Chapter 1 The Rise Of Nationalism In Europe

The French Revolution And The Idea Of The Nation

In 1848, the French artist Frédéric Sorrieu created a series of prints depicting his ideal vision of a world comprising democratic and social republics. His first print showed people from Europe and America marching towards the Statue of Liberty, symbolizing freedom. This statue held the torch of Enlightenment and the Charter of the Rights of Man. In the foreground, symbols of oppressive, absolute monarchies were shown as destroyed remains.

Sorrieu's vision depicted people from different nations, recognizable by their flags and traditional clothing, marching together. Nations like the United States and Switzerland were already nation-states at this time. France, with its revolutionary tricolour flag, was just reaching the statue, followed by the peoples of Germany (carrying a flag representing liberal hopes for unification), Austria, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Lombardy, Poland, England, Ireland, Hungary, and Russia. Heavenly figures like Christ, saints, and angels watched from above, signifying the concept of brotherhood among these nations.

The nineteenth century was marked by the emergence of nationalism, a powerful force that drastically altered the political and psychological landscape of Europe. This transformation led to the rise of nation-states, replacing the older multi-national dynastic empires.

While the idea of a modern state with a centralized authority controlling a specific territory had been developing in Europe, a nation-state differed significantly. In a nation-state, the majority of the population, not just the rulers, shared a common identity, history, and sense of belonging. This collective identity wasn't inherent from ancient times; it was actively built through collective efforts, struggles, and the actions of both leaders and ordinary citizens.

The French Revolution in 1789 was the first major expression of nationalism. France, under an absolute monarch, became a territorial state. The revolution resulted in political and constitutional changes, transferring power from the monarch to the French people. The idea was that the people themselves would form the nation and determine its future.

French revolutionaries introduced various measures to foster a shared identity:

• Concepts like la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen) promoted the idea of a united community with equal rights under a constitution.
• A new tricolour flag was adopted, replacing the royal standard.
• The Estates General was elected by citizens and renamed the National Assembly.
• New national hymns were composed, oaths were taken, and martyrs were honored in the name of the nation.
• A centralized administrative system was established with uniform laws for all citizens.
• Internal customs duties and taxes were abolished, and a standardized system of weights and measures was implemented.
• Regional languages were discouraged, and French, specifically the dialect spoken in Paris, became the common language.

The revolutionaries believed it was France's mission to help other European peoples achieve nationhood by liberating them from autocratic rule. As news of the French Revolution spread across Europe, educated middle-class individuals and students formed Jacobin clubs. These clubs paved the way for French armies entering areas like Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and parts of Italy in the 1790s. The French armies, during the revolutionary wars, effectively spread the concept of nationalism to other territories.

Within the territories he controlled, Napoleon Bonaparte introduced reforms similar to those in France. Although he ended democracy by restoring monarchy, he incorporated revolutionary ideas into administration to enhance efficiency. The Civil Code of 1804, also known as the Napoleonic Code, was particularly significant:

• It eliminated privileges based on birth.
• It established equality before the law.
• It secured the right to private property.

This code was applied in French-controlled regions. In places like the Dutch Republic, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany, Napoleon simplified administrative divisions, abolished the feudal system, and freed peasants from serfdom and manorial dues. Guild restrictions in towns were also removed, and infrastructure like transport and communication were improved.

Businessmen, artisans, workers, and new commercial classes benefited from these changes, experiencing increased freedom. They recognized that uniform laws, standard weights and measures, and a single national currency would significantly ease the movement and exchange of goods and capital across regions.

However, local populations' reactions to French rule were mixed. Initially, some welcomed the French armies as liberators. But this changed as the lack of political freedom became evident. Increased taxes, censorship, and forced conscription into the French army for Napoleon's conquests soon outweighed the benefits of administrative reforms, leading to hostility.

