The Pros And Cons Of Nationalism In The 19th Century

Nationalism can be traced to the nineteenth century, European peoples came to identify strongly with communities they called nations. Members of a nation considered themselves a distinctive people that spoke a common language, observed common customs, inherited common cultural conditions, held common values, and shared common

Nationalism was formed with the idea that a nation is made up of people who are joined together by common language, customs, cultures and history. It held the belief that one should be loyal to the people of their nation, not a king or empire. Nationalists believed that people of a single nationality should unite under a single government. The concept of Nationalism emerged in the French Revolution and was spread to the rest of Europe by Napoleon’s conquests.

Therefore, they strategically persuaded European powers to fight against Austria…Italy provoked Austria into war Cavour then used Garibaldi’s popular appeal to his benefit. “When Garibaldi and Emmanuel rode through Naples to cheering crowds, they symbolically sealed the union of north and south, of monarch and people.” (McKay, 837) Italy was now unified.

Russia also made an alliance with France against Germany and Austria-Hungary. There was another alliance between Russia, France and Britain to counter the threats from

Russia was a country rich in raw materials that had been undisturbed by modern extraction and refining techniques until then, however, the majority of the countries resource rich areas were nowhere near any railways, with the bulk of the heavy materials such as steel, iron, coal and copper being in the Urals, almost 1,000km away from the nearest railway system in 1860. Oil, another key ingredient in industrialisation was almost 1,500km away to the south, in the Caucasus area3. This lack of transportation in a period when steam powered machines were producing the goods and steam powered trains were delivering them and leading the industrialisation in other countries like Britain, the USA and a future foe in Germany is an indicator of the distance that Russia was behind its rivals under the leadership of the Tsar. So the Tsar’s Russia was largely an agrarian one, but even in the agricultural sector Russia was lagging far behind the rest of the West in terms of the methods employed by farmers, little fertiliser was used and the labour saving machines used in countries with enormous agricultural output like the US were nowhere near as widespread in Russia. The weaknesses of the Tsar’s management of the agricultural sector were highlighted in 1891 when famine hit. Due to the heavy tax on consumer goods, peasants had been forced to sell more of their

Nationalism is way of thinking both political and socially to create a community united by: history, ethnicity, religions, common culture, and language. Numerous effects occurred while establishing a Nationalist community, some effects were a long term impact on Nationalism, and other was short term impacts on Nationalism.

Nationalism was coined back in the 1770’s it has a major role in the shaping many nations throughout the world. Nationalism has many positive and negative aspects to it. Nationalism has the strength to unify people despite their classes. It also has the ability to united people to lead movements against oppressive governments. There is a downside Nationalism can as method to evoke fear. The biggest negative is that most nationalism movement’s inevitably led to some form of conflict. Nationalism is a dangerous movement that can lead to oppression of opposition groups and lead to conflicts.

As the main source of national identity, nationalism “makes [people] feel connected not only to one another but also to the homeland itself” (Jusdanis 28). In the case of the American founding, when the delegates from respective states met to construct a more perfect union, they did not identify themselves as Virginians or New Yorkers. Instead, they defined themselves as “we the people of the United States” as it appears in the Preamble to the US constitution. The shared interest in liberty and freedom as well as the attachment to the land of their fathers made it possible for the vast population of the thirteen states to think of itself as a unified body despite their internal ethnic and cultural divide. By identifying themselves as a member of certain group, people will form a society with certain shared value, which ultimately can become the political units for a democratic government. Nationalism is essential for creating a cohesive political community.

Following the Napoleonic Wars, there was a great amount of diplomatic instability within Europe, and in the Italian states there was a call to unify every state into one nation, Italy (text, 717). A leader of the unification movement, Camillo di Cavour (1810-1861) wanted to prevent chaotic revolutions to unite Italy, rather he wanted to unify the Italian states by promoting the economic developments of the Italian states (text, 717). Cavour was a prime minister of the Piedmont-Sardinia territory, he was a great leader who pushed for the advancement and increase of the region’s economic and military powers, which he believed would help promote a unified Italy (text, 717). Cavour’s territory had much to gain from a unified Italy including a larger amount of available labor, and also a

There were three obstacles in the way of Italian unification: Austria, France, and the Roman Catholic Church. Austria ruled all of Northern Italy and thus did not want to give it up. This mindset was similar to the mindset of the French who also ruled land and were also very involved in Italian politics. Because Italian unification would greatly limit their ability to govern in Italy the French also opposed Italian Unification. The last and final obstacle was the Roman Catholic Church which opposed Italian unification because the Pope would have to give up his land, the Papal States. Eventually people started to take action and start nationalistic movements against the Austrians, French, and the Roman Catholic Church. In 1832 Joseph Mazzini, also known as the Father of Nationalism, created a group called “Young Italy” through which he spread his nationalistic views to the Italian Youth. In the end Camillo Benso di Cavour, the prime minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia, and Giuseppe Garibaldi, another revolutionary made a pan and slowly united Italy to form one country. The same nationalistic movement also occurred in Germany which left Germany united as well. In response to all of the violent nationalistic movements the idea of integration was born.

Now that self-determined countries were rising it created a sense of tension throughout all of Europe between the countries. Not only was there tension between Germany and Italy but many other wars were resulting in the quest to conquer new land. One example of this is the Balkans Nations Independence resulting from the fall of the Ottoman Empire. With the escalation of tension and fear it hit a turning point causing countries to recognize they needed to make treaties to secure the countries safety and fight together. This realization created two man powers being the Allies (England, France, Russia, Italy) and the Central Powers (Germany, Ottoman Empire, Austrian Empire).

He allied Italy with France, a great power, securing not only France’s support but military assistance as well. Cavour realized that a unified Italy was too weak to achieve unification on its own, and based on his assessment of Italy’s power took the steps needed to realize Italy’s self-interests, by allying himself with a great power. Through this arrangement he was able to receive the Lombardy province upon Austria’s defeat, from France. Then when Austria received yet another defeating blow, this time from Prussia, Cavour made a deal with Prussia and gained Venetia. Italy then became a united nation through Cavour’s brilliant scheming and deals.

Rome and Rome came to aid. The fear of a powerful neighbor was only one out

with their trade. Rome suffered sever losses such as losing an army in North Africa as

Nationalism at its core is the support of a country. The goal of a country is to have some sort of resonance within the individuals that reside there that call themselves citizens. If the citizens don’t feel any connection with their country, they may move to find one that they feel closer too. Once found, they may support the country over others, defend it within conversations of politics or just find groups that have the same ideals they do about the country. This papers purpose is to illustrate the pros of nationalism as well as its cons.