Nationalism in 19th century Europe encouraged the formation of nation-states along ethnic lines and the unification of ethnic groups into single states. This led to the unification of Germany and Italy through wars of unification against Austria and France. It also encouraged independence movements among ethnic groups within multiethnic empires like the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires. However, nationalism also promoted anti-Semitism and tensions between ethnic groups competing for statehood.

1. European Nationalism

2. Nationalism—Ethnic States
• Nationalism based
citizenship on jus
sanguinis (law of blood)
of common ethnic
ancestry and celebrated a
people’s language, faith,
culture, and history.
• It believed political
borders should match
ethnic
mother/father/homelands

3. Nationalism—Ethnic States
• It encouraged the formation of ethnic political nation-states through:
• the unification of disparate people (Germans, Italians, Slavs) into a single
political state
• the breakup of multiethnic empires (Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman,
Russian) into several states

4. 19c Nationalism
Unification of:
• Italy (1870)
• Germany (1871)
Independence Movements:
• Austrian-Hungarian Empire
• Russian Empire
• Ottoman Empire
• British Empire

5. Nationalism—Unifying
• Germany: J.G. Herder celebrated German language, patriotism. J.G. Fichte
recognized German volksgeist (national spirit). The Grimm Brothers studied
German folk culture.

6. Nationalism—Unifying
• Italy: Carbonari member Giuseppe Mazzini
founded liberal Young Italy (1831) to expel
Austrians and establish an Italian republic.
He inspired copycats Young Germany, Young
Poland, Young Turks, and Young Europe.

7. Nationalism—Unifying
• Balkans: Pan-Slavists
wanted to unite all Slavs.
They were most active
among Southern Slavs ruled
by Austrian and Ottoman
Empires.

8. Nationalism—Liberating
• Greece, 1821–1830: Romantic Lord Byron led
Britain, France, and Russia to support the
Greek War of Independence from the
Ottoman Turks.

9. Nationalism—Liberating
• Dutch Netherlands and
Austrian Netherlands
were united in 1815 to
be a strong anti-French
buffer state.
• Belgium, 1830: The
French-speaking
Catholic south won
independence from the
Dutch-speaking
Protestant north in the
Belgian Revolution.

10. 1830 Revolution in Belgium
Belgians rose up to declare
their independence from
Holland. In Poland and Italy
similar uprisings, combining
nationalism with a desire for
self-governance, failed.
This painting illustrates the
popular nature of the
Belgian uprising by bringing
to the barricades men,
women, and children from
both the middle and the
working classes. (Musees
Royaux des Beaux-Arts de
Belgique)
1830 Revolution in Belgium

11. Irish Potato Famine
• The English stripped Irish
Catholics of
landownership rights
beginning mid-1600s. By
1800s most Irish lived in
abject poverty under
absentee British landlords.
• 1781–1845: Irish
population doubled to 8
million due to potato
farming. 1–2 acres were
sufficient to feed a family.

12. Irish Potato Famine
• 1845–1851: Fungal
blight destroyed
potato crops. 1 million
died from starvation
and disease. 2 million
emigrated to Britain,
the United States,
Canada, and Australia.
• Ireland was the only
European nation with
declining population in
the 1800s.

13. McDonald, The
Discovery of Potato
Blight in Ireland, 1847
An Irish family has dug
up its potato harvest
and discovered to its
horror that the blight
has rotted the crop.
Like thousands of Irish
families of the time,
this family now faces
the starvation and the
mass epidemics of the
Great Famine. (Dept
of Folklore, University
College Dublin)
McDonald, Discovery of Potato Blight

14. Nationalism—Liberating
• Ireland, 1800–1922:
Daniel O'Connell
sought repeal of the
Act of Union (1800)
binding Ireland to
Britain. Charles
Stewart Parnell fought
for Irish Home Rule.
• Irish self-government
was won in 1914 but
postponed during
World War I.
"No Home Rule"
poster
Posters like this
one helped foment
pro-British,
anti-Catholic
sentiment in the
northern Irish
counties of Ulster
before the First
World War.
"No Home Rule" poster

15. 1848 Revolutions—Springtime
of Nations
• 1846–1848: Famine
increased grain prices
during the “Hungry ’40s”.
• Reduced consumer
spending led to industrial
job losses. Economic misery
and long-term repression
sparked the 1848
revolutions during the
“Springtime of Nations.”

