship in Europe. The
first half of the nineteenth century saw an enormous increase in Discuss
population all over Europe. In most countries there were more Discuss the importance of language and
seekers of jobs than employment. Population from rural areas popular traditions in the creation of national
migrated to the cities to live in overcrowded slums. Small producers identity.
in towns were often faced with stiff competition from imports of
cheap machine-made goods from England, where industrialisation Europe
was more advanced than on the continent. This was especially so in
textile production, which was carried out mainly in homes or small
N a t i o n a l i s m in

workshops and was only partly mechanised. In those regions of

Europe where the aristocracy still enjoyed power, peasants struggled
under the burden of feudal dues and obligations. The rise of food
prices or a year of bad harvest led to widespread pauperism in
town and country.

The year 1848 was one such year. Food shortages and widespread
unemployment brought the population of Paris out on the roads.
Barricades were erected and Louis Philippe was forced to flee. A

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 Fig. 9 — Peasants’ uprising, 1848.

National Assembly proclaimed a Republic, granted suffrage to all

adult males above 21, and guaranteed the right to work. National
workshops to provide employment were set up.

Earlier, in 1845, weavers in Silesia had led a revolt against contractors

who supplied them raw material and gave them orders for finished
textiles but drastically reduced their payments. The journalist Wilhelm
Wolff described the events in a Silesian village as follows:

In these villages (with 18,000 inhabitants) cotton weaving is the

most widespread occupation … The misery of the workers is
extreme. The desperate need for jobs has been taken advantage
of by the contractors to reduce the prices of the goods they
order …
India and the Contemporary World

On 4 June at 2 p.m. a large crowd of weavers emerged from

their homes and marched in pairs up to the mansion of their
contractor demanding higher wages. They were treated with
Discuss
scorn and threats alternately. Following this, a group of them Describe the cause of the Silesian weavers’
forced their way into the house, smashed its elegant window- uprising. Comment on the viewpoint of the

panes, furniture, porcelain … another group broke into the journalist.

storehouse and plundered it of supplies of cloth which they

tore to shreds … The contractor fled with his family to a Activity
neighbouring village which, however, refused to shelter such a
Imagine you are a weaver who saw the events
person. He returned 24 hours later having requisitioned the army.
as they unfolded. Write a report on what you saw.
In the exchange that followed, eleven weavers were shot.

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3.3 1848: The Revolution of the Liberals
Parallel to the revolts of the poor, unemployed and starving peasants Source C
and workers in many European countries in the year 1848, a revolution
How were liberty and equality for women
led by the educated middle classes was under way. Events of February
to be defined?
1848 in France had brought about the abdication of the monarch
The liberal politician Carl Welcker, an elected
and a republic based on universal male suffrage had been proclaimed. member of the Frankfurt Parliament, expressed
In other parts of Europe where independent nation-states did not the following views:
yet exist – such as Germany, Italy, Poland, the Austro-Hungarian ‘Nature has created men and women to carry
out different functions … Man, the stronger, the
Empire – men and women of the liberal middle classes combined
bolder and freer of the two, has been designated
their demands for constitutionalism with national unification. They as protector of the family, its provider, meant for
took advantage of the growing popular unrest to push their public tasks in the domain of law, production,
defence. Woman, the weaker, dependent and
demands for the creation of a nation-state on parliamentary
timid, requires the protection of man. Her sphere
principles – a constitution, freedom of the press and freedom is the home, the care of the children, the
of association. nurturing of the family … Do we require any
further proof that given such differences, equality
In the German regions a large number of political associations whose between the sexes would only endanger
harmony and destroy the dignity of the family?’
members were middle-class professionals, businessmen and
Louise Otto-Peters (1819-95) was a political
prosperous artisans came together in the city of Frankfurt and decided
activist who founded a women’s journal and
to vote for an all-German National Assembly. On 18 May 1848, subsequently a feminist political association. The
831 elected representatives marched in a festive procession to take first issue of her newspaper (21 April 1849) carried
the following editorial:
their places in the Frankfurt parliament convened in the Church of
‘Let us ask how many men, possessed by
St Paul. They drafted a constitution for a German nation to be
thoughts of living and dying for the sake of Liberty,
headed by a monarchy subject to a parliament. When the deputies would be prepared to fight for the freedom of
offered the crown on these terms to Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of the entire people, of all human beings? When
asked this question, they would all too easily
Prussia, he rejected it and joined other monarchs to oppose the
respond with a “Yes!”, though their untiring
elected assembly. While the opposition of the aristocracy and military efforts are intended for the benefit of only one
became stronger, the social basis of parliament eroded. The half of humanity – men. But Liberty is indivisible!
Free men therefore must not tolerate to be
parliament was dominated by the middle classes who resisted the
surrounded by the unfree …’
demands of workers and artisans and consequently lost their support.
An anonymous reader of the same newspaper
In the end troops were called in and the assembly was forced sent the following letter to the editor on 25 June
1850:
to disband. Europe
‘It is indeed ridiculous and unreasonable to deny
The issue of extending political rights to women was a controversial women political rights even though they enjoy
one within the liberal movement, in which large numbers of women the right to property which they make use
N a t i o n a l i s m in

of. They perform functions and assume

had participated actively over the years. Women had formed their
responsibilities without however getting the
own political associations, founded newspapers and taken part in benefits that accrue to men for the same … Why
political meetings and demonstrations. Despite this they were denied this injustice? Is it not a disgrace that even the
stupidest cattle-herder possesses the right
to vote, simply because he is a man, whereas
New words highly talented women owning considerable
property are excluded from this right, even
Feminist – Awareness of women’s rights and interests based on though they contribute so much to the
the belief of the social, economic and political equality of the genders maintenance of the state?’
Source
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 Fig. 10 — The Frankfurt parliament in the Church of St Paul.
Contemporary colour print. Notice the women in the upper left gallery.

suffrage rights during the election of the Assembly. When the

Frankfurt parliament convened in the Church of St Paul, women
Discuss
were admitted only as observers to stand in the visitors’ gallery. Compare the positions on the question of
India and the Contemporary World

women’s rights voiced by the three writers cited

Though conservative forces were able to suppress liberal movements
above. What do they reveal about liberal
in 1848, they could not restore the old order. Monarchs were ideology?
beginning to realise that the cycles of revolution and repression could
only be ended by granting concessions to the liberal-nationalist
revolutionaries. Hence, in the years after 1848, the autocratic New words
monarchies of Central and Eastern Europe began to introduce the Ideology – System of ideas reflecting a
changes that had already taken place in Western Europe before 1815. particular social and political vision
Thus serfdom and bonded labour were abolished both in the
Habsburg dominions and in Russia. The Habsburg rulers granted
more autonomy to the Hungarians in 1867.

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