5 Chapter 5: Nationalism and Nation-building
The nineteenth century was a period of profound political and social transformation in Europe, as the old order of dynastic empires and absolute monarchies increasingly confronted the powerful new idea of nationalism. Emerging from the intellectual currents of the Enlightenment and strengthened by the French Revolution, nationalism emphasized the belief that people who shared a common language, culture, history, or traditions constituted a “nation” and therefore should have the right to govern themselves. The upheavals of the Napoleonic era helped spread these ideas across Europe, inspiring both resistance to French domination and new visions of political community. During the nineteenth century, national identity increasingly became a source of political legitimacy, challenging established empires and encouraging movements for independence, constitutional government, and national unity.
The process of nation-building, however, was neither uniform nor peaceful. In some regions, nationalists sought to unite fragmented territories, as occurred with the creation of Italy and Germany; elsewhere, nationalist movements sought independence from multinational empires such as the Austrian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires. Governments themselves also embraced nationalism, using education, military service, language policies, public ceremonies, and national symbols to create a stronger sense of shared identity among their populations. Nationalism could therefore be both a force for political liberation and a tool for state power. By the end of the nineteenth century, the idea of the nation had become one of the most powerful organizing principles of European political life, reshaping borders, identities, and relationships between states while also creating new tensions among Europe’s diverse peoples.
The first source is a poem by the German-speaking writer Ernst Arendt. Though short on detail, it provides a strong testament to how German-speakers understood what should encompass a unified state. The following two sections, 5.2 and 5.3 both include numerous excerpts from various documents that trace the development of the future countries of Italy and Germany. While you read these sources focus on the idea of how nationalism was understood. As you come to this understanding, also take note of how each country went about the process of nation building.
5.1 Ernst Moritz Arndt: The German Fatherland (1813)
Ernst Moritz Arndt (1769–1860) was a German writer whose work became particularly influential during the Napoleonic Wars. He strongly opposed French domination of the German states and promoted the idea that Germans shared a common language, culture, and historical identity. His writings helped popularize the emerging concept of German nationalism, particularly among students and other supporters of German unity. Arndt’s poem “The German Fatherland” (Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland?), written in 1813, asks what should constitute the German homeland. His answer gives an insight to the understanding of nationalism in the formation of Germany.
The following is replicated in its entirety from Eva March Tappan, ed., The World’s Story: A History of the World in Story, Song and Art, 14 Vols., (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1914), Vol. VII: Germany, The Netherlands, and Switzerland, pp. 276-278
WHERE is the German’s fatherland?
The Prussian land? The Swabian land?
Where Rhine the vine-clad mountain laves?
Where skims the gull the Baltic waves?
Ah, no, no, no!
His fatherland ‘s not bounded so!Where is the German’s fatherland?
Bavarian land? or Stygian land?
Where sturdy peasants plough the plain?
Where mountain-sons bright metal gain?
Ah, no, no, no!
His fatherland’s not bounded so!Where is the German’s fatherland?
The Saxon hills? The Zuyder strand?
Where sweep wild winds the sandy shores
Where loud the rolling Danube roars?
Ah, no, no, no!
His fatherland ‘s not bounded so!Where is the German’s fatherland?
Then name, then name the mighty land!
The Austrian land in fight renowned?
The Kaiser’s land with honors crowned?
Ah, no, no, no!
His fatherland ‘s not bounded so!Where is the German’s fatherland?
Then name, then name the mighty land!
The land of Hofer? land of Tell?
This land I know, and love it well;
But, no, no, no!
His fatherland ‘s not bounded so!Where is the German’s fatherland?
Is his the pieced and parceled land
Where pirate-princes rule? A gem
Torn from the empire’s diadem?
Ah, no, no, no!
Such is no German’s fatherland.Where is the German’s fatherland?
Then name, oh, name the mighty land!
Wherever is heard the German tongue,
And German hymns to God are sung!
This is the land, thy Hermann’s land;
This, German, is thy fatherland.This is the German’s fatherland,
Where faith is in the plighted hand,
Where truth lives in each eye of blue,
And every heart is staunch and true.
This is the land, the honest land,
The honest German’s fatherland.This is the land, the one true land,
O God, to aid be thou at hand!
And fire each heart, and nerve each arm,
To shield our German homes from harm,
To shield the land, the one true land,
One Deutschland and one fatherland!
Source:From: Eva March Tappan, ed., The World’s Story: A History of the World in Story, Song and Art, 14 Vols., (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1914), Vol. VII: Germany, The Netherlands, and Switzerland, pp. 276-278
This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern European and World history. Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the document is copyright. Permission is granted for electronic copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal use. If you do reduplicate the document, indicate the source. No permission is granted for commercial use. © Paul Halsall, November 1998
5.2 Documents of Italian Unification (1846-61)
The political unification of Italy, known as the Risorgimento (“Resurgence”), was the nineteenth-century movement that transformed the Italian peninsula from a collection of independent states into the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. For centuries, the peninsula had been divided among kingdoms, duchies, republics, and territories controlled both locally and by foreign powers, particularly the Austrian Empire. Inspired by nationalism, liberalism, and the idea that Italians shared a common cultural identity, nationalist leaders sought to create a unified Italian state.