16. 1848 Revolutions—Springtime of Nations
Middle and working classes sought:
• elimination of feudal institutions
• establishment of liberal, unified nation-states
• republican governments based on popular sovereignty
• universal male suffrage
• limits to church and state power
• free press
• individual rights
• increased worker control of production

17. 1848 Revolutions
• France, February 1848: The bourgeois-
friendly “Citizen King” Louis-Philippe’s
popularity faded as working-class
conditions deteriorated.
• In February 1848 the French National
Guard joined a protest by middle class
liberals and workers. Louis-Philippe
abdicated and the Second French Republic
was born.
1830-1848 – Louis-Philippe

18. Delacroix, Liberty Leading the
People
This has been called the first
political painting in modern
art. It idealizes and glorifies the
idea of liberty. Lady Liberty
holds a musket in one hand
and waves the tricolor flag of
the French Revolution in the
other, leading the people in
their armed revolt. Of special
note are the menacing figure
with the sword, on the left,
who represents the underclass,
and the street urchin
brandishing pistols. (Erich
Lessing/Art Resource, NY)
Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People

19. Constitutional Government,
Denmark
On March 21, 1848, 15,000
Danes, marched on the palace
to demand constitutional
rights. Unlike in the French
capital, this event was
peaceful and led to the
establishment of
constitutional government.
This painting honors the new
parliament that came into
being after the liberal
constitution was adopted in
1849. (Statens Museum fur
Kunst, Copenhagen)
Constitutional Government, Denmark

20. 1848 Revolutions
• Austria, March 1848:
Metternich was forced to
resign. Liberals set up an
assembly to draft a
constitution.
• Hungarians led by Lajos
Kossuth demanded home
rule, as did Czechs.
• The Austrian government
abolished peasant feudal
dues. Lajos Kossuth

21. 1848 Revolutions
• Germany, March 1848: Friedrich
Wilhelm IV promised a new
Prussian assembly during a revolt in
Berlin.
• The Frankfurt Assembly drafted a
liberal constitution for a unified
Germany.
• Frederick William IV refused the
crown because it would limit his
authority. Disappointed German
liberals moved to the United States.

22. 1848 Revolutions
• Alphonse de Lamartine helped establish the Second French Republic with
universal male suffrage. Socialist Louis Blanc set up “right to work” national
workshops for the unemployed funded by land taxes.

23. 1848 Revolutions
• The middle class was shocked by socialist
agendas and allied with conservatives to
strengthen the police and increase censorship.
• French middle class teamed with the
conservative Party of Order to crush a workers'
revolt during June Days.
• December 1848: conservative Louis-Napoleon
Bonaparte was elected president of France in a
national plebiscite.
1848 – Louis-Napoleon

24. 1848 Revolutions
• By mid-1849 conservative monarchies crushed the
liberal revolutions and reestablished control.
• The Austrian army suppressed revolts in Vienna
and Prague. 300,000 Russian troops reestablished
order in Hungary.
• Franz Josef (r. 1848–1916) took the throne of
Austria and reestablished absolute monarchy.
• Absolutism was reestablished in Prussia too.
1848-1916 – Franz Josef

25. Revolutionary Justice in Vienna
As part of the conservative resurgence,
in October 1848 the Austrian minister
of war ordered up reinforcements for
an army that was marching on
Hungary.
In a last defiant gesture, the outraged
revolutionaries in Vienna seized the
minister and lynched him from a
lamppost for treason. The army then
reconquered the city in a week of
bitter fighting.
Revolutionary Justice in Vienna

26. The Second French Empire
• 1852: Louis-Napoleon was constitutionally
barred from a second presidential term. He
led a coup, proclaimed himself Napoleon III
of the Second French Empire, and censored
his critics.
• Reforms: Public works, railroads, and
housing were built; lines of credit were
opened; Paris was redeveloped; bread prices
were lowered; and labor disputes were
mediated. The middle class saw the state as
a safeguard against socialism.

