19th-Century Nationalism
Essential Questions
1. 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
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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)