Nationalism in Europe 3 Flashcards
what happened as conservative tries to consolidate their power
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, schoolteachers, clerks and members of the commercial middle classes.
what upheaval took place in france? how did it spreaD?
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.
explain about the greek war of independence
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.
how nationalism developed
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
what is romanticism? what did romantic artists do
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 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.
explain abt german philosopher johann gottfreid
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.
talk about ephasis on vernacular language and folk culture
The emphasis on vernacular language and the collection of local
folklore was not just to recover an ancient national spirit, but also to
carry the modern nationalist message to large audiences who were
mostly illiterate. This was especially so in the case of Poland, which
had been partitioned at the end of the eighteenth century by the
Great Powers – Russia, Prussia and Austria. Even though Poland no
longer existed as an independent territory, national feelings were kept
alive through music and language. Karol Kurpinski, for example,
celebrated the national struggle through his operas and music, turning
folk dances like the polonaise and mazurka into nationalist symbols.
how is language important
Language too played an important role in developing nationalist
sentiments. After Russian occupation, the Polish language was forced
out of schools and the Russian language was imposed everywhere.
In 1831, an armed rebellion against Russian rule took place which
was ultimately crushed. Following this, many members of the clergy
in Poland began to use language as a weapon of national resistance.
Polish was used for Church gatherings and all religious instruction.
As a result, a large number of priests and bishops were put in jail or
sent to Siberia by the Russian authorities as punishment for their
refusal to preach in Russian. The use of Polish came to be seen as a
symbol of the struggle against Russian dominance.
what were the causes of the 1830 economic hardship?
The 1830s were years of great economic hardship in Europe. 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, where industrialisation
was more advanced than on the continent. This was especially so in
textile production, which was carried out mainly in homes or small
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.
what happened in 1848
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 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.
what happened in 1845
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:
explain revlns in 1848
Parallel to the revolts of the poor, unemployed and starving peasants
and workers in many European countries in the year 1848, a revolution
led by the educated middle classes was under way. Events of February
1848 in France had brought about the abdication of the monarch
and a republic based on universal male suffrage had been proclaimed.
In other parts of Europe where independent nation-states did not
yet exist – such as Germany, Italy, Poland, the Austro-Hungarian
Empire – men and women of the liberal middle classes combined
their demands for constitutionalism with national unification. They
took advantage of the growing popular unrest to push their
demands for the creation of a nation-state on parliamentary
principles – a constitution, freedom of the press and freedom
of association.
explain the german assembly
In the German regions a large number of political associations whose
members were middle-class professionals, businessmen and
prosperous artisans came together in the city of Frankfurt and decided
to vote for an all-German National Assembly. On 18 May 1848,
831 elected representatives marched in a festive procession to take
their places in the Frankfurt parliament convened in the Church of
St Paul. They drafted a constitution for a German nation to be
headed by a monarchy subject to a parliament.
what happened when it was offered to king of prussia
When the deputies
offered the crown on these terms to Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of
Prussia, he rejected it and joined other monarchs to oppose the
elected assembly. While the opposition of the aristocracy and military
became stronger, the social basis of parliament eroded. The
parliament was dominated by the middle classes who resisted the
demands of workers and artisans and consequently lost their support.
In the end troops were called in and the assembly was forced
to disband
why was extending political rights to women was a controversial topic
The issue of extending political rights to women was a controversial
one within the liberal movement, in which large numbers of women
had participated actively over the years. Women had formed their
own political associations, founded newspapers and taken part in
political meetings and demonstrations. Despite this they were deniedsuffrage rights during the election of the Assembly. When the
Frankfurt parliament convened in the Church of St Paul, women
were admitted only as observers to stand in the visitors’ gallery.