27. Portrait of Napoleon III
This portrait of Napoleon III is an example of official art
glorifying the French emperor, who reigned from 1852 to
1870. He is framed by a Roman statue on his right and the
imperial eagle on his left, both symbols of strength and
glory. (Giraudon/Art Resource, NY)
Portrait of Napoleon III

28. The Crimean War
• 1853–1856: Russia preyed on the
Ottoman Empire, the “Sick Man of
Europe.” The Turks were supported
by Britain and France.
• First military use of telegraph, war
photography.

29. The Crimean War
• Disease killed about 125,000 men.
Nurse Florence Nightingale campaigned
for better battlefield medicine.

30. The Crimean War
• Russia’s defeat led Tsar Alexander II to
recognize the need for Russian modernization.
He pushed liberal reforms, including serf
emancipation (1861). However, most Russians
remained impoverished tenant peasants.
• Austrian support for the Allies destroyed its
good relations with Russia. The weakened
Concert System let Germany and Italy unify
unopposed.
Alexander II

33. Italian Unification
• Italy was under Austrian control
after 1815.

34. Italian Unification
• 1820s–1840s: Liberal secret societies were
dedicated to Risorgimento (Rising Again).
• Giuseppe Mazzini started
Young Italy (1831) to establish a
constitutional republic but failed to do so
during the 1848 revolutions.

35. Italian Unification
• 1859–1860: Victor Emmanuel II and
Prime Minister Camillo Cavour of
Piedmont-Sardinia allied with the French
to drive Austria out of northern Italy.
Camillo Cavour,
1852

36. Italian Unification
• Giuseppe Garibaldi’s romantic
nationalistic Red Shirts
captured southern Italy.
Garibaldi set sail for
Sicily in May 1860,
with 1000 poorly
armed, red-shirted
followers, to help
the island overthrow
its Bourbon ruler.

37. Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel
This painting/fresco depicts the
historic meeting between
Giuseppe Garibaldi and King
Victor Emmanuel in 1860.
This meeting sealed the
unification of northern and
southern Italy in a unified state.
With only the sleeve of his red
shirt showing, Garibaldi offers his
hand--and his conquests--to the
uniformed king and his modern
monarchical government.
Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel

38. Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel
RIGHT LEG IN THE BOOT AT LAST
Garibaldi: “If it won’t go on, sire, try a little
more powder.”
Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel

39. Italian Unification
• Victor Emmanuel II was crowned king of
Italy (r. 1861–1878). Venice (1866) and
the Papal State (1870) were added, and
the capital moved to Rome.

41. German Unification
1815-1871:
Three Germanies
1. Prussia
2. Austria
3. Independent German states

42. German Unification
German Question:
• Austria wanted
unification of all
Germans into
one Greater
Germany.
• Prussia backed a
smaller Germany
excluding
Austria.

43. German Unification
German Question:
• Kleindeutsch
(Little Germany)
led by Prussia?
or
• Grossdeutsch
(Big Germany)
led by Austria?

44. German Unification
• Friedrich List
championed the
Zollverein custom
union (1834).

45. German Unification
• After the Frankfurt Assembly (1848) failed
when Frederick William IV of Prussia refused
the crown, Otto von Bismarck undertook
unification not by liberal “speeches and votes”
but by conservative “iron and blood.”
Otto von Bismarck

46. German Unification
• “The less people know about how sausages
and laws are made, the better they’ll sleep at
night.”
• “Never believe in anything until it has been
officially denied.”
• “The great questions of the day will not be
settled by speeches and majority decisions—
that was the mistake of 1848-1849—but by
blood and iron.”
Otto von Bismarck

47. German Unification
• Prussia launched three wars of
unification vs. Denmark (1864), Austria
(1866), and France (1870–1871).