Unification was achieved through a combination of popular nationalism, diplomacy, political leadership, and military conquest. Figures such as Count Camillo di Cavour, who used diplomacy and the power of Piedmont-Sardinia to advance unification, and Giuseppe Garibaldi, whose military campaigns helped bring southern Italy into the new kingdom, played crucial roles. Victor Emmanuel II became the first king of unified Italy in 1861. Further territorial gains followed, with Venetia joining Italy in 1866 and Rome becoming the capital in 1870, completing the political unification of most of the Italian peninsula. In the following collection of documents, pay attention to the why of Italian unification
The following is adapted from D. Zanichelli, ed., The Writings of Count Cavour (Bologna, 1892), The Annual Register or a View of the History and Politics of the Year 1858 (London, 1859), and Count C. Arrivabene, Italy under Victor Emmanuel (London, 1862).
The Program of Count Cavour, 1846:
The history of every age proves that no people can attain a high degree of intelligence and morality unless its feeling of nationality is strongly developed. This noteworthy fact is an inevitable consequence of the laws that rule human nature. . .Therefore, if we so ardently desire the emancipation of Italy–if we declare that in the face of this great question all the petty questions that divide us must be silenced–it is not only that we may see our country glorious and powerful but that above all we may elevate her in intelligence and moral development up to the plane of the most civilized nations. . .This union we preach with such ardor is not so difficult to obtain as one might suppose if one judged only by exterior appearances or if one were preoccupied with our unhappy divisions. Nationalism has become general; it grows daily; and it has already grown strong enough to keep all parts of Italy united despite the differences that distinguish them.
Count Cavour: Speech to the Piedmont Chamber of Deputies, 1858:
After the disaster of Novara and the Peace of Milan [1849], two courses were open to us. We could, bowing to adverse fate, renounce all the aspirations which had guided King Carlo Alberto during the last years of his reign, seal ourselves up within our frontiers, think only of the material and moral interests of this country [Piedmont-Sardinia]. . .On the other hand, we could, while accepting all the hardships imposed by accomplished facts, keep alive the faith that inspired the great actions of King Carlo Alberto, and, while declaring our firm intention to respect treaties, maintain in the political sphere the enterprise which was defeated in the military sphere [Italian unification]. . . In recent years, therefore, we have tried to do away with the last hindrances to our country, and we have lost no occasion to act as the spokesman and defender of the other peoples of Italy. This policy found one such occasion in the Crimean War. . .Our hopes were not disappointed in regard to the credit that Piedmont would acquire. As for the defense of the rights of Italy, that was our task in the course of the Congress of Paris. . . it was an outstanding fact that the cause of Italy was for the first time supported by an Italian power.
Report of the meeting of Count Cavour with Emperor Napoleon III of France, 1858:
The Emperor started by saying that he had decided to support Sardinia with all his forces in a war against Austria, provided that the war was undertaken for a non-revolutionary cause, which could be justified in the eyes of diplomacy and still more of public opinion in France and Europe.
Speech of Vittorio Emanuele I, King of Italy, 1861:
Free, and nearly entirely united, the opinion of civilized nations is favorable to us; the just and liberal principles, now prevailing in the councils of Europe, are favorable to us. Italy herself, too, will become a guarantee of order and peace, and will once more be an efficacious instrument of universal civilization. . .These facts have inspired the nation with great confidence in its own destinies. I take pleasure in manifesting to the first Parliament of Italy the joy I feel in my heart as king and soldier.
Source: D. Zanichelli, ed., The Writings of Count Cavour (Bologna, 1892), II:4-50; The Annual Register or a View of the History and Politics of the Year 1858 (London, 1859), pp. 186-188; Count C. Arrivabene, Italy under Victor Emmanuel (London, 1862), I:349-353.
This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern European and World history. Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the document is copyright. Permission is granted for electronic copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal use. If you do reduplicate the document, indicate the source. No permission is granted for commercial use. (c)Paul Halsall May1998
5.3 Documents of German Unification (1848-1871)
The political unification of Germany occurred during the nineteenth century when numerous independent German-speaking states were brought together into a single nation-state. After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the German lands remained divided among thirty-nine states loosely organized within the German Confederation. Growing nationalism encouraged many Germans to imagine a unified Germany, while economic cooperation through the Zollverein (the German Customs Union, a coalition of nineteenth-century German states formed to manage tariffs and economic policies) helped strengthen connections among the states. Failed revolutions in 1848–1849 demonstrated both the strength of German nationalism and the difficulty of achieving unification through liberal and democratic means.
German unification ultimately came under the leadership of the Kingdom of Prussia and its powerful chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck used diplomacy, military power, and a series of carefully managed wars to expand Prussian influence. Conflicts with Denmark (1864), Austria (1866), and France (1870–1871) helped rally the German states around Prussia. Following the defeat of France, William I of Prussia was proclaimed German Emperor at Versailles in January 1871, marking the creation of the German Empire. Unification demonstrated the growing power of nationalism while also illustrating how national identity could be harnessed by conservative political leaders to strengthen the authority of the state. The following collection of sources trace the development of nineteenth-century German nationalism and nation-building.
