The Rise of Nationalism in Europe — RBSE Class 10 (History)
In 1848, the French artist Frédéric Sorrieu drew four prints imagining a world of "democratic and social Republics" — peoples of Europe and America marching past a statue of Liberty. It was a dream, not a fact. This chapter is the story of how that dream of the nation — a people united by a shared past, language and territory, governing themselves — became the reality that redrew the map of Europe.
1. The French Revolution and the idea of the nation (1789)
The first clear expression of nationalism came with the French Revolution of 1789. Power shifted from the monarch to a body of French citizens. The Revolution introduced measures that created a sense of collective identity:
- la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen) — a people with equal rights under a constitution;
- a new tricolour flag, an elected Estates General renamed the National Assembly, new hymns and oaths;
- a centralised system of administration, uniform laws, internal customs duties abolished, and a single national language (French) promoted.
Revolutionaries declared they would help other peoples of Europe become nations too. As Napoleon's armies moved across Europe, the idea travelled with them.
2. Napoleon — reforms inside the conquest
Napoleon destroyed democracy in France, but in the territories he controlled he carried revolutionary reforms. The Napoleonic Code (Civil Code of 1804):
- abolished privileges based on birth, established equality before the law, and secured the right to property;
- simplified administration, abolished the feudal system, freed peasants from serfdom and manorial dues;
- removed guild restrictions, improved transport and communication.
Businessmen and small-scale producers welcomed the freedom and uniform commercial laws. But increased taxation, censorship and forced conscription soon made the conquered see Napoleon as a master, not a liberator.
3. The making of nationalism — who wanted it, and why
After Napoleon's defeat, the Treaty of Vienna (1815) tried to restore the old monarchies (conservatism). But two new social groups now drove change:
- The liberal middle class. Liberalism meant freedom for the individual and equality before the law, government by consent, and an end to aristocratic privilege — but, at first, the vote only for property-owning men. In the economic sphere, liberals wanted free markets. The Zollverein (1834), a Prussian-led customs union, abolished tariff barriers among German states — economic nationalism feeding political unity.
- Romanticism. A cultural movement that sought to develop national feeling through art, poetry, stories and music — celebrating folk culture (the German philosopher Herder saw true German culture in the das volk, the common people). Language too became a weapon: in Poland, the Polish language and Church kept national feeling alive against Russian rule.
4. 1848 — the revolutions of the liberals
Through the 1830s–40s, economic hardship (population growth, unemployment, the 1848 food shortages) sparked revolts. In 1848, while the poor revolted, the educated middle classes led a parallel political revolution. In Germany they convened the Frankfurt Parliament to draft a constitution for a united German nation — but it was turned down by the King of Prussia and lost the support of the workers and artisans, and was eventually disbanded. Though 1848 failed politically, monarchs realised that the cycles of revolution could only be ended by granting some of the liberal-nationalist demands.
5. Unification — Germany and Italy
Germany (1866–1871): Prussia took the lead under its chief minister Otto von Bismarck, using the army and bureaucracy. Three wars over seven years — with Austria, Denmark and France — ended in Prussian victory. In January 1871, the Prussian king Wilhelm I was proclaimed German Emperor at Versailles. Unification was driven from above, by "blood and iron".
Italy (1859–1871): Politically fragmented and partly under Austrian rule. Giuseppe Mazzini provided the ideal (Young Italy); Count Cavour, chief minister of Sardinia-Piedmont, led the diplomatic-political effort and allied with France to defeat Austria; Giuseppe Garibaldi and his volunteers ("Red Shirts") won the south. In 1861 Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of a united Italy.
6. The strange case of Britain — and nationalism as allegory
In Britain, the nation-state was not formed by revolution but by the slow rise of one dominant nation. The English parliament's power grew; the Act of Union (1707) joined England and Scotland to form the "United Kingdom of Great Britain", followed by Ireland (1801). A British identity was forged, with the symbols (the Union Jack, the national anthem, English) promoted over older Scottish and Irish cultures.
Artists personified the nation as a female figure — an allegory:
- Marianne in France (the red cap, the tricolour, the cockade) — the personification of the Republic.
- Germania in Germany — wearing a crown of oak leaves (oak = heroism).
7. Closing thought — the turn to aggression
By the last quarter of the 19th century, nationalism no longer carried its early idealism of liberty for all. It became narrow, intolerant and aggressive, tied to imperial ambition. The most serious tensions built up in the Balkans — a region of intense rivalry among the European powers — and this nationalist rivalry was a major cause of the First World War (1914).
The big idea to carry forward: a nation is not natural or eternal — it was made, through revolution, war, language, art and shared memory. For the RBSE board, master the French-Revolution origins, the German/Italian unification stories (with the right names), and the allegories Marianne and Germania — they recur every year.