48. German Unification
Franco-Prussian War, 1870–1871:
• Napoleon III of France was captured at the Battle of Sedan and deposed.

49. German Unification
Franco-Prussian War, 1870–1871:
• Prussians occupied Paris.
• Wilhelm I was crowned
Kaiser at Versailles.
Kaiser Wilhelm I
The ultimate blow to French pride was the proclamation of
the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.

50. German Unification
Franco-Prussian War, 1870–1871:
• Alsace-Lorraine was annexed,
and Germany became the
dominant continental power.

52. German Social Reforms
• The conservative German Chancellor Otto von
Bismarck created the first welfare state to undercut
political support for Socialists.
• The Sickness Insurance Law (1883) provided health
insurance.
• The Accident Insurance Law (1884) paid for medical
treatment and provided 2/3 of wages if fully
disabled.
• The Old Age Pension Law (1889) provided annuity
for workers over 70.

53. The Dual Monarchy of
Austria-Hungary
Multiethnic:
• German Austrians =
25% of population
• Hungarians = 20%
• Slavic minorities
(Czechs, Poles,
Ukrainians, Serbs,
Croatians, others)
= 50%,
• Italians = 3%
• 11 major languages
spoken

54. The Dual Monarchy of
Austria-Hungary
• 1867–1918:
Hungary gained
domestic self-rule
but shared foreign
policy with Austria.
• Liberal freedoms
were adopted.
• Slavs desired
greater autonomy.

55. The Dual Monarchy of
Austria-Hungary
• 1890s–1910s: Georg
Schönerer pushed Pan-
Germanism.
• Mayor of Vienna Karl
Lueger’s Christian
Socialism appealed to the
lower middle classes and
skilled labor.
• Both were anti-Semitic and
influenced Adolf Hitler.

57. Cover page of Die Wehr
One of many nationalist movements, the German
Army League ran organized campaigns for increases in
German army expenditures. Their newspaper enjoyed
a circulation of over 300,000.
This engraving from the cover page of a 1914 edition
of their newspaper suggests that just as Germans had
to rally for the fatherland in 1813 and 1870, so they
may again have to defend it.
(From The German Army League, Marilyn Shevin
Coetzee (Oxford University Press))
Cover page of Die Wehr

58. Anti-Semitism and Zionism
• British Houston Stewart Chamberlain’s
Foundations of 19th Century (1899)
claimed civilization was saved from
Jewish corruption when Aryan Germans
invaded the Roman Empire.
Chamberlain feared race-mixing.
• Members of the Jewish Rothschild
family were the world’s richest bankers
reinforcing conspiracy theories. Russian
secret police chief’s Protocols of Elders
of Zion (1903) reported false global
domination plot by Jews.
“Rothschild,” a Jewish banker with the
world in his hands.
by C. Léandre; France, 1898

59. “The
biggest
usurer
in the
world”,
Vienna,
Austria
1910
Anti-Semitism and Zionism
• British Houston Stewart Chamberlain’s
Foundations of 19th Century (1899)
claimed civilization was saved from
Jewish corruption when Aryan Germans
invaded the Roman Empire.
Chamberlain feared race-mixing.
• Members of the Jewish Rothschild
family were the world’s richest bankers
reinforcing conspiracy theories. Russian
secret police chief’s Protocols of Elders
of Zion (1903) reported false global
domination plot by Jews.

