Shaping of the Modern World

 

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Brooklyn College Core Curriculum:
The Shaping of the Modern World

Section 11: The Nationalist Dream

Introduction: This Week's Goals

Nationalism challenged Liberalism as the political ideology with most impact in 19th century Europe, as well as in North and South America. In the 20th century, it has remained one of the most potent of all political ideals. Our goals this week are:

  • To understand that Nationalism comes in many forms:
    • Cultural
    • Liberal
    • Triumphal
  • To understand which groups in society promoted Nationalist ideals, and which groups were receptive to those ideals.
  • To examine and understand the contribution of Romanticism to the ideological foundations of Nationalism.
  • To identify the roots of Nationalism in Liberal constitutional theory.
  • To have a clear idea of the political impact of Nationalism in the 19th century:
    • In Germany
    • In Italy
    • On Austria and the Ottoman Empire
  • To examine the myth-making that is essential to the Nationalist dream.

Text

Kagan, 734-42, 744-49, 801-22, [828-32], 857-58

Multimedia

Sources

Outline

I. Introduction

This section looks at Nationalism. We are going to try and get an idea of why it was most successful creed of the 19th Century, and also look at its most dramatic effects - the creation of two major European states - Germany and Italy. We are also going to take special note of how nationalism changes and spreads.

In an important sense Nationalism represents a reaction against Cosmopolitanism, the Enlightenment ideal that all human beings belong to one family.

  • Voltaire (1694-1778): Patrie, in The Philosophical Dictionary, 1752

Enlightenment culture had emphasized:

  • A common language - Latin and French (e.g. in Russia much of the nobility took to speaking French)
  • The universality of Reason.
  • The common intellectual world of the educated middle class and nobility.

II. Music and Nationalism

Nationalism and Music [work your way though this document]

Music is one way to think about the various stages of Nationalism. Different "nations" went through different stages at different times, and sometimes all three stages intermingled. Still, we can see a certain progression in thought. 

The music below illustrates the way nationalism tended to develop over the 19th Century. But the development was not uniform. It began in France, moved quickly to Germany. Only later in the century did it spread to Slavic countries, which had been dead as nations for centuries, with languages surviving only as peasant tongues - Czechs, Norwegians, Poles, Rumanians.  Smetana, for instance, could not speak Czech at first.

A. Cultural Nationalism

  • Jean Sibelius - Finnish
    • Finlandia, Opus 26, 1899 -- banned in 1917.
  • Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884) - Czech
    • Vltava [The Moldau] from Ma Vlast [My Fatherland]

These tunes both illustrates the cultural nationalism -- or promotion of the significance of a culture as valuable against the "international culture" -- that was original to German and Italian nationalism.

Later on in the century spreads to other nations, and was especially seen in Music:

  • Norway - Edvard Greig
  • Poland - Chopin
  • Czechoslovakia - Smetana, Dvorak
  • Russia - Mussorgsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsokov

Associated movements revived old folktales

B. Liberal Nationalism

  • Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), "Va, pensiero" -
    • "Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves" from Nabucco 1842

The "Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves", Va Pensiero, from Verdi's opera Nabucco (1842) attained great political significance. Va Pensiero became the Italians' song of liberation, for, in the oppressed Hebrews, they found a symbol of their own longing for reunification with Lombardy, which was occupied by Austria. The unison chorus (one of the few da capo choruses in all opera) became the underground "national hymn", a sort of National Anthem, with people yearning to be free of the Austrian domination of the country. "Viva Verdi" [="long live Verdi,"  a typical cheer at the end of an opera] became "Viva V.E.R.D.I"  [= "Long live Vittorio Emmanuale Rei de Italia," a reference to the King of Piedmont-Sardinia, to whom Italian Nationalists looked as a potential unifier of Italy] --  a political thing to shout in Milan's La Scala opera house.

This is a more obviously political message than Smetana's.

C. Triumphal Nationalism

  • Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
    • "Triumphal March" from Aida 1871
  • Edward Elgar
    • Pomp and Circumstance March No 1, Adopted, with the help of Marie Lloyd as "Land of Hope and Glory"

Aida was written 30 years after Nabucco and we can hear a change in nationalism. It is no longer cultural, or even a yearning to be free. Now it is triumphalistic, exalting one people over another - this was not necessarily Verdi's own view of the matter.