Ernst Renan's View on a Nation: The French philosopher Ernst Renan, in his 1882 lecture 'What is a Nation?', criticized definitions based on common language, race, religion, or territory. He defined a nation as the culmination of a rich shared past of effort, sacrifice, and dedication. It is based on common glories, a shared present will, and a desire to achieve more together. He saw a nation as a large-scale solidarity, whose existence is like a daily plebiscite (a direct vote of the people). For Renan, the existence of nations was essential for guaranteeing liberty, which would be lost if the world were under a single law and master.

The Making Of Nationalism In Europe

In the mid-eighteenth century, Europe was very different from today. There were no 'nation-states' as we understand them. Regions like Germany, Italy, and Switzerland were fragmented into various kingdoms, duchies, and cantons, each with its own autonomous ruler.

Eastern and Central Europe were dominated by autocratic empires like the Habsburg Empire, which ruled over Austria-Hungary. These empires were vast territories comprising diverse peoples who did not share a common identity or culture. They often spoke different languages and belonged to different ethnic groups. For example, the Habsburg Empire included German-speaking aristocrats in regions like Tyrol, Austria, and Sudetenland, Italian-speaking provinces like Lombardy and Venetia, Hungarian speakers (Magyars), various Slavic groups (Bohemians, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats), and Romanians. The only factor uniting these disparate groups was their loyalty to the emperor. The concept of a shared national identity was challenging to foster in such multi-ethnic empires.

The Aristocracy And The New Middle Class

Europe's society and politics were dominated by a land-owning aristocracy. This class was unified by a similar lifestyle that transcended regional differences. They owned large estates in the countryside and houses in cities, spoke French for diplomatic and social purposes, and were connected through marriages. However, this powerful group was small in number.

The majority of the population were peasants. In Western and parts of Central Europe, land was primarily farmed by tenants and small landowners. In contrast, Eastern and Central Europe featured vast estates worked by serfs.

The emergence of industrial production and trade in Western and Central Europe led to the growth of towns and the rise of commercial classes. These groups earned their living through market-based production. Industrialization began in England in the late eighteenth century and spread to France and German states in the nineteenth century.

This brought about new social strata: the working class and the middle classes, which included industrialists, businessmen, and professionals. In Central and Eastern Europe, these groups were less prominent until the late nineteenth century. It was among the educated, liberal middle classes that ideas of national unity gained traction, particularly after the decline of aristocratic privileges.

What Did Liberal Nationalism Stand For?

In early-nineteenth-century Europe, the push for national unity was strongly linked to the ideology of liberalism. The term 'liberalism' comes from the Latin word 'liber', meaning free.

For the newly formed middle classes, liberalism represented:

Political Sphere:

• Freedom for the individual.
• Equality of all before the law.
• Government based on the consent of the governed.
• An end to autocratic rule and the privileges of the clergy.
• The demand for a constitution and representative government through a parliament.

However, this political equality often did not extend to universal suffrage (the right to vote). Revolutionary France initially granted voting rights only to property-owning men, excluding non-propertied men and women. Although all adult males gained suffrage briefly under the Jacobins, the Napoleonic Code reverted to limited suffrage and placed women under the legal authority of their fathers or husbands. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, women and men without property campaigned for equal political rights.

Economic Sphere:

• Freedom of markets.
• Abolition of state restrictions on the movement of goods and capital.

This was a key demand of the middle classes. In the German-speaking regions, Napoleon's actions had created a confederation of 39 states from numerous small principalities. Each had its own currency and system of weights and measures. A merchant traveling from Hamburg to Nuremberg in 1833 faced multiple customs barriers, paying around 5% duty at each. Duties were based on weight or measurement, but the systems varied (e.g., the 'elle' measurement for cloth differed from 53.5 cm to 65.6 cm across regions), making calculations time-consuming and hindering trade.

