Rise of nationalism in Europe

Question 1

Write a Note on: Count Camilo de Cavour (3 points)

Answer 1

1. Cavour was chief minister of Sardinia-Piedmont state who led the movement to unify the regions of Italy. He was neither a revolutionary nor a democrat.
2. Like many other wealthy and educated members of the Italian elite, he spoke French much better
   than he did Italian.
3. He engineered a careful diplomatic alliance with France, which helped Sardinia-Piedmont defeat the
   Austrian forces in 1859, and thereby free the northern part of Italy from the Austrian Habsburgs.

Question 2

Write a Note on: The Greek War of Independence

Answer 2

1. Greece was a part of the Ottoman Empire since the 15th century. The struggle for independence
   amongst the Greeks began in 1821.
2. Nationalists in Greece got support from other Greeks living in exile and also from many Western
   Europeans sharing sympathies for ancient Greek culture.
3. Poets and artists lauded Greece as the cradle of European civilization and mobilized public opinion to
   support its struggle against a Muslim empire. Finally, the Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognized
   Greece as an independent nation.

Question 3

Write a Note on: The Frankfurt Parliament

Answer 3

1. It was an all-German National Assembly formed by a large number of political associations whose
   members were middle-class professionals, businessmen and prosperous artisans. Its first meeting was
   convened on 18 May 1848 in the Church of St. Paul at Frankfurt.
2. They drafted a constitution for the German nation to be headed by a monarchy subject to a
   parliament. The king of Prussia rejected the crown offered by the deputies of parliament and joined
   other monarchs to oppose the elected assembly.
3. As it 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.

Question 4

Write a Note on: The role of women in nationalist struggles

Answer 4

1. 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.
2. Women had formed their own political associations, founded newspapers and taken part in political
   meetings and demonstrations. Despite this, they were denied suffrage during the election of the
   Assembly.
3. When the Frankfurt Parliament convened in the Church of St. Paul, women were admitted only as
   observers to stand in the visitors’ gallery.

Question 5

What steps did the French revolutionaries take to create a sense of collective identity among the
French people?

Answer 5

The French revolutionaries took many important steps to create a sense of collective identity among
the French people which were:
• The idea of la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen) emphasised the idea of united
people enjoying equal rights under a constitution.
• A new French flag, the tricolour, was chosen to replace the former royal standard.
• The Estates General was elected by the active citizens and renamed the National Assembly.
• New hymns were composed, oaths taken and martyrs commemorated in the name of nation.
• Regional dialects were discouraged and French, as it was spoken and written in Paris, became
the common language of the nation.
• A centralised administrative system was put in practice and it formulated uniform laws for all
citizens within its territory.
• Internal customs duties and dues were abolished and a uniform system of weights and
measures was adopted.

Question 6

Who were Marianne and Germania? What was the importance of the way in which they were
portrayed?

Answer 6

i. 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
tricolor, the cockade.
ii. Statues of Marianne were erected in public squares to remind the public of the national symbol of
unity and to persuade them to identify with it. Marianne images were marked on coins and stamps.
iii. 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.

Question 7

Briefly trace the process of German unification

Answer 7

1. Nationalist feelings were widespread among middle-class Germans, who in 1848 tried to unite the
   different regions of the German confederation into a nation-state governed by an elected parliament.
2. This liberal initiative to nation-building was, however, repressed by the combined forces of the
   monarchy and the military, supported by the large landowners (called Junkers) of Prussia.
3. 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.
4. Three wars over seven years – with Austria, Denmark and France – ended in Prussian victory and
   completed the process of unification.
5. In January 1871, the Prussian king, William I, was proclaimed German Emperor in a ceremony held
   at Versailles.

Question 8

What changes did Napoleon introduce to make the administrative system more efficient in the
territories ruled by him?

Answer 8

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 Napoleon had,
no doubt, destroyed democracy in France,
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. In the towns too, guild restrictions were removed.
4.Transport and communication systems were improved.
5. Peasants, artisans, workers and new businessmen 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.

Question 9

Explain what is meant by the 1848 revolution of the liberals. What were the political, social and
economic ideas supported by the liberals?

Answer 9

The 1848 revolution was led by the educated middle class along with the poor, unemployed starving
peasants and workers in Europe. In certain parts of Europe such as Germany, Italy, Poland and the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, men and women of the liberal middle classes took advantage of the growing
popular unrest to push their demands for the creation of nation-states based on parliamentary
principles. The political, social and economic ideas supported by the liberals were:
→ Politically, they demanded constitutionalism with national unification. They wanted the creation of a
nation-state on parliamentary principles – a constitution, freedom of the press and freedom of
association.
→ Socially, they wanted to rid society of its class-based partialities and birth rights. Serfdom and
bonded labour had to be abolished.
→ Economically, they wanted freedom of markets and right to property. Abolition of state imposed
restrictions on the movements of goods and capital.