The following has been adapted from James Harvey Robinson, ed., Readings in European History, Volume 2 (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1904-1905) and Otto von Bismarck, The Man and Statesman, (New York, 1899).
Johann Gustav Droysen: Speech to the Frankfurt Assembly, 1848
We cannot conceal the fact that the whole German question is a simple alternative between Prussia and Austria. In these states German life has its positive and negative poles–in the former, all the interests which are national and reformative, in the latter, all that are dynastic and destructive. The German question is not a constitutional question, but a question of power; and the Prussian monarchy is now wholly German, while that of Austria cannot be. . .We need a powerful ruling house. Austria’s power meant lack of power for us, whereas Prussia desired German unity in order to supply the deficiencies of her own power. Already Prussia is Germany in embryo. She will “merge” with Germany. . .
Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia: Proclamation of 1849
I am not able to return a favorable reply to the offer of a crown on the part of the German National Assembly [meeting in Frankfurt], because the Assembly has not the right, without the consent of the German governments, to bestow the crown which they tendered me, and moreover because they offered the crown upon condition that I would accept a constitution which could not be reconciled with the rights of the German states.
Otto von Bismarck: Letter to Minister von Manteuffel, 1856
Because of the policy of Vienna [the Congress of Vienna, 1815], Germany is clearly too small for us both [Prussia and Austria]; as long as an honorable arrangement concerning the influence of each in Germany cannot be concluded and carried out, we will both plough the same disputed acre, and Austria will remain the only state to whom we can permanently lose or from whom we can permanently gain. . .I wish only to express my conviction that, in the not too distant future, we shall have to fight for our existence against Austria and that it is not within our power to avoid that, since the course of events in Germany has no other solution.
Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke: 1866
The war of 1866 [between Prussia and Austria] was entered on not because the existence of Prussia was threatened, nor was it caused by public opinion and the voice of the people; it was a struggle, long foreseen and calmly prepared for, recognized as a necessity by the Cabinet, not for territorial aggrandizement, for an extension of our domain, or for material advantage, but for an ideal end–the establishment of power. Not a foot of land was exacted from Austria, but she had to renounce all part in the hegemony of Germany. . . Austria had exhausted her strength in conquests south of the Alps, and left the western German provinces unprotected, instead of following the road pointed out by the Danube. Its center of gravity lay out of Germany; Prussia’s lay within it. Prussia felt itself called upon and strong enough to assume the leadership of the German races.
Otto von Bismarck: 1866
We had to avoid wounding Austria too severely; we had to avoid leaving behind in her any unnecessary bitterness of feeling or desire for revenge; we ought rather to reserve the possibility of becoming friends again with our adversary of the moment, and in any case to regard the Austrian state as a piece on the European chessboard. If Austria were severely injured, she would become the ally of France and of every other opponent of ours; she would even sacrifice her anti-Russian interests for the sake of revenge on Prussia. . .The acquisition of provinces like Austria Silesia and portions of Bohemia could not strengthen the Prussian state; it would not lead to an amalgamation of German Austria with Prussia, and Vienna could not be governed from Berlin as a mere dependency. . .Austria’s conflict and rivalry with us was no more culpable than ours with her; our task was the establishment or foundation of German national unity under the leadership of the King of Prussia.
The Imperial Proclamation, January 18, 1871
Whereas the German princes and the free cities have unanimously called upon us to renew and to assume, with the restoration of the German Empire, the German imperial office, which has been empty for more than sixty years; and Whereas adequate arrangements have been provided for this in the constitution of the German Confederation;
We, Wilhelm, by the grace of God King of Prussia, do herewith declare that we have considered it a duty to our common fatherland to answer the summons of the united German princes and cities and to accept the German imperial title. In consequence, we and our successors on the throne of Prussia will henceforth bear the imperial title in all our relations and in all the business of the German Empire, and we hope to God that the German nation will be granted the ability to fashion a propitious future for the fatherland under the symbol of its ancient glory. We assume the imperial title, conscious of the duty of protecting, with German loyalty, the rights of the Empire and of its members, of keeping the peace, and of protecting the independence of Germany, which depends in its turn upon the united strength of the people. We assume the title in the hope that the German people will be granted the ability to enjoy the reward of its ardent and self-sacrificing wars in lasting peace, within boundaries which afford the fatherland a security against renewed French aggression which has been lost for centuries. And may God grant that We and our successors on the imperial throne may at all times increase the wealth of the German Empire, not by military conquests, but by the blessings and the gifts of peace, in the realm of national prosperity, liberty, and morality. Wilhelm I, Kaiser und König.
Source: James Harvey Robinson, ed., Readings in European History, 2 Vols., (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1904-1905), II:571-575; Otto von Bismarck, The Man and Statesman, (New York, 1899), II:48-51
This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern European and World history. Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the document is copyright. Permission is granted for electronic copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal use. If you do reduplicate the document, indicate the source. No permission is granted for commercial use. © Paul Halsall, July 1998