To address these obstacles, the commercial classes advocated for a unified economic area allowing free movement of goods, people, and capital. In 1834, Prussia initiated the formation of a customs union, the Zollverein, which most German states joined. The Zollverein abolished tariff barriers and reduced the number of currencies from over thirty to two. The development of railway networks further enhanced mobility, aligning economic interests with the goal of national unification. This economic nationalism fueled the broader nationalist feelings present at the time.

A New Conservatism After 1815

Following Napoleon's defeat in 1815, European governments adopted a philosophy of conservatism. Conservatives aimed to preserve established, traditional societal and state institutions, such as the monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property rights, and the family.

However, most conservatives did not wish for a complete return to the pre-revolutionary era. They acknowledged that the changes brought about by Napoleon, like a modern army, efficient administration, a dynamic economy, and the abolition of feudalism and serfdom, could actually strengthen autocratic monarchies, making state power more effective.

In 1815, representatives from the major European powers that had defeated Napoleon (Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria) met at Vienna. The Austrian Chancellor, Duke Metternich, hosted this meeting, known as the Congress of Vienna. The goal was to create a peace settlement for Europe, primarily by undoing the changes made during the Napoleonic wars.

The resulting Treaty of Vienna (1815) included several key outcomes:

• The Bourbon dynasty, removed during the French Revolution, was restored to the French throne.
• France lost the territories it had annexed under Napoleon.
• A series of states were established along France's borders to prevent future expansion: the Kingdom of the Netherlands (including Belgium) in the north, and Genoa was added to Piedmont in the south.
• Prussia received new territories on its western frontiers.
• Austria gained control of northern Italy.
• The German Confederation of 39 states created by Napoleon was left unchanged.
• Russia was given a part of Poland, while Prussia received a portion of Saxony.

The main objective of the Congress of Vienna was to restore the monarchical rule that Napoleon had overthrown and establish a new conservative order in Europe.

The conservative governments set up after 1815 were autocratic. They suppressed criticism and opposition, seeking to control activities that challenged their authority. Most implemented censorship laws to regulate information in newspapers, books, plays, and songs, particularly targeting ideas of liberty and freedom that originated from the French Revolution. However, the ideals of the French Revolution continued to inspire liberals. A significant demand of the liberal-nationalists opposing the conservative order was freedom of the press.

The Revolutionaries

In the years following 1815, many liberal-nationalists went into hiding due to the threat of repression from conservative regimes. Secret societies emerged in numerous European states. Their purpose was to train revolutionaries and disseminate their ideas.

Being a revolutionary during this period meant actively opposing the monarchies restored after the Vienna Congress and fighting for liberty and freedom. For most revolutionaries, the establishment of nation-states was viewed as a crucial element of this struggle for freedom.

A notable revolutionary was Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872), an Italian born in Genoa. He joined the secret society of the Carbonari. In 1831, at the age of 24, he was exiled for attempting a revolution in Liguria. Subsequently, he founded two more clandestine organizations:

• Young Italy in Marseilles.
• Young Europe in Berne.

These societies comprised young men from Poland, France, Italy, and the German states who shared similar revolutionary ideals. Mazzini firmly believed that nations were divinely intended as the natural units of humanity. Therefore, Italy, fragmented into small states, needed to be unified into a single republic within a broader international alliance. He saw this unification as the only path to Italian liberty. Inspired by Mazzini, secret societies were formed in Germany, France, Switzerland, and Poland.

Mazzini's staunch opposition to monarchy and his vision of democratic republics were alarming to conservatives. Duke Metternich, the Austrian Chancellor, famously described Mazzini as "the most dangerous enemy of our social order".

The Age Of Revolutions: 1830-1848

The period between 1830 and 1848 is often referred to as the 'Age of Revolutions'. As conservative governments attempted to strengthen their hold, liberalism and nationalism became increasingly intertwined with revolutionary movements across various parts of Europe, including the Italian and German states, the Ottoman Empire's provinces, Ireland, and Poland. These uprisings were typically led by the educated middle class, consisting of professionals like professors, teachers, clerks, and members of the commercial sector.