Question 10

Name the French artist who painted the series of four prints visualizing his dream of a world made up of ‘democratice and social republics’ and the date.

Answer 10

Frederic Sorrieu, 1848

Question 11

“A nation is the culmination of a long past of
endeavours, sacrifice and devotion. A heroic past,
great men, glory, that is the social capital upon
which one bases a national idea.”
Who said these words and what was the name of the essay it was published in?

Answer 11

Ernst Renan, ‘What is a Nation?’

Question 12

Define Plebiscite

Answer 12

A direct vote by which all the people of a region are asked to accept or reject
a proposal

Question 13

Why did people start going against Napolean and French rule?

Answer 13

• In many places such as Holland and Switzerland, as well as in certain cities like Brussels, Mainz, Milan and Warsaw, the French armies were welcomed as 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 conquer the rest of Europe, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of the administrative changes.

Question 14

Write a note on Frédéric Sorrieu and his

vision of World

Answer 14

Frédéric Sorrieu, a French artist, in 1848 prepared a series of four prints visualising his dream of a world made up of democratic and Social Republics.

• The first print shows the people of Europe and America marching in a long train and offering homage to the Statue of Liberty as they pass it. The torch of Enlightenment was carried by a female figure in one hand and the Charter of the Rights of Man in the other.
• On the earth in the foreground lie the shattered remains of the symbols of absolutist institutions.
• In Sorrieu’s utopian vision, the people of the world are grouped as distinct nations, identified through their flags and national costume.
• The procession was led by the United States and Switzerland, followed by France and Germany. Following the German people are the people of Austria, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Lombardy, Poland, England, Ireland, Hungary and Russia.
• From the heavens above, Christ, saints and angels gaze upon the scene. They have been used by the artist to symbolise fraternity among the nations of the world.

Question 15

What was the major change that occurred in the political and constitutional scenario due to the French Revolution in Europe?

Answer 15

The constitutional and political changes 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.

Question 16

What was the main aim of the French revolutionaries?

Answer 16

The main aim of the French revolutionaries was to create a sense of collective identity amongst the French people. They proclaimed that it was the people who would constitute the nation and shape its decisions

Question 17

Write a short note on Aristocracy (5-points)

Answer 17

• 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

Question 18

What did liberalism stand for?

Answer 18

• 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 emphasized 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

Question 19

“Equality before the law did not necessarily stand for universal suffrage”. Justify.

Answer 19

• In revolutionary France, which marked the first political experiment in liberal democracy, 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.
• The Napoleonic Code went back to limited
  suffrage and reduced women to the status of a minor, subject to the authority of fathers and husbands

Question 20

What did liberalism stand for in the economic sphere?

Answer 20

• 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.
• Napoleon’s administrative measures had created out of countless small principalities a confederation of 39 states. Each of these possessed its own currency, and weights and measures.
• A merchant travelling in 1833 from Hamburg to Nuremberg to sell his goods would have had to pass through 11 customs barriers and pay a customs duty of about 5 per cent at each one of them.
• Duties were often levied according to the weight or measurement of the goods. As each region had its own system of weights and measures, this involved time-consuming calculation

Question 21

What was the zollverein? What was it’s function?

Answer 21

• 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.

Question 22

Explain any three beliefs of the conservatism that emerged after 1815. or
Eur0poean governments were driven by a spirit of conservatism. Explain (3 points)

Answer 22

a) Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, European governments were driven by a spirit of conservatism. Conservatives believed that established, traditional institutions of state and society – like the monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family – should be preserved.
b) 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.
c) A modern army, an efficient bureaucracy, a dynamic economy, the abolition of feudalism and serfdom could strengthen the autocratic monarchies of Europe

Question 23

Write a note on the treaty of Vienna.

Answer 23

a) 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.
b) The Congress was hosted by the Austrian Chancellor Duke Metternich.
c) The delegates 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.

Changes that were made (I prefer learning minimum 3 points of this):
- 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.
- 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 German confederation of 39 states that had been set up by Napoleon was left untouched.
- In the east, Russia was given part of Poland
while Prussia was given a portion of Saxony.

Question 24

What was the main intention behind the treaty of Vienna?

Answer 24

The main intention was to restore the monarchies that had been overthrown by Napoleon, and create a new conservative order in Europe.

Question 25

The conservative regime was autocratic. Justify.

