The making of Nationalism in Europe - Concepts - Chapter 1 Class 10 History - Rise of Nationalism in Europe - History

• Germany , Italy , and Switzerland were divided into kingdoms , duchies and cantons whose rulers were having autonomous territories .
• There was rule of autocratic monarchs in Eastern and Central part of Europe within which lived diverse peoples.
• There was no sense of common identity or common culture between them.
• These people often spoke different languages and belonged to different ethnic groups.
• The Habsburg Empire which ruled over Austria-Hungary , was a patchwork of many different regions and peoples.
• The Habsburg empire included the Alpine regions of - the Tyrol , Austria, Sudetenland.
• In Bohemia , the aristocracy was predominantly German speaking.
• The Habsburg Empire also included the I talian-Speaking provinces of Lombardy and Venetia.
• In Hungar y half of the population spoke Magyar, while the other half of the population spoke other varieties of dialects.
•  Polish was spoken by the aristocracy in Galicia.
• There also lived a mass of subject peasant peoples - Bohemians and Slovaks to the north , Slovenes in Carniola , Croats to the south , and Roumans to the east in Transylvania.
• These differences did not easily promote a sense of unity however the only tie holding these diverse groups together was allegiance to one emperor.

The Aristocracy and the New Middle Class

• On the continent, socially and politically a landed aristocracy was the dominant class.
• The members belonging to the aristocracy class were united by a common way of life they lived which cut across regional divisions.
• Members belonging to aristocracy owned estates in the countryside and town-houses.
• For the purpose of diplomacy and in high society they spoke French.
• They were often connected by the ties of marriage.
• The aristocracy was numerically a small group .
• Peasantry class contributed to the majority of the population.
• In the west, vast areas of land were farmed by tenants and small owners.
• In Eastern and Central Europe the pattern of landholding was characterised by vast estates which were cultivated by serfs .
• The growth of industrial production and trade in Western and part of Central Europe meant the growth of towns and the emergence of commercial classes .
• The existence of commercial classes was based on production for the market.  
• In England , Industrialisation began in the second half of the eighteenth century , but in France and parts of German states it only came around in the nineteenth century.
• In the wake of Industrialisation, new s ocial groups emerged - a working class population, middle classes made of industrialists , businessmen and professionals.
• The ideas of national unity following the abolition of aristocratic privileges gained popularity among the educated , liberal middle classes.

What did Liberal Nationalism Stand for ?

Idea of Liberalism

• Idea of Unity is closely related to the idea of Nationalism.
• ‘Liberalism’ derives from the Latin root liber , meaning free.
• For middle classes , the idea of liberalism stood for freedom of the individual and right to equality of all before the law.
• Politically liberalism stands for the concept of government by consent.
• Liberalism also stands for end of autocracy and clerical privileges , formation of a constitution and representative government by the parliament.
• Liberalism also stands for the protection against private property.
• Equality before law does not particularly stand for universal suffrage.
• In France , before the French revolution, the right to vote and to get elected was granted exclusively to property-owning men.
• Men who were without property and women were excluded from political rights.
• Adult males enjoyed suffrage for a brief period of time only under Jacobins.
• With the introduction of Napoleonic code , all adult males went back to limited suffrage rights and women were reduced to the status of a minor , who were considered as subjects to authority of fathers and husbands.
• In the economic sphere liberalism stands for freedom of markets and abolition of state-imposed restrictions on the movements of goods and capitals.

Zollverein

• Each state had their own currency, weights and measures . These conditions were proving to be an obstacle in economic exchange .
• In 1834 , a customs union or Zollverein was formed at the initiative of Prussia and joined by most of the states.
• The union abolished tariff barriers and reduced the numbers of currencies from over thirty to two.
• The Network of Railways stimulated mobility .

A New Conservatism after 1815

• European governments were driven by a spirit of Conservatism, following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815.
• Conservatives were of the idea that traditional institutions of states and society should be protected.
• In 1815, Britain , Russia , Prussia and Austria who collectively defeated Napoleon met at Vienna.
• The Congress of Vienna was hosted by the Austrian Chancellor Duke Metternich.  
• In 1815 , The Treaty of Vienna was signed with the aim to undo all the changes brought in Europe during the Napoleonic wars.

Changes in Europe after Treaty of Vienna 

• The Bourbon Dynasty rose to power after being deposed during the French Revolution.
• France lost all the territories it had annexed during the reign o f Napoleon.
• Series of states set up on the boundaries of France to prevent French expansion.
• The Netherlands which included Belgium was set up in the north and Genoa was added to Piedmont in the south.
• Prussia was provided with new important territories while Austria was given control over northern Italy.
• The German Confederation of 39 states was left untouched.
• Russia provided part of Poland and Prussia given a portion of Saxony.
• Monarchy was restored in Europe.
• Conservative regime was again set up in the societies of Europe. 
• Conservative regime was autocratic , they did not tolerate criticism against them.
• They sought to curb activities that questioned the legitimacy of autocratic governments.
• They imposed censorship laws to control what is said in the newspapers , plays and songs.

The Revolutionaries

• Giuseppe Mazzini was an Italian revolutionary.
• He was born in Genoa in 1807 and later became a member of a secret society of the Carbonari.
• He was sen t into exile at the age of 24 for attempting a revolution in Liguria.
• He later on founded  two more underground societies, Young Italy in Marseilles and Young Europe in Berne .
• Mazzini believed Italy cannot be a patchwork of small states and kingdoms .
• Mazzini believed that Italy needed to be forged into a single unified republic having a wider alliance of nations.
• More secret societies were set up in Germany , France , Switzerland and Poland.
• Conservatives were frightened by Mazzini’s relentless opposition to monarchy and his vision of democratic republic.
• Mazzini was described as ‘the most dangerous enemy of our social order ’ by Metternich.