The first major revolutionary wave occurred in France in July 1830. Liberal revolutionaries overthrew the Bourbon kings who had been restored after 1815. They established a constitutional monarchy with Louis Philippe as the head. This event prompted Metternich's famous quote: "When France sneezes, the rest of Europe catches cold," highlighting France's influence on the continent.

The July Revolution in France triggered an uprising in Brussels, leading to Belgium gaining independence from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Another key event that stirred nationalist sentiment among the educated elite across Europe was the Greek War of Independence. Greece had been under the rule of the Ottoman Empire since the 15th century. Inspired by the rise of revolutionary nationalism in Europe, the struggle for Greek independence began in 1821. Greeks living in exile and many West Europeans who admired ancient Greek culture provided support. Poets and artists celebrated Greece as the birthplace of European civilization and rallied public opinion against Ottoman rule. The English poet Lord Byron notably raised funds and even fought in the war, where he died in 1824. The conflict concluded with the Treaty of Constantinople in 1832, which officially recognized Greece as an independent nation.

The Romantic Imagination And National Feeling

The development of nationalism wasn't solely achieved through military conflicts or territorial expansion. Culture played a vital role in shaping and expressing national sentiment. Art, poetry, stories, and music were instrumental in creating the idea of a nation.

Romanticism was a significant cultural movement that fostered a particular form of nationalist feeling. Romantic artists and poets generally rejected the emphasis on reason and science, preferring to focus on emotions, intuition, and mystical experiences. Their aim was to cultivate a sense of shared collective heritage and a common cultural past, which they believed were the true foundations of a nation.

German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) argued that genuine German culture was inherent in the common people, or das Volk. He believed that the true spirit of the nation, the Volksgeist, was best expressed and popularized through folk songs, folk poetry, and folk dances. Therefore, collecting and documenting these forms of folk culture was considered crucial for the process of nation-building.

The Grimm Brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, are famous for their collection of folktales. They traveled extensively, recording traditional fairy tales passed down orally. They saw these tales as expressions of a pure German spirit and their work in collecting them and creating a German dictionary as part of a larger effort to counter French influence and build a German national identity.

The focus on vernacular languages and collecting local folklore served a dual purpose: recovering an ancient national spirit and delivering the nationalist message to large, often illiterate, populations.

A striking example is Poland, which had been partitioned by Russia, Prussia, and Austria at the end of the 18th century, losing its independent status. Despite this, national feelings were sustained through culture, especially music and language. Composer Karol Kurpinski depicted the national struggle in his operas and music, transforming traditional folk dances like the polonaise and mazurka into powerful nationalist symbols.

Language also became a tool of national resistance. After Russian occupation, Polish was removed from schools and replaced by Russian. A Polish armed rebellion in 1831 was suppressed. Following this, Polish clergy began using the Polish language for church services and religious instruction as a form of protest. This led to many priests and bishops being imprisoned or sent to Siberia by Russian authorities. The use of Polish language thus became a symbol of the struggle against Russian dominance.

Hunger, Hardship And Popular Revolt

The 1830s were characterized by significant economic hardship across Europe. The first half of the 19th century saw a large increase in population, leading to more job seekers than available employment. This resulted in migration from rural areas to overcrowded urban slums.

Small-scale producers in towns faced intense competition from cheaper, machine-made goods imported from England, which was ahead in industrialization. This particularly affected textile production, which was often home-based or in small workshops and only partially mechanized.

In areas where the aristocracy still held power, peasants continued to suffer under the burden of feudal obligations and dues. Rising food prices or poor harvests exacerbated the situation, leading to widespread poverty (pauperism) in both towns and the countryside.

The year 1848 was particularly difficult. Food shortages and high unemployment led to widespread unrest in Paris. Barricades were set up, and King Louis Philippe was forced to flee. A National Assembly proclaimed France a Republic, granting universal male suffrage (right to vote for all adult men over 21) and guaranteeing the right to work. National workshops were established to provide employment.