[Aida written in 1871 to celebrate the opening of the Suez canal, became the model for a choral opera. Aida is a work in the grand style, a tragic love story against a freely- invented plot about a war between Egypt and Ethiopia. The `triumphal act' depicts Egypt's victory over Ethiopia, whose prisoners are lead in chains across the stage. The trumpets, one and half meters long, were specially designed for this opera. Although Verdi, as well as being a great composer, was a famous liberal, the triumphal scene well illustrates the attractions of overbearing nationalism.]

III. Origins of Nationalism

A. What is a Nation?

  • -not a state
  • -not a political entity

Usually thought of as combining:

  • -common history
  • -common language [problem in Eastern Europe]
  • -common religion
  • -self-awareness of group status

B. The Impact of the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity

French revolutionary ideas stressed the rights of the people. The people come to have their own significance as a unit.

C. Reaction to French Revolution

The French spread their ideals all over Europe. But they dominated the other countries. People in these other countries took up the ideals of the French Rev. and applied them to their own situation, especially in Germany. The last part of the war against Napoleon was known as the War of Liberation in Germany. There had never been a united German state, but Germans saw what power a united France had achieved.

D. Romanticism

An intellectual reaction against the Enlightenment emphasis on reason. Looked more to emotion and feeling as sources of truth. This had been growing up in Germany in the late 18th/early 19th Century.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau - in Emile in 1762 had already begun to long for the natural man. Feeling for one's country was promoted by romantics, along with feeling for birds, trees and nature.

II. Cultural Nationalism

Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803)

Oddly enough one of the earliest people to promote cultural nationalism was a German philosopher - Herder.  He, however, was inspired by the culture of the Letts (Latvians). Herder lived in Riga a German town in Latvia.

He was interested in Lettish culture. He argued that each nation had its own "nature" which should be respected.

Herder also applied these ideas to his own German culture - in opposition to cosmopolitan French Culture. The Grimm brother were his followers. Collecting Fairy tales was to preserve Germany's true nature.

Two German Romantics

  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) - Germany's greatest poet.
  • Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814)

German Philosopher - German Idealism saw the world as a creation of subjective egos. - i.e. the world is created by humankind. The world is like it is because strong willed people make it like it is (GREAT MAN IN HISTORY IDEA).

Cultural Nationalism goes hand in hand with romanticism, and is a huge middle class movement.

Examples:-

  • Scotland: Sir Walter Scott, Ossian
  • Germany: Grimm's Fairy tales
  • England: Folklorism
  • Russia: Use of peasant music.

III. Liberal Nationalism

Nationalism was initially linked with Liberals who, especially in Germany and Italy lead the call for unity versus the old rulers. The idea of the people making up the nation and nationalism can go well together - idea of popular sovereignty. Liberals in Germany especially tended to stress the power of the state to unify - more than English liberals.

Failure of Liberal Nationalism in 1848

Nationalist Liberals lead all 1848 revolutions but none obtained their goals - 1848 marks, especially for Germany and Italy the beginning of a new sort of nationalism. Unification of Germany and Italy was supported by the liberals, but it was Kings, not the "people" who eventually bring it about.

The failure of 1848 marked a break between liberalism and nationalism but one that perhaps is inherent. The main concern of Liberals was with constitutional government: Nationalists  were, it turned out, much more committed to the unification of the "nation" by any means.

IV. Political Unification: Italy

A Story of three men:

  • Giuseppe Mazzini - the publicist
  • Camillo Cavour - the statesman
  • Giuseppe Garibaldi - the soldier.

Until 1850 Italy was dominated by Austria, and a battle ground for the great powers. 8 States. Italy was a geographical expression. Between 1815-1848 - many Italians began to want national Unity - but many more apathetic. The Kingdom of Sardinia/Piedmont, only Italian dynasty was the natural leader. The Pope opposed nationalism, but  some wanted him to unite Italy.

Nationalist ideas spread in the early 19th century. The Carbonari -- a secret Italian republican society -- led revolts in 1820 and 1831.

Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872) was the "Prophet of Italian Nationalism". He founded a group called Young Italy  to drive Austria out, and was involved in the Roman Republic of 1848-49. He used the Tuscan dialect as the "Italian Language" - harking back to Dante. This is a classic case of Nationalist invention -  at the time perhaps 2% of the Italian population spoke good Tuscan and Mazzini needed a translator to speak to the Italian crowds!

Unification came by Military and Diplomatic means.

Count Camillo Cavour (1810-1864) was the semi-liberal minister of Kingdom of Sardinia. 1851 to 1861. He built Sardinia into a modern and economically sound state.

Cavour's aims:

  • To Bring Northern Italy under Sardinia's control
  • To show Piedmont as a serious power - e.g. he entered troops in the Crimean War. Not concerned with the South

His methods were as much diplomatic as military.

  • Cavour used France to engineer a war with Austria in 1859 - War of Independence [Battle of Salferno - leads to the Red Cross]
  • Got hold of Lombardy and smaller Northern states
  • Also got most of papal states, but not the area around Rome. (1860)
  • New Kingdom of Italy proclaimed with Victor Emmanuel I in 1860 - but without Rome and Venice.

Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882) and the Red Shirts With British Help landed in Sicily and then swept through the old Bourbon kingdom of Naples.(1860) So despite Cavour, Southern Italy becomes part of the Italian state. This Garibaldi forced on Cavour, but Garibaldi had to accept a Monarchy.

Italy took advantage of Austro-Prussian war of 1866 to get hold of Venetia - due to a previous agreement with Bismarck. The Final Act was in  1871 during the Franco-Prussian war. France, which was protecting Rome for the pope,  had to withdraw troops from Rome. Italian state troops move in and take Rome - united Italy.

Italy United but Divided

  • North and South
  • Pro-State and Pro-Pope parties: the pope becomes "Prisoner of the Vatican," and issue not solved until 1929 and the Concordat with Mussolini.
  • Huge class divisions

V. Political Unification:  Germany

A Story of three wars.

After 1848 Prussia was strongest state in Germany. If Germany was to be united it would have to be by Prussia.

William I (1861-1888) had a problem of controlling the Prussian Parliament and getting money - he recruited Bismarck. 1862. Had been Ambassador to Russia and France. (and in 1848 to Frankfurt Assembly)

Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898)

The most remarkable political leader of late 19th century. He ruled Prussia from 1862, and Germany from 1871, to 1890, as Chancellor.

Blood and Iron - Speech to Parliament 1862 - Bismarck saw Germany would not be united by the liberals who had no power base, but rather by blood and iron.   But we should be aware that his unification policy also was away of deflating the power of liberals in the Prussian state. He fulfilled their goals better than the did. He did it by ignoring the law when it suited him.

Debates about him:

  • Did he intend to pursue the course of actions which led to the unification of Germany when he began, or did luck play a part?
  • Did the manner in which Germany was united seriously pervert the German nation and political character, and lead to Germany's history in the 20th century?

Steps in the Unification of Germany

  • Zollverein [A customs union] 1834: Pushed idea of non-Austrian Germany.
  • 1848 - Frankfurt Assembly debated issue of  Klein [little] or Gross [big] Deutschland. In other words, should Austria be included. The Problem was that Austria contained many other nationalities than Germans
  • Three Prussian  Wars
    • War with Denmark 1864
      • Schleswig-Holstein - cause of the dispute.
      • Austria supports Prussia.
      • Prussia becomes leader of Germany.
    • War with Austria 1866 - lasts 7 weeks
      • Austria isolated from France and Russia
      • Victory meant Austria gave up its role in Germany.
      • North German Confederation established in 1866. It established the structure of Bundesrat and Reichstag which was later used when the Southern German states were added five years later..
    • War with France 1870-71 - Over Spanish Marriages.
      • Bismarck doctors the Ems telegram to insult France.
      • Brings Southern Germany into war with France, claims Alsace-Lorraine
      • Prussia Wins - 1870 - Battle of Sedan.
  • The German Empire [Reich] 1871
    • Empire proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles in 1871.
    • All German state, maintaining some independence agree to join a German Empire.
    • United German Parliament: the Bundesrat, lower house called the Reichstag.
    • Germany is united by semi-authoritarian nationalism.
    • This was the "Second Reich." [The first was the "holy Roman Empire" of the middle ages; the "Third" was to be Nazi Germany.]

