15.5: Nationalism

Romantic nationalism was an integral part of the nationalist political movements, which emerged in the immediate aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. Although the process took over a century in some cases (like those of Poland and Ireland,the movements would ultimately succeed in seeing their goals realized almost without exception. Central to nationalist movements was the concept that the state should correspond to the identity of a “people”. However, who or what defines the identity of “the people” proved a vexing issue on many occasions.

The French Revolution provided the model for all subsequent nationalisms. From the onset, the revolutionaries declared that they represented the whole "nation," not just a certain part of it. They erased the legal privileges of the nobles over others and made religion subservient to a secular government. Further, when threatened by the conservative powers of Europe, they called the whole "nation" to arms. The lyrics of the revolutionary national anthem, the Marseillaise, were as warlike as the U.S. Star Spangles Banner. Central to French national identity in the revolutionary period was fighting for la patrie, the fatherland, in place of the old allegiance to king and church.

As a result of the Napoleonic Era, the countries invaded by the French eventually adopted their own nationalist beliefs. The invaded countries turned the democratic French principle of self-determination into a sacred right to defend their own national identities, shaped by their own particular histories, against the universalist pretensions of the French. This action was reflected in the Spanish revolt that began in 1808, the revival of Austria and Prussia and their struggles of "liberation" against Napoleon, Russia's leadership of the anti-Napoleonic coalition that followed, and fierce British pride in their defiance to French military pretensions.

Congress of Vienna (1814-1815)

In 1814, as the Napoleonic wars drew to a close, European monarchs and diplomats convened the Congress of Vienna. The short meeting was interrupted by Napoleon's inconvenient return from Elba, but ultimately concluded by rewarding the victorious kingdoms with territorial gains and restoring conservative monarchs to the thrones of states such as Spain and France. The diplomatic representatives were not concerned with the “national identity” of the people who lived in the territories that were carved up and distributed like pieces of cake to the victors. The inhabitants of northeastern Italy were now subjects of the Austrian king, the entirety of Poland was divided between Russia and Prussia, and Great Britain remained secure in its growing global empire and possession of the entirety of Ireland.

Thus, many of Europe's peoples found themselves without states of their own or in states squeezed between the dominant powers of the time. Among the notable examples are the Italians and the Poles. Since the Renaissance, Italy had suffered from the domination of one great power or another. After 1815, the Austrians were in control of much of northern Italy. Poland had been partitioned among the Austrians, the Prussians, and the Russians, simply vanishing from the map in the process. Germany was not united, which led to Prussia and Austria vying with each other for dominance of the German lands. Indeed, both were fundamentally conservative powers uninterested in “German” unification until later in the century.

What had changed? The language of nationalism and the idea of national identity had come into its own by the late Napoleonic period. For example, in 1817, after the end of the Congress of Vienna, German nationalists gathered in Wartburg (where Martin Luther had first translated the Bible into German), waving the black, red, and gold tricolor flag that would become the official flag of the German nation. Two years later, a nationalist poet murdered a conservative one, and the Austrian Empire passed laws that severely limited freedom of speech, specifically to contain and restrict the spread of nationalism. Despite the efforts of the government and Austrian secret police, nationalism continued to spread.

1830s

The 1830s were a pivotal decade in the spread of nationalism. In 1831, the Italian nationalist leader Giuseppe Mazzini founded Young Italy, calling for a “springtime of peoples” in which the people of each “nation” of Europe would topple conservative monarchs and assert their sovereignty and independence. The movement would quickly spread beyond Italy. "Young" became the rallying word and idea of nationalism.

In addition to Young Italy, there was a Young Germany and a Young Ireland - the idea was that all people should and would eventually inhabit nations. Further, this new "youthful" manner of politics would lead to peace and prosperity for everyone. With old, outdated borders abandoned, everyone would live where they were supposed to: in nations governed by their own people. Nationalists argued that war could be rendered obsolete. After all, if each “people” lived in “their” nation, what would be the purpose of territorial conflict? The emergence of nations was synonymous with a more perfect future for all.

Part of this optimistic phase was the identity of “the people,” a term with powerful political resonance in just about every European language: das Volk, le peuple, il popolo, etc. In every case, "the people" was thought to be something more important than just "those people who happen to live here." Instead, the people were those tied to the soil, with roots reaching back centuries, and who deserve their own government. This profoundly romantic idea spoke to an essentially emotional sense of national identity - a sense of camaraderie and solidarity with individuals with whom a given person might not actually share much in common.

When scrutinized, the “real” identity of a given “people” became more difficult to discern. For example, how were the German people? Someone who spoke German, lived in Central Europe, was Lutheran or Catholic, or whose ancestors were from the same area in which they themselves were born? If a German nation emerged, who would lead it - were the Prussians or the Austrians more authentically German? What about those “Germans” who lived in places like Bohemia (i.e. the Czech lands) and Poland, with their own growing senses of national identity? During the early 19th Century, the nationalist movement did not need to concern themselves overmuch with these conundrums, since the goals of liberation and unification were not yet achievable. However, when national revolutions occurred, they proved difficult to overcome.