An earlier significant event was the Silesian weavers' revolt in 1845. Weavers protested against contractors who drastically reduced payments for finished textiles despite supplying raw materials and orders. Wilhelm Wolff, a journalist, described the extreme misery of weavers facing job desperation exploited by contractors. On June 4, 1845, a large group of weavers marched to their contractor's mansion demanding better wages. When met with scorn and threats, they attacked the house, destroying property, and plundered the storehouse. The contractor fled but returned with the army, resulting in the shooting of eleven weavers.

1848: The Revolution Of The Liberals

Alongside the revolts by the poor, unemployed, and starving populations in 1848, there was a parallel revolution led by the educated middle classes. The events in France in February 1848, which resulted in the monarch's abdication and the proclamation of a republic with universal male suffrage, had a ripple effect.

In regions without independent nation-states, such as Germany, Italy, Poland, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, liberal middle-class men and women combined their demands for constitutionalism with the goal of national unification. They leveraged the existing popular discontent to push for the creation of nation-states based on parliamentary principles, advocating for a constitution, freedom of the press, and freedom of association.

In the German territories, numerous political associations comprising middle-class professionals, businessmen, and artisans convened in Frankfurt. They decided to elect representatives for an all-German National Assembly. On 18 May 1848, 831 elected delegates marched in a festive procession to the Frankfurt parliament, held in the Church of St Paul. They drafted a constitution for a unified German nation that would be a monarchy subject to parliamentary control.

However, when they offered the crown under these conditions to Friedrich Wilhelm IV, the King of Prussia, he refused. He joined other monarchs in opposing the elected assembly. The opposition from the aristocracy and military grew stronger, while the parliament's support base weakened. The middle-class dominance alienated workers and artisans whose demands were resisted. Ultimately, troops were called in, and the assembly was forced to disband.

The question of granting political rights to women was highly debated within the liberal movement, despite extensive participation by women. Women had formed political associations, started newspapers, and taken part in meetings and demonstrations. Despite their efforts, they were denied voting rights in the Assembly elections. When the Frankfurt parliament met, women were only allowed to attend as observers in the visitors' gallery.

Although conservative forces successfully suppressed liberal movements in 1848, they could not fully restore the old order. Monarchs began to understand that concessions to liberal-nationalists were necessary to avoid future revolutions. Consequently, after 1848, autocratic monarchies in Central and Eastern Europe started implementing reforms similar to those seen in Western Europe earlier, such as the abolition of serfdom and bonded labour in the Habsburg territories and Russia. The Habsburg rulers also granted increased autonomy to the Hungarians in 1867.

The Making Of Germany And Italy

After 1848, the nature of nationalism in Europe shifted, moving away from its earlier association with democratic and revolutionary ideals. Nationalist sentiments were increasingly exploited by conservatives to enhance state power and achieve political dominance across Europe. This is clearly seen in the processes that led to the unification of Germany and Italy.

Germany – Can The Army Be The Architect Of A Nation?

The liberal attempt to unify the German confederation into a nation-state in 1848 failed, suppressed by the combined power of the monarchy, the military, and Prussia's large landowners, the Junkers. Following this setback, Prussia took the lead in the movement for national unification.

The architect of German unification was Prussia's Chief Minister, Otto von Bismarck. He achieved unification through a process carried out with the support of the Prussian army and bureaucracy. This involved three wars over seven years, culminating in Prussian victories against Austria, Denmark, and France. These wars completed the process of unification.

On 18 January 1871, a significant ceremony took place in the unheated Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles. An assembly of German princes, army representatives, and Prussian ministers, including Bismarck, gathered to proclaim the formation of the new German Empire. The Prussian king, William I, was declared the German Emperor (Kaiser).

The German nation-building process highlighted the dominance of Prussian state power. The newly formed German state placed a strong emphasis on modernizing its systems, including currency, banking, and legal and judicial frameworks. Prussian policies and practices often served as a model for the rest of Germany.