60. Anti-Semitism and Zionism
• The myth of the cursed, eternally
Wandering Jew came to represent the
stateless Jewish community in the
nationalistic era.
• Jews blamed for assassination of Tsar
Alexander II (1881). Russian anti-Semitic
pogroms killed about 250,000 Jews.
• French Dreyfus Affair convinced
Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl to call
for a Jewish State (1896), which began the
Zionist movement.
Theodor
Herzl

61. The French Dreyfus Affair
• 1870–1940: The Third French Republic
survived until Nazi occupation.
• It was beset by the Boulanger Affair,
Panama Canal Affair, and Dreyfus Affair.
Alfred Dreyfus

62. The French Dreyfus Affair
Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish captain in the French
army, was falsely accused and convicted of
treason. Top army leaders branded Dreyfus as
a traitor despite evidence to the contrary.
Dreyfus being shunned

63. From the
postcard
series
"Museum
of Horror"
showing
Dreyfus

65. Alliance Systems
• 1871: Bismarck practiced
realpolitik. He declared
Germany a "satisfied power"
and established alliances to
maintain a stable peace.
• 1882: Germany, Austria, and
Italy formed the Triple Alliance.

66. Alliance Systems
• 1888: Kaiser Wilhelm II dismissed Bismarck.
Kaiser Wilhelm II

67. Alliance Systems
• 1894: Fear of Germany led
Russia to ally itself with
France.
• 1914: The intensifying
German-British imperial rivalry
and naval arms race led Britain
to join France and Russia in
the Triple Entente.

68. Russian Revolution of 1905
• 1905: Russia suffered a humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War.

69. Russian Revolution of 1905
• 1905: Russia suffered a humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War.

70. Russian Revolution of 1905
• 1905: Russia’s defeat sparked the liberal Revolution of 1905. A new
constitution was adopted, and the legislative Duma was formed.

71. 1905 "Freedom" poster
This peasant woman, who appears as the symbol of
radical demands in the Russian countryside in the
revolution of 1905, holds aloft a red socialist banner that
reads "Freedom!"
This vibrant drawing is on the first page of a new review
featuring political cartoons from the rapidly growing
Russian popular press. (New York Public Library, Slavonic
Division)
1905 "Freedom" poster

72. Balkan Crises
• 1878: Russia
championed
Pan-Slavism and
helped Romania,
Serbia,
Montenegro,
and Bulgaria win
independence.
• Austria-Hungary
annexed Bosnia-
Herzegovina.

73. Uprising in Bulgaria poster
This 1879 lithograph, Free Bulgaria, depicts Bulgaria
in the form of a maiden--protected by the Russian
eagle, breaking her chains, and winning liberty from
the Ottoman Empire. Semi-autonomy in 1879 was
followed by unification under Alexander of
Battenberg. (St. Cyril and Methodius National Library,
Sofia)
Uprising in Bulgaria poster

74. Balkan Crises
• Balkan Wars, 1912–1913: Bulgaria,
Greece, Serbia, and Montenegro drove
the Turks from Macedonia and Albania
and then turned on each other.

75. 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910
1810
1914:
Triple
Entente
of
France,
Russia,
and
Great
Britain;
World
War
I
erupted;
and
Irish
Home
Rule
delayed
1814-1815:
Napoleon
defeated;
Congress
of
Vienna
1820s-1830s:
Liberal
revolts
suppressed
1830:
Greek
Independence;
Belgium
Revolution
1846:
Irish
Potato
Famine/Hungry
’40s
1848:
“Springtime
of
Nations”
Revolutions
1852:
Second
French
Empire
born
1853-1856:
Crimean
War
1861:
Abolition
of
Russian
serfdom;
US
Civil
War
began
1867:
Dual
Monarchy
of
Austria-Hungary
formed
1870:
Italy
united
1871:
Franco-Prussian
War;
Germany
united
1878:
Balkan
independence
from
Ottoman
Empire
1882:
Triple
Alliance
of
Germany,
Austria-Hungary,
and
Italy
1890s-1910s:
Pan-Germanism;
Anti-Semitism
1905:
Russo-Japanese
War;
Russian
Revolution
of
1905
1912-1913:
Balkan
Crises