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The Rise of Nationalism in Europe- History X

 The Rise of Nationalism in Europe- History X


  1. In 1848, Frederic Sorrieu, a French artist, prepared a series of four print visualizing his dream of a world made up of ‘democratic and social republic, as he called them.
  2. Artists of the time of the French Revolution personified Liberty as a female figure.
  3. According to Sorrieu’s utopian vision, the peoples of the world are grouped as distinct nations, identified through their flags and national costume.
  4. This chapter will deal with many of the issues visualized by Sorrieu.
  5. During the nineteenth century, nationalism emerged as a force which brought about sweeping changes in the political and mental world of Europe.
  6. The end result of these changes was the emergence of the nation-state in the place of the multi-national dynastic empires of Europe.
  7. A modern state, in which a centralized power exercised sovereign control over a clearly defined territory, had been developing over a long period of time in Europe.
  8. But a nation-state was one in which the majority of its citizens, and not only its rulers, came to develop a sense of common identity and shared history or descent.
  9. This chapter will look at the diverse processes through which nation-states and nationalism came into being in nineteenth-century Europe.

The French Revolution and the idea of the Nation

  1. The first clear expression of nationalism came with the French Revolution in 1789.
  2. The political and constitutional changes that came in the wake of the French Revolution led to the transfer of sovereignty from the monarchy to a body of French citizens.
  3. The ideas of la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen) emphasized the notion of a united community enjoying equal rights under a constitution.
  4. The Estates General was elected by the body of the active citizens and renamed the National Assembly.
  5. Internal customs duties and dues were abolished and a uniform system of weights and measures was adopted.
  6. The revolutionaries further declared that it was the mission and the destiny of the French nation to liberate the peoples of Europe from despotism.
  7. Students and other members of educated middle classes began setting up Jacobin club.
  8. Their activities and campaigns prepared the way for the French armies which moved into Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and much of Italy in the 1790’s.
  9. The French armies began to carry the idea of nationalism abroad.
  10. Through a return to monarchy Napoleon had, no doubt, destroyed democracy in France, but in the administrative field he had incorporated revolutionary principles in order to make the whole system more rational and efficient.
  11. The Civil Code of 1804 – usually known as the Napoleonic Code – did away with all privileges based on birth, established equality before the Law and secured the right to property.
  12. Napoleon simplified administrative divisions, abolished the feudal system and freed peasants from serfdom and manorial dues.
  13. Transport and communication systems were improved.
  14. Businessmen and small-scale producers of goods, in particular, began to realize that uniform laws, standardised weights and measures, and a common national currency would facilitate the movement and exchange of goods and capital from one region to another.
  15. In many places such as Holland and Switzerland, Brussels, Mainz, Milan, Warsaw, the French armies were welcomed as harbingers of Liberty.
  16. It became clear that the new administrative arrangements did not go hand in hand with political freedom.
  17. Increased taxation, censorship, forced conscription into the French armies required to conquer the rest of the Europe, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of the administrative changes.

The Making of Nationalism in Europe

  1. Germany, Italy and Switzerland were divided into kingdoms, duchies and cantons whose rulers had their autonomous territories.
  2. They did not see themselves as sharing a collective identity or a common culture.
  3. The Habsburg Empire ruled over Austria Hungary.
  4. In Hungary, half of the population spoke Magyar while the other half of the spoke a variety of dialects.
  5. Besides these three dominant groups, there also lived within the boundaries of the empire.
  6. The only tie binding these diverse groups together was a common allegiance to the emperor.

The Aristocracy and the new middle class

  1. Socially and politically, a landed aristocracy was the dominant class on the continent.
  2. The members of this class were by a common way of life that cut across regional divisions.
  3. Their families were often connected by ties if marriages.
  4. This powerful aristocracy was, however, numerically a small group. The growth of towns and the emergence of commercial classes whose existence was based on production for the market.
  5. Industrialization began in England in the second half of the eighteenth century, but in France and parts of the German states it occurred only during the nineteenth century.
  6. In its wake, new social groups came into being: a working-class population, and middle classes made up of industrialists, businessmen, professional.
  7. It was among the educated, liberal middle classes that ideas of national unity following the abolition of aristocratic privileges gained popularity.

What did Liberal Nationalism Stand for?

