The Rise of Nationalism in Europe
The French Revolution and the idea of the nation
Explain how the French Revolution and Napoleon spread the idea of the nation.
Sorrieu's dream (1848). A French artist, Frédéric Sorrieu, drew a world of 'democratic and social Republics'. In his print, the peoples of Europe and America march past a statue of Liberty, who holds the torch of Enlightenment in one hand and, in the other, the Charter of the Rights of Man. Each people is a separate nation, with its own flag and dress. The USA and Switzerland, already nation-states, lead; France follows; then the Germans, carrying a black, red and gold flag, though Germany did not yet exist as one nation. The broken symbols of absolute kings lie on the ground. It is a utopian picture: an ideal unlikely to come true.
What is a nation-state? A modern state has one central power ruling a clearly marked territory. A nation-state is more: most of its citizens, not just its rulers, feel they share a common identity and history. This feeling did not exist forever; it was built through struggle, by leaders and ordinary people. In the 19th century, nationalism replaced Europe's multi-national empires with nation-states.
Renan: 'What is a Nation?' (1882). The French thinker Ernst Renan said a nation is not made just by sharing a language, a race, a religion or a piece of land. It is made by a shared past of effort and sacrifice, and a shared will in the present to live and do great things together. He called a nation's existence a 'daily plebiscite' (a vote people take every day). Nations matter, he said, because they protect liberty.
The French Revolution (1789): the people become the nation. Before it, France was ruled by an absolute king. The Revolution moved sovereignty (supreme power) from the king to the citizens: from now on, the people would make up the nation and shape its future.
How the revolutionaries built a shared identity.
- The words la patrie ('fatherland') and le citoyen ('citizen'): one community with equal rights under a constitution.
- A new tricolour flag in place of the royal one.
- The Estates General, elected by active citizens, got a new name: the National Assembly.
- New hymns, oaths, and honouring martyrs, all in the nation's name.
- One central government making the same laws for all.
- Internal customs duties abolished; one system of weights and measures.
- French as spoken in Paris became the common language; regional dialects were discouraged.
They also said France's mission was to free the peoples of Europe from despots.
Napoleon: reforms without freedom. Napoleon brought back monarchy and so destroyed democracy in France. But his Civil Code of 1804 (the Napoleonic Code) ended privileges of birth, gave equality before the law and protected property. He took it to the lands he conquered (the Dutch Republic, Switzerland, Italy, Germany): he simplified administration, ended feudalism, freed peasants from serfdom and manorial dues, removed guild restrictions in towns, and improved transport. At first people in Holland, Switzerland, Brussels, Mainz, Milan and Warsaw welcomed the French. But higher taxes, censorship and forced service in the French army soon turned them against French rule.
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