Italy Unified

Like Germany, Italy also had a history of political fragmentation. In the mid-19th century, Italians were spread across various dynastic states and parts of the multi-national Habsburg Empire. Italy was divided into seven states, with only one, Sardinia-Piedmont, ruled by an Italian princely family.

The northern regions were under the control of the Austrian Habsburgs. The central area was governed by the Pope (Papal States), and the southern regions were under the rule of the Bourbon kings of Spain. Furthermore, the Italian language itself lacked a standard form, with many regional and local variations in use.

In the 1830s, Giuseppe Mazzini had developed a program aiming for a unified Italian Republic. He founded the secret society Young Italy to spread these ideas. However, revolutionary attempts in 1831 and 1848 failed. The task of unifying Italy through war then fell to Sardinia-Piedmont, led by its ruler, King Victor Emmanuel II.

The ruling elites of Sardinia-Piedmont saw a unified Italy as an opportunity for economic growth and political influence. The movement for Italian unification was led by Chief Minister Count Camillo de Cavour. Cavour was a shrewd statesman who was neither a revolutionary nor a fervent democrat. He was a wealthy and educated member of the elite who spoke French better than Italian. He skillfully engineered a diplomatic alliance with France, which enabled Sardinia-Piedmont to defeat the Austrian forces in 1859.

Beyond the regular army, a large contingent of armed volunteers joined the effort under the command of Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882): A renowned Italian freedom fighter, Garibaldi came from a seafaring family. After meeting Mazzini, he joined Young Italy and participated in an unsuccessful republican uprising in Piedmont in 1834, leading to his exile in South America until 1848. In 1854, he began supporting Victor Emmanuel II's unification efforts. In 1860, he led the famous Expedition of the Thousand to South Italy. His force, popularly known as Red Shirts, grew to about 30,000 volunteers. With the support of local peasants, they successfully drove out the Spanish Bourbon rulers from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

In 1861, Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed King of united Italy.

Despite the unification, a large portion of the Italian population, particularly the illiterate peasant masses who supported Garibaldi in the south, remained largely unaware of liberal-nationalist ideology. Some even mistakenly believed that "La Talia" (Italia) was King Victor Emmanuel's wife!

In 1867, Garibaldi led volunteers to Rome to confront the Papal States, protected by a French garrison. The Red Shirts were defeated by the combined French and Papal troops. The Papal States were finally incorporated into Italy only in 1870, when France withdrew its troops during the Franco-Prussian War.

The Strange Case Of Britain

Some scholars consider the formation of Great Britain as a nation-state to be a unique case, different from the continental model. It did not result from a sudden revolution but from a protracted, gradual process. Prior to the 18th century, there wasn't a unified 'British nation'. The inhabitants of the British Isles primarily identified themselves by their ethnic origins: English, Welsh, Scot, or Irish. Each of these groups had its own distinct cultural and political traditions.

As the English nation grew in wealth, influence, and power, it gradually extended its control over the other communities. The English parliament, which had taken power from the monarchy in 1688 after a long conflict, became the primary instrument through which a nation-state, centered around England, was forged.

The Act of Union in 1707 between England and Scotland led to the creation of the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain'. This effectively meant that England could impose its influence on Scotland. The British parliament became dominated by its English members. The development of a British identity involved the systematic suppression of Scotland's unique culture and political institutions. Catholic clans in the Scottish Highlands faced severe repression when they tried to assert their independence. They were forbidden from speaking their Gaelic language or wearing their traditional attire, and many were forcibly removed from their lands.

Ireland experienced a similar fate. It was a country sharply divided between Catholics and Protestants. The English supported the Protestants to establish their dominance over the largely Catholic population. Catholic revolts against British rule were suppressed. A notable but failed revolt in 1798 was led by Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen. Subsequently, Ireland was forcibly incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801.

