The Rise of Nationalism in Europe

Lesson

Part 1 — how the idea of the nation was born in France in 1789, spread across Europe with Napoleon's armies, and drove the revolutions of 1830 and 1848.

In this lesson you will

Explain how the French Revolution created a sense of collective identity
Describe how Napoleon's Civil Code spread new ideas, and why people turned against French rule
Describe the aims of the liberal middle classes and the conservative order after 1815
Explain the revolutions of 1830–1848 and the role of romanticism, language and folk culture
Answer a source-based question and a 5-mark question the way examiners mark them

Part 1 at a glance

Concept

What is a nation-state?

A nation-state is a country whose people, ordinary citizens as well as rulers, feel they belong together because of a shared identity and past, and which is governed in the name of that nation.

Table comparing a dynastic empire, held together by loyalty to a ruling family with the monarch sovereign, such as the Habsburg Empire, with a nation-state, held together by shared identity with the people sovereign, such as France after 1789
	Dynastic empire (mid-1700s)	Nation-state
What holds it together	Loyalty to one ruling family	Shared identity, history and often language
Who is sovereign	The monarch	The people (the nation)
Example	Habsburg Empire of Austria-Hungary	France after 1789; Germany and Italy by 1871

Concept

Europe before nations: the Habsburg patchwork

In the mid-eighteenth century there were no nation-states in Europe. The Habsburg Empire ruled Austria-Hungary, a patchwork of peoples held together only by loyalty to the emperor.

Table: the Habsburg Empire included German-speaking Alpine regions and Bohemia, Italian-speaking Lombardy and Venetia, Hungary with about half Magyar speakers, Polish-speaking Galicia, and many other subject peoples such as Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats and Romanians
Region in the Habsburg Empire	People / language
Alpine regions (Tyrol, Austria, Sudetenland), Bohemia	German-speaking aristocracy; Czech and other speakers
Lombardy and Venetia	Italian-speaking
Hungary	About half Magyar-speaking; the rest a mix of other languages
Galicia	Polish-speaking aristocracy
Other areas	Many other subject peoples, among them Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats and Romanians

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