Angling in Troubled Waters, by Fred W. Rose (1899).
The 19th century was the age in which nationalism emerged as one of the most transformative political ideologies in Europe. Sparked by the French Revolution and fueled by the Enlightenment’s ideals of popular sovereignty, equality, and reason, nationalism promoted the idea that people sharing a common language, culture, and history should form self-governing nations. As the century unfolded, nationalism reshaped the political map of Europe, unifying fragmented states, challenging empires, and redefining what it meant to belong.
The Roots of Nationalism
The French Revolution introduced the radical concept that sovereignty should reside not with monarchs, but with "the nation"—an entity representing the collective will of the people. Philosophers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau emphasized the "general will" as the moral and political authority of a united people. This idea was powerful and dangerous: it justified the fall of monarchies, the creation of republics, and eventually, wars of national liberation. Though the French revolutionaries failed to fully unify the population of France, they demonstrated the potential of nationalism to mobilize mass support, challenge traditional hierarchies, and inspire change.
Unification and Resistance
Nationalism played a decisive role in the unification of Germany and Italy, two major new states that did not exist in modern form before the 1860s.
In Germany, the nationalist sentiment had been culturally nurtured by Romantic thinkers such as Fichte and Arndt, who emphasized the German language and collective identity, especially in opposition to foreign influence (notably France). Politically, unification was driven by Otto von Bismarck, the Prussian chancellor, who used a pragmatic and militaristic strategy (Realpolitik) to isolate Austria, defeat France in the Franco-Prussian War, and unite the German-speaking states under Prussian dominance in 1871. The newly formed German Empire became a powerful and industrialized state, but its unification came at the cost of suppressing internal diversity and fostering external rivalries.
In Italy, unification efforts were more ideologically fragmented. Giuseppe Mazzini championed a republican and democratic vision, while Camillo Cavour, Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia, worked to expand northern Italy through diplomacy and war. Giuseppe Garibaldi added southern Italy to the fold through popular uprisings. Italy was formally unified in 1861, though it wasn’t until 1870, with the capture of Rome, that the peninsula was fully consolidated. Despite unification, deep economic and cultural divides between the industrial North and the rural South remained, and tensions with the Catholic Church lingered for decades.
Nationalism and the Multinational Empires
While nationalism unified some regions, it posed existential threats to others—especially the Austrian, Ottoman, and Russian empires. These vast, multi-ethnic states were increasingly unstable as various ethnic groups—Hungarians, Czechs, Poles, Serbs, Bulgarians, and others—demanded autonomy or independence.
In Austria, the monarchy was forced to grant limited self-rule to Hungary, creating the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy in 1867. Even this compromise failed to ease all ethnic tensions. In the Ottoman Empire, nationalist revolts, like the successful Greek War of Independence (1821–1830), were followed by others in the Balkans. Russia, meanwhile, responded to nationalist dissent with repression and policies of Russification, imposing Russian language and culture on its diverse populations, and conducting violent pogroms against Jews.
Cultural and Political Implications
The spread of nationalism had profound implications for how people understood identity, citizenship, and state power. Where earlier generations had tied loyalty to monarchs or religious authorities, nationalism demanded loyalty to the nation—often defined in ethnic or linguistic terms. National identity became something to be cultivated through public education, literature, historical memory, and symbolic acts like the adoption of national flags, anthems, and holidays.
However, this also meant that those who didn’t fit the national mold—minorities, immigrants, or religious outsiders—were increasingly marginalized. Nationalism encouraged the construction of “us vs. them” dynamics. As the century progressed, this fostered antisemitism, especially in places like Germany and Russia, where Jews were cast as the internal “other.” Nationalism could therefore empower and liberate, but also divide and persecute.
Looking Forward
By the end of the 19th century, nationalism had become a dominant political force across Europe, influencing liberal and conservative regimes alike. It enabled the formation of new states and inspired oppressed peoples to claim self-rule. But it also laid the groundwork for international rivalry, ethnic conflict, and imperialist ambitions, which would explode catastrophically in the 20th century.
Nationalism in the 19th century was thus a double-edged sword: a source of hope and unity, but also of exclusion and division. Its legacy continues to shape modern politics, making it one of the most enduring and complex ideologies of the modern era.
