Lecture 4 Nationstate building in the 19th century

1
Lecture 4Nation-state building in the 19th
century

• Congress of Vienna
• Restoration of Europe
• Challenges in the name of liberalism
• Challenges in the name of nationalism
• 1830-33 Liberal revolutions
• Europe 1833
• 1848 revolutions
• 19th century revolutionary
• forces

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Objectives

• To understand divergent trajectories of 19th
  century state-building
• Concepts the nation, the state, nation-state

3
Introduction

• Industrial and national revolution the twin
  revolution (Reinhard Bendix)
• Nation-building after the French Revolution an
  implosion of originally 500 state-like structure
  to only a dozen (Tilly 1975)
• Two approaches
• state or civic nationalism top-down, elite
  driven process state-building (United Kingdom,
  Germany 1871)
• Popular or ethnic nationalism (bottom-up
  grass-roots movements nation-building (Italy,
  Germany 1848)
• The world today 200 states and 5000 nations
  (UNPO)

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The nation
To have common glories in the past, a common will
in the present to have done great things
together to wish to do greater these are the
essential conditions which make up a people.
(Ernest Renan, 1882)

• A mythical and intellectual construct with a
  highly persuasive and powerful political force
• (Oxford Concise Dictionary of Politics, 2003)

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the
measles of mankind. (Albert Einstein ,
attributed)
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A model of nation-building (Almond and Pye)

• State-building
• a rational bureaucracy in order to mobilize
  resources (taxes, work force)
• public order and coordinate tasks (development of
  infrastructure, defence)
• rules in order to guarantee equal access to the
  public sector
• Nation-building
• media systems and socializing institutions
  (schools, information and communication systems)
• institutionalized rites and symbols (myths,
  flags, anthems etc.)
• create loyalty and trust among the citizens in
  favour of respective political institutions
• secure obedience to the law
• Consolidation of System
• Extension of franchise for formerly unprivileged
  groups, protection of minority rights
• Establishment of institutions in order to promote
  social security

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The imagined community

• B. Anderson, E. Hobsbawm, E. Gellner
• The nation as an artificial construct
• Re-writing of history (Charlemagne)
• Glorification of the past (myths, monuments
  storming of the Bastille)
• Standardization of language (English, Norwegian,
  Greek)
• Invention of tradition (costumes, festivals,
  literature, music, art)
• National identity creation (education, media,
  money, army)
• National ethnology (the Aryan race)

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Congress of Vienna (1815)

• met to end Napoleonic wars and to keep France in
  check
• Holy Alliance (Austria/Prussia/Russia)
  agreement to uphold Christian principles of
  charity and peace restore monarchy suppress
  revolution
• Concert of Europe lasted from 1815 until the
  Crimean War of the 1850s
• Provided for concerted action to arrest any
  threat to the peace or balance of power (right of
  intervention)
• Congress System European international relations
  controlled by series of meetings balance of
  power

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Restoration of Europe

• Liberals saw it as unholy alliance of monarchies
  against liberty and progress
• National movements disappointed about back to
  business as usual
• Prussia
• successful prevention of Germany to become a
  Nation-state
• Prussia becomes more German as it moves to the
  centre of Europe
• seen as a potential threat for the balance of
  powers in the European Concert
• France
• Territories gained under Napoleon returned
• Basically retained pre-Napoleonic shape
• Habsburg Empire
• Multi-ethnic composition
• Meant liberalism and nationalism were potentially
  more dangerous than in other countries.

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Europe 1815
10
Challenges by liberalism

• Individualism
• Laws
• Constitutions
• Political rights
• Spain/Portugal
• Switzerland
• Italy
• Germany

Liberal ideology
Liberal-national movements
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Challenges by nationalism

• Citizenship, modernism, democracy
• State as embodiment of the nation
• 1. Territory, (regions, artificial borders)
• 2. People (homogeneous)
• 3. Government (democratic)
• Greece (1830) Belgium (1831)
• Italy (1861) Germany (1871)

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19th century revolutionary forces

• Liberals (constitutional reforms)
• Republicans (opposed to monarchy and church)
• Socialists (proletarian revolution)
• Artisans (economic protection)
• Poor (employment and bread)
• integrative nationalists (Italy, Germany)
• secessionist nationalists (Hungary, Greece)

?
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1830-33 Liberal revolutions

• ?Revolutions of 1830 sparked by wave of
  liberalism and nationalism, supported by growing
  middle class and economic growth
• France July Revolution (1830) radical revolt in
  Paris forced reactionary Charles X to abdicate
  his throne
• Italy (1831-32) Northern ItalyModena, Parma,
  and Papal States outbreaks of liberal
  discontent
• Germany (1830-1833) July Revolution in France
  inspired German university students Carlsbad
  Decree (1819) invoked
• Belgium (1830) revolt against Dutch rule in
  Brussels, led by students and industrial workers
  -gtIndependence in 1839, the Great Powers
  declared the neutrality of Belgium.

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1830-33 Liberal revolutions

• ?1833 Europe is split in two camps
• Germany
• Italy
• Poland
• Austria
• France, Belgium
• Switzerland, Portugal
• Spain, Britain

Conservative and reactionary forces prevail
liberal movement suppressed
Liberal constitutionalism prevails with
constitutional monarchs and parliamentary
institutions
15
1848 revolutions

• the watershed political event of the 19th century
• 1848 revolutions influenced by romanticism,
  nationalism, and liberalism, as well as economic
  dislocation and instability
• only Britain and Russia avoided significant
  upheaval
• Neither liberals or conservatives could gain
  permanent upper hand
• Last of liberal revolutions dating back to the
  French Revolution

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1848 revolutions

• Initially succeeded because of unprepared
  governments
• Gained public support throughout society
  (peasants, intellectuals, middle class)
• Basically failed in all countries because of
  strong state oppositions and lack of political
  coherence
• Germany Friedrich-Wilhelm IV rejects crown from
  revolutionaries
• France Napoleon III wins elections and declares
  himself Emperor in 1852
• Italy revolution suppressed by Austrian forces

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1848 revolutions

• Resulted in
• end of serfdom in Austria and Germany
• universal male suffrage in France
• parliaments in German states (although controlled
  by princes nobility)
• stimulated unification impulse in Prussia and
  Sardinia-Piedmont

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Summary 19th century revolutionary uprisings

• 1830 Liberal demands plus nationalism
• France
• Spain
• Portugal
• 1848 liberal demands nationalist demands,
  liberal-nationalist demands
• France
• Spain
• Belgium
• Switzerland

Germany Italy Belgium
Germany Italy Austria-Hungary
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Summary New European States 1815-1914

• 1830 Greece (separated from Ottoman Empire)
• 1831 Belgium (separated from Netherlands)
• 1861 Italy (united dozen of kingdoms and
  provinces)
• 1871 Germany (united dozens of provinces and
  German states, but not Austria)
• 1878 Romania, Serbia,
• Montenegro (sep. from Ottoman Empire)
• 1905 Norway (separated from Sweden)
• 1878/1908 Bulgaria (separated from Ottoman
  Empire)
• 1913 Albania (separated from Ottoman Empire)

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Summary

• Liberalism, nationalism and democracy different
  concepts but emerged combined in the 19th century
  state-building processes
• A new world order along national(-state) lines
• Liberal nationalism brought citizenship rights,
  modernity and finally the welfare state
• Aggressive nationalism turned into the horror of
  two world wars