Answer 25

• Conservative regimes set up in 1815 were autocratic. (If question is 2 markers, I would prefer not writing this point)
• They did not tolerate criticism and dissent, and sought to curb activities that questioned the legitimacy of autocratic governments.
• Most of them imposed censorship laws to control what was said in newspapers, books, plays and songs and reflected the ideas of liberty and freedom

Question 26

The major issues taken up by the liberal-nationalists, who criticized the new conservative order, was __________________.

Answer 26

freedom of the press

Question 27

Write a short note on Giuseppe Mazzini

Answer 27

1. Giuseppe Mazzini was an Italian revolutionary, born in Genoa in 1807. He was a member of the secret society of the Carbonari. At the age of 24, he was sent into exile in 1831 for attempting a revolution in Liguria.
2. He founded underground societies named ‘Young Italy’ in Marseilles and ‘Young Europe’ in Berne,
   whose members were like-minded young men from Poland, France, Italy and the German States.
3. He believed that God had intended nations to be the natural units of mankind. So, Italy had to be forged into a single unified republic within a wider alliance of nations.

Question 28

Write a short note on the secret societies that had been formed.

Answer 28

• In 1815, secret societies were formed in many European states to train revolutionaries and spread their ideas. Revolutionary opposed monarchical forms, fight for liberty and freedom.
• The Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini, born in Genoa in 1807, founded two more underground societies, first, Young Italy in Marseilles.
• Secondly, he founded Young Europe in Berne, whose members were like-minded young men from Poland, France, Italy and the German states.

Question 29

“When France sneezes, the rest of Europe catches a cold”. Justify

Answer 29

• 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.

Question 30

Describe the role of culture in shaping the feelings of nationalism in Europe

Answer 30

1. 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, a cultural movement which sought to develop a particular form of nationalist sentiment. Romantic artists and poets generally criticized 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.
2. 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 popularized.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

Question 31

Language played an important role in Poland after Russian occupation. Justify

Answer 31

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

Question 32

The 1830s were years of great economic hardship in Europe. Justify

Answer 32

• 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 industrialization was more advanced than on the continent.
• 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

Question 33

What happened in 1848, that Louis Philippe had to flee?

Answer 33

• 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.

Question 34

Name the journalist who described the events in Silesian village

Answer 34

Journalist Wilhelm Wolff

Question 35

What did Carl Welcker think about feminism? (pg 17)

Answer 35

Nature has made men and women to carry out different functions
Man is stronger and freer and therefore is the protector of the family
Woman is weaker, dependent and timid and needs the protection of man, her job is to take care of the house and the children

He believed that equality would endanger harmony destroy the dignity of families

Question 36

“Conservative forces in 1848 could not restore the old order” Explain

Answer 36

(i) Monarchs now began to realise that the cycles of revolution and repression would only be ended by granting concessions to the liberal-nationalist revolutionaries.
(ii) Therefore, in the years after 1848, the autocratic monarchies of Central and Eastern Europe began to introduce the changes that had already taken place in Western Europe before 1815.
(iii) Thus, serfdom and bonded labour were abolished both in the Habsburg dominions and in Russia.
(iv) The Habsburg rulers granted more autonomy to the Hungarians in 1867.

Question 37

Describe any three consequences of the liberal revolution in 1848. (I couldn’t find 5 point)

Answer 37

• In February 1848, Republic was formed which provided suffrage, i.e., the right to vote in political elections to all the male adults above 21 and promised right to work. Accordingly, national workshops were set up to provide employment opportunities. It also brought the refusal or rejection of the monarchical power in France in 1848.
• Liberal middle-class population including men and women demanded Constitutionalism with the goal of national unification.
• Overall, the idea to create a nation states based on 3 principles were –a Constitution, Freedom of the press and Freedom of association.

Question 38

Who was proclaimed German Emperor in a ceremony held at Versailles in January 1871?

Answer 38

Kaiser William I of Prussia was proclaimed German Emperor in a ceremony held at Hall of mirrors in the Palace of Versailles in 18th January, 1871.

Question 39

Italy had a long history of political fragmentation. Explain

Answer 39

• Italians were scattered over several dynastic states as well as the multi-national Habsburg Empire.
• During the middle of the nineteenth century, Italy was divided into seven states, (Divide here for 5 points) of which only one, Sardinia-Piedmont, was ruled by an Italian princely house.
• The north was under Austrian Habsburgs, the center was ruled by the Pope and the southern regions were under the domination of the Bourbon kings of Spain.
• Even the Italian language had not acquired one common form and still had many regional and
  local variations.

Question 40

Write a short note on Mazzini’s attempt to unite Italy.

