The Age of Revolutions 1830-1848 - Chapter 1 The Rise of Nationalism in Europe Class 10 History
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The Age of Revolutions 1830-1848 - Chapter 1 The Rise of Nationalism in Europe Class 10 History
Effects of Treaty of Vienna 1815
• After the Napoleonic rule, the conservatives of Europe had established the old monarchical system. Conservative governments that were set up in Europe tried to enhance their power by supressing the revolutionaries.
• As conservative regimes tried to consolidate their power, liberalism and nationalism came to be increasingly associated with revolution.
• In many regions of Europe such as the Italian and German states, the provinces of the Ottoman Empire, Ireland and Poland, these revolutions were led by the liberal-nationalists belonging to the educated middle-class elite, among whom were professors, school- teachers, clerks and members of the commercial middle classes.
• The emergence of a new middle class comprising clerks, professors and members of the commercial classes played an important role in propagating nationalism and liberalism.
• Duke Metternich once said: ‘When France sneezes, ‘the rest of Europe catches cold.’
→ This statement means whenever any revolutionary activity happens in France it influences the whole Europe.
July Revolution 1830
• The first upheaval took place in France in July 1830.
• Liberal revolutionaries overthrew the Bourbon kings who had been restored to power after Treaty of Vienna in 1815.
• Liberal revolutionaries installed a constitutional monarchy means they written a constitution with the monarch at its head. They selected Louis Philippe as monarch.
• This July revolution influences the people of Belgium to gain independence from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands of which they became part in 1815.
Independence of Greece 1832
• Greece got their independence in 1832 from the Ottoman Empire. They had been part of the Ottoman Empire since the 15th century.
• In 1821, Greek people started their struggle for independence as they started getting inspired by the growth of revolutionary nationalism in Europe.
• The nationalists, those who were struggling for the independence of Greece also got support from other Greek people who were living in exile.
• They were also supported by many West Europeans who respected and had sympathies for the very old culture of Greece.
• Many poets and artists praised Greece through their poems and arts as they believed that Greece represents European civilisation and started mobilising public opinion to support its struggle against Ottoman Empire which is a Muslim empire.
• English poet Lord Byron who supported the struggle financially by organising funds and later went to fight in the war, where he died of fever in 1824.
• Finally, the Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 granted independence to Greece as a nation.
Romantic Imagination and Nationalist Feeling
• The idea of nationalism not only developed through the wars and expansions of territory but shared culture also promoted the idea of nationalism.
• Art and poetry, stories and music were used as tool which shaped nationalist feelings among the people. A new movement known as romanticism emerged in Europe at this time.
• Romanticism is a cultural movement which promoted the nationalist sentiment among people through the glorification of past. The poets and artists who followed this were called Romantics.
→ Romantic artists and poets criticised the glorification of reason and science and instead they focused on the emotions and mystical feelings.
→ Romantics made effort to create a sense of a shared collective heritage, a common cultural past as they viewed this as the basis of a nation.
• According to Romantics such as the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, it was among the common people where true German culture can be found. The true spirit or soul of the nation was popularised through folk songs, folk poetry and folk dances. So collecting and recording forms of folk culture was essential for nation-building process.
• Language too became a tool in the development of nationalist sentiments. After the Russian invasion of Poland, Russian language was imposed everywhere and the Polish language was forced out of schools. In the year of 1831, an armed rebellion against Russian rule took place but was supressed.
→ After this, Polish language was used as a weapon by the people of Poland against the Russian rule. Polish was used for prayers and all religious instruction. Russian rule also acted harshly by punishing them for using Polish language. Thus, the use of Polish came to be seen as a symbol of the struggle against Russian dominance.
The Massacre at Chios
• ‘The Massacre at Chios’ was painted by a famous French artist Eugene Delacroix painted a huge painting named the Massacre at Chios in 1824.
• This painting is about the incident in which 20,000 Greeks were said to have been killed by Turks on the island of Chios.
• By representing an incident, focusing on the suffering of women and children, he generated sympathy for the Greeks.
Hunger, Hardship and Revolt
• The years of 1830s was great economic hardship in Europe because there was large increase in the population all over Europe. This also put pressure on the employment opportunities as there were more seekers of jobs than employment.
→ The people migrated from the rural areas to live in the overcrowded slums of the city. Small producers in towns faced stiff competition from imports of cheap machine-made goods from England.
→ The aristocracy was still prevalent in certain parts of Europe thus the peasants had to pay feudal dues and many obligations and they were struggling in doing these.
→ Bad harvest were frequent which led to increase in prices of food. This all resulted in widespread poverty or pauperism.
• In the year of 1848, there were shortages of food and widespread unemployment. The people were fed up with the government and thus came out on road in Paris. Seeing this uprising Louis Phillipe who was the head of constitutional monarchy fled from France.
• The national assembly declared France a republic. It granted suffrage means right to vote to all adult males above 21, and guaranteed the right to work. To provide employment National workshops were set up in France.
Event in Silesia
• Before this, a revolt of weaver took place in Silesia against contractors who supplied them raw material and gave them orders for finished textiles. The revolt occurred because contractors drastically reduced their payments.
• The weavers marched from their homes to the mansion of their contractor demanding higher wages. They smashed the windows of the mansion and its furniture. Also, they plundered supplies of cloth. The contractor fled from the scenes at that time and returned 24 hours later with the army which ended in killing of eleven weavers.
1848: The Revolution of the Liberals
• These revolts of the poor, unemployed and starving peasants and workers in many European countries were happening and parallel to these revolts of revolts of liberal middle class also started.
• France has already declared itself a republic after the revolt of 1848. In other parts of Europe where independent nation-states did not yet exist such as Germany, Italy, Poland, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the men and women of the liberal middle classes started demanding constitution. They demanded the creation of a nation-state on parliamentary principles such as a constitution, freedom of the press and freedom to form association.
Frankfurt Assembly
• In German regions, political associations of middle-class professionals, businessmen and prosperous artisans came together in the city of Frankfurt and created an all-German National Assembly.
• On 18 May 1848, elected representatives marched in a festive procession to Frankfurt parliament convened in the Church of St Paul. They drafted a constitution for a German nation which made monarchy subject to the parliament.
• They offered the crown on these terms to King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm IV. The king rejected this offer and joined other monarchs to oppose the elected assembly. The parliament also lost their social support as it was dominated by the middle classes. They did not listen to the demands of workers and artisans thus lost their support. Ultimately, with the help of troops the king disbanded the assembly forcefully.
Role of Women
• During the liberal movement, extending the political rights to the women was controversial one. Women participated in the movement by forming own political associations, founded newspapers and taken part in political meetings and demonstrations but they were denied the right to vote during the election of the Assembly. When the Frankfurt parliament held, the women were only observers in the visitors’ gallery.
• Conservative forces supressed the movement of liberals in 1848 but they also realised that they could not restore the monarchy like before the revolution. Thus they started granting concessions to the liberal-nationalist revolutionaries.
→ The autocratic monarchies of Central and Eastern Europe began to introduce the changes such as abolishment of serfdom and bonded labour that had already taken place in Western Europe before 1815. The Habsburg rulers also granted more autonomy to the Hungarians in 1867.