19th-Century Nationalism

Essential Questions1. In what ways did nationalism provide a basis, different from monarchy

(with its dynastic principle), for defining and organizing a territorial state?

2. Why did nationalist movements arise in Europe in the early 19th century?

3. Why were professors, writers, and other middle-class professionals so central in leading the way in the nationalist movements in Europe in the 19th century?

4. In what ways did Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars give birth to the earliest nationalist movements in Europe?

5. Why did the success of German, Italian, and other movements require a combination of idealistic nationalist leaders and practical, often ruthless political leaders?

6. Is nationalism more likely to generate authoritarian and aggressive states, or is it more likely to foster democratic states ready to resist oppression or domination by others?

Part I: Nations and Nationalism

What does this mean to you?

Nationalism and Daily Life

• Holidays

• Music and art

• Literature

• Food

• Costumes

• History

• Sports

• Museums and monuments

Nationalism is:

• the ideology or doctrine of nations

• the feeling of belonging to a nation

• the language or symbolism of a nation

• social and political movements on behalf of a nation

• the process through which nations are formed.Anthony

D. Smith

German Romantic Nationalism

“Nature brings forth families; the most natural state therefore is also one people, with a national character of its own.”

Herder

What Is a Nation?

“A nation is primarily a community, a definite community of people, a stable community of people…”

Joseph Stalin

“A national community is inconceivable without a common language…”

Josef Stalin

Language

“Has a people anything dearer than the speech of its fathers? In its speech resides its whole thought-domain, its tradition, history, religion, and basis of life, all its heart and soul.”

Herder

Elbe River

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.

Ernst Moritz Arndt (1813)