The manner of Germany's unification effects the kind of state it is. Not a liberal democracy, but a slightly limited monarchy, still dominated by the old ruling class, and not the bourgeoisie as in other countries. German political history for the rest of the century was to be about the attempts to keep control of the state by that old Prussian ruling class.

The new German Empire is the most important new political fact in Europe from 1871 on. It transforms the balance of economic, military and international power. The remarkable growth of industry soon enables it to challenge Great Britain's leadership.

VI. Austria-Hungary

After 1866 and the defeat by Prussia there is an internal crisis in Austria. . Solved by the Ausgleich [Compromise] of 1867. The Austrian Empire becomes Austria-Hungary. The Hungarians achieve virtual independence -the so called Dual Monarchy. But Hungary covered larger than the area covered by Magyar speakers - so there were still ethnic tensions in the Habsburg lands as other groups began to make their nationalist claims.

  • Slavic Nationalism in Poland
  • Slavic Nationalism among the Southern Slavs (Serbs, Croats, etc.)
  • Growth of Anti-Semitism in Austria
    • Jews were presented as not part of any nation
    • Jews were presented as cosmopolitan
    • Anti-Semitism grows especially in Vienna, where anti-Semitic political parties began to be created.
    • One result is the growth of Jewish Nationalism -- Zionism -- under the leadership of an Austrian journalist called Theodore Herzl.
    • Theodor Herzl (1860-1904)
      Founder of Zionism
    • Theodor Herzl (1860-1904): On the Jewish State, 1896

VII.. Effects of Defeat of 1870 in France

  • Fall of Louis Napoleon
  • The Third Republic - lasts until 1940.
  • Liberal Nationalism still important - given Frances lack of conflict over self-definition.

VIII. Nationalism in the Late 19th Century

By 1875 the idea of the nation-state had triumphed. Governments now looked for citizen participation as a factor in their effectiveness. Major sources of future discontent would arise from the demands of labour to be admitted to the political process, and the demands of small nations that wanted to be but were not yet nation-states. Major sources of danger would come from nations attempts to promote their own interests.

US and Nationalism. Often US history is discussed as if it had nothing in common with European events.  Although he is not usually thought of in this way, perhaps Abraham Lincoln can be seen alongside figures such as Mazzini and Bismarck.

In the older nations - Jingoism, or triumphal nationalism.

A new imperialism after 1848, esp. after 1870, often had a triumphal nationalism aspect. [See section 13].  This idea also had American echoes - see the text on Manifest Destiny.

Web Exercise

This exercise is by far the most important part of this week's work!

There is no use pretending that current events in the Balkans are not driven by nationalism.  Some of the same currents can be seen in the Israel/Palestinian conflict.  Your project this week, then, is to examine competing websites of   modern nationalists, and to evaluate them. If one student has already looked at one set of sites, make sure to choose another.

  • Locate two websites which adopt the following points of view:
    • Serbian Nationalism
    • Kosovar/Albanian Nationalism
  • Or you could look at websites for the following pairs of views:
    • Jewish Nationalism (Zionism) || Palestinian Nationalism
    • Turkish Nationalism || Kurdish Nationalism
    • Indian Nationalism || Pakistani Nationalism
    • Turkish Nationalism || Greek Nationalism
    • Macedonian Nationalism || Greek Nationalism
  • When you have located two websites that represent opposing nationalisms, find within the site the discussion of the given nation's history. [Nationalism almost always depends on some account of history.]
  • Compare the account of history given by the pair of websites you have chosen:
    • What periods in history does each side emphasize?
    • How does each side seek to "prove" a point?
    • Can you see any false [i.e. factually untrue] claims or fallacious [i.e. illicit or invalid] arguments made by each side.
    • What aspects fo Romantic nationalism does each side appeal to? And what aspects of Liberal nationalism?
    • How does each website treat the other side?

Discussion Questions

1. What was the appeal of Nationalism to early 19th century Germans?

2. How did Liberalism and Nationalism complement each other?

3. What separates Liberalism and Nationalism?

4. What was the challenge of Nationalism to the Austrian Empire?

5. Why was the Creation of  a united Germany so important?

6. Are some nationalisms better than others?

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created 9/11/1998 : revised 5/14/1999