Answer 40

• Giuseppe Mazzini had sought to put together a
  coherent programme for a unitary Italian Republic.
• He had also formed a secret society called Young Italy for the dissemination of his goals.
• The failure of revolutionary uprisings both in 1831 and
  1848 meant that the mantle now fell on Sardinia-Piedmont under its ruler King Victor Emmanuel II to unify the Italian states through war

Question 41

What possibilities could united Italy provide to ruling elites?

Answer 41

A unified Italy offered them the possibility of economic development and political dominance

Question 42

Trace the history of Italian unification

Answer 42

• Chief Minister Cavour who led the movement to unify the regions of Italy was neither a revolutionary nor a democrat. Like many other wealthy and educated members of the Italian elite, he spoke French much better than he did Italian.
• Through a tactful diplomatic alliance with France engineered by Cavour, Sardinia-Piedmont succeeded in defeating the Austrian forces in 1859. Apart from regular troops, a large number of armed volunteers under the leadership of Giuseppe Garibaldi joined the fray.
• In 1860, they 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.
• Much of the Italian population, among whom rates
  of illiteracy were very high, remained blissfully unaware of liberal-nationalist ideology. The peasant masses who had supported Garibaldi in southern Italy had never heard of Italia, and believed that ‘La Talia’ was Victor Emmanuel’s wife!

Question 43

Strange case of Britain. Explain

Answer 43

• There was no British nation prior to the eighteenth century. The primary identities of the people who inhabited the British Isles were ethnic ones – such as English, Welsh, Scot or Irish. All of these ethnic groups had their own cultural and political traditions. But as the English nation steadily grew in wealth, importance and power, it was able to extend its influence over the other nations of the islands.
• The English parliament, which had seized power from the monarchy in 1688 at the end of a protracted conflict, was the instrument through which a nation-state, with England at its centre, came to be forged.
• The Act of Union (1707) between England and Scotland that resulted in the formation of the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain’ meant, in effect, that England was able to impose its influence on Scotland. The British parliament was henceforth dominated by its English members. The growth of a British identity meant that Scotland’s distinctive culture and political institutions were systematically suppressed.
• The Catholic clans that inhabited the Scottish Highlands suffered terrible repression whenever they attempted to assert their independence. The Scottish
  Highlanders were forbidden to speak their Gaelic language or wear their national dress, and large numbers were forcibly driven out of their homeland.
• Ireland suffered a similar fate. It was a country deeply divided between Catholics and Protestants. The English helped the Protestants of Ireland to establish their dominance over a largely Catholic country. Catholic revolts against British dominance were suppressed. After a failed revolt led by Wolfe Tone and his United Irishmen (1798), Ireland was forcibly incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801. A new ‘British nation’ was forged through the propagation of a dominant English culture.

Question 44

What were the symbols of New Britain?

Answer 44

The British flag (Union Jack), the national anthem (God Save Our Noble King), the English language were actively promoted and the older nations survived only as subordinate partners in this union.

Question 45

Write a note on visualizing the nation. (5)

Answer 45

1. Artists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries found a way out by personifying a nation. In other words they represented a country as if it were a person. Nations were then portrayed as female figures.
2. The female form that was chosen to personify the nation did not stand for any particular woman in real life; rather it sought to give the abstract idea of the nation a concrete form. That is, the female figure became an allegory of the nation.
3. 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.
4. Statues of Marianne were erected in public squares to remind the public of the national symbol of unity and to persuade them to identify with it. Marianne images were marked on coins and stamps.
5. 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.

Question 46

Give the meaning of the Symbol: Broken chains

Answer 46

Being freed

Question 47

Give the meaning of the Symbol: Breastplate with eagle

Answer 47

Symbol of the German empire - strength

Question 48

Give the meaning of the Symbol: Crown of oak leaves

Answer 48

Heroism

Question 49

Give the meaning of the Symbol: Sword

Answer 49

Readiness to fight

Question 50

Give the meaning of the Symbol: Olive branch around the sword

Answer 50

Willingness to make peace

Question 51

Give the meaning of the Symbol: Black, red and gold tricolour

Answer 51

Flag of the liberal nationalists in 1848, banned by the Dukes of the German states

Question 52

Give the meaning of the Symbol: Rays of rising sun

Answer 52

Beginning of a new era

Question 53

How did the Balkan issue become one of the major factors responsible for the first World War?

Answer 53

1. 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
2. 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.
3. 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. Hence the rebellious nationalities in the Balkans thought of their struggles as attempts to win back their long-lost independence.
4. The Balkan states were fiercely jealous of each other and each hoped to gain more territory at the expense of the others.
5. The Balkans also became the scene of
   big power rivalry. During this period, there was intense rivalry among the European powers over trade and colonies as well as naval and military might. These rivalries were very evident in the way the Balkan
   problem unfolded. 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.