A new 'British nation' was forged through the active promotion of a dominant English culture. Symbols of this new Britain, such as the British flag (Union Jack), the national anthem ('God Save Our Noble King'), and the English language, were widely encouraged. The older nations (Scotland, Wales, Ireland) became subordinate partners within this union.

Visualising The Nation

Representing a ruler through a portrait or statue is straightforward, but how can one depict an abstract concept like a nation? Artists in the 18th and 19th centuries employed personification, portraying a country as if it were a human being. Nations were frequently represented as female figures.

These female figures were not specific real-life women. Instead, they served as an allegory for the nation, giving a concrete form to an abstract idea. An allegory is a concept expressed through a person or thing, with both a literal and a symbolic meaning.

During the French Revolution, artists used female allegories to represent abstract ideals like Liberty, Justice, and the Republic. These ideals were associated with specific objects and symbols:

• Liberty: often represented by a red cap or a broken chain.
• Justice: typically shown as a blindfolded woman holding a pair of weighing scales.

Similarly, 19th-century artists created female allegories for nations:

• Marianne: In France, she became a popular allegory for the nation. Her name, a common Christian name, emphasized the idea of a people's nation. Her attributes were borrowed from Liberty and the Republic, including the red cap, the tricolour flag, and the cockade. Statues of Marianne were erected in public places to serve as a national symbol of unity and encourage people to identify with it. Her image also appeared on coins and stamps.
• Germania: She was the allegory for the German nation. In visual representations, Germania is often depicted wearing a crown made of oak leaves, as the German oak symbolizes heroism.

Symbols associated with Germania and their meanings:

Nationalism And Imperialism

By the final decades of the nineteenth century, nationalism underwent a significant transformation. It lost much of its initial idealistic liberal-democratic character and became a narrower ideology focused on limited objectives. During this period, nationalist groups often became hostile towards each other and were prone to conflict.

Major European powers began to exploit the nationalist sentiments of various groups in Europe to further their own imperialist ambitions.

The most critical source of nationalist tension in Europe after 1871 was the Balkan region. The Balkans were geographically and ethnically diverse, encompassing areas that are now Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia, and Montenegro. The inhabitants were commonly referred to as Slavs. A large portion of the Balkans was controlled by the Ottoman Empire.

The confluence of the spread of romantic nationalism in the Balkans and the steady decline and disintegration of the Ottoman Empire created a highly volatile situation. Throughout the nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire had attempted to modernize and reform, but with limited success. Consequently, its subject nationalities in Europe gradually broke away and declared independence.

The Balkan peoples justified their claims for independence or political rights based on their distinct national identities. They used historical narratives to assert that they had once been independent but had later been conquered by foreign powers. Their struggles were thus seen as attempts to reclaim their long-lost freedom.

As different Slavic nationalities within the Balkans strived to define their own identities and achieve independence, the region became an arena of intense conflict. The emerging Balkan states were fiercely competitive with each other, each aiming to expand its territory at the expense of others.

The situation was further complicated by the involvement of the major European powers. The Balkans became a focal point of big power rivalry. Intense competition existed among Russia, Germany, England, and Austro-Hungary over trade, colonies, and military strength. Each power sought to prevent others from gaining influence in the Balkans while increasing its own control. This rivalry contributed significantly to a series of wars in the region and ultimately played a crucial role in triggering the First World War in 1914.

Thus, nationalism, when combined with imperialism, led to catastrophic consequences for Europe in 1914.

Meanwhile, in the colonies across the world that were under European control in the nineteenth century, anti-imperial movements began to emerge. These movements were fundamentally nationalist in nature, driven by the desire for independent nation-states and a sense of collective national unity forged in opposition to imperial rule. While inspired by the idea of nationalism, the specific forms it took in different colonies varied; European models were not simply copied. Nevertheless, the fundamental concept of societies being organized into 'nation-states' gained widespread acceptance globally.