  1. In early-nineteenth-century Europe were closely allied to the ideology of liberalism.
  2. The term ‘liberalism’ derives from the Latin root liber, meaning free.
  3. Liberalism stood for freedom for the individual and equality of all before the law.
  4. It emphasized the concept of government by consent.
  5. A constitution and representative government through parliament.
  6. The right to vote and to get elected was generated exclusively to property-owning men.
  7. Men without property and all women were excluded from political rights.
  8. Women and non-propertied men and women organised opposition movements demanding equal political rights.
  9. The abolition of state-imposed restrictions on the movement of goods and capital.
  10. A merchant travelling in 1833 from Hamburg to Nuremberg to sell his goods would have to pass through 11 customs barriers and pay a customs duty of about 5% at each one of them.
  11. Obstacles to economics exchanges and growth by the new commercial classes, who argued for the creation of a unified economic territory allowing the unhindered movement of goods, people and capital.
  12. The union abolished tariff barriers and reduced the number of currencies from over thirty to two.

A New Conservation after 1815

  1. Following the defect of Napoleon in 1815, European governments were driven by a spirit of conservatism.
  2. Most conservatives, however, did not propose a return to the society of pre-revolutionary days.
  3. That modernization could in fact strengthen traditional institutions like the monarchy.
  4. A modern army, an efficient bureaucracy, a dynamic economy, the abolition of feudalism and serfdom could strengthen the autocratic monarchies of Europe.
  5. In 1815, representatives of the European powers – Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria – who had collectively defeated Napoleon, met at Vienna to draw up a settlement for Europe.
  6. The Bourbon dynasty, which had been deposed during the French Revolution, was restored to power, and France lost the territories it had annexed under Napoleon.
  7. German confederation of 39 states that has been set up by Napoleon was left untouched.
  8. Autocratic did not tolerate criticism and dissent, and sought to curb activities that questioned the legitimacy of autocratic government.

The Revolutionaries

  1. During the years following 1815, the fear of repression drove many liberal-nationalists underground.
  2. Revolutionary at this time meant a commitment to oppose monarchical forms and to fight for liberty and freedom.
  3. Giuseppe Mazzini, born in Genoa in 1807, he became a member of the secret society of the Carbonari.
  4. He was sent into exile in 1831 for attempting a revolution in Liguria.
  5. Mazzini believed that god had intended nations to be the natural units of mankind.
  6. Secret societies were set up in Germany, France, Switzerland and Poland.
  7. Metternich described him as ‘The most dangerous enemy of our social order’.

The Age of Revolution: 1830 – 1848

  1. As conservative regimes tried to consolidate their power, liberalism and nationalism came to be increasingly associated with revolution in many regions of Europe such as the Italian and German states, the provinces of the Ottoman Empire, Ireland and Poland.
  2. ‘When the France sneezes’, Metternich once remarked, ‘the rest of the Europe catches cold’.
  3. An event that mobilized nationalist feelings among the educated elite across Europe was the Greek war of independence.
  4. Greece had been the part of the Ottoman Empire since the fifteenth century.
  5. Greeks living in exile and also from many west Europeans who had sympathies for ancient Greek culture.

The Romantic Imagination and national Feeling

  1. The development of nationalism did not come about only through wars and territorial expansions.
  2. Culture played an important role in creating the idea of the nation: art and poetry, stories and music helped express and shape nationalist feeling.
  3. Let us look at Romanticism, a culture movement which sought to develop a particular form of nationalist sentiments.
  4. Romantic artists and poet generally criticised the glorification of reason and science and focused instead on emotions, institution and mystical feelings.
  5. Other romantics were through folk song, folk poetry and folk dances that the true spirit of the nation.
  6. National feelings were kept alive through music and languages.
  7. Karol Kurpinski, celebrated the national struggles through his operas and music, turning folk dances like the polonaise and mazurka into nationalist symbols.
  8. Language too played an important role in developing nationalist sentiments.
  9. Russian language was imposed everywhere.
  10. Many members of the clergy in Poland began to use language as a weapon of national resistance.
  11. As a result, a large number of priests and bishops were put in jail or sent to Siberia by the Russian authorities as punishment for their refusal to preach in Russians.

Hunger, Hardship and Popular Revolt

  1. The 1830s were years of great economic hardship in Europe.
  2. The first half of the nineteenth century saw an enormous increase in population.
  3. In most countries there were more seekers of jobs than employment.
  4. Population from rural areas migrated to the cities to live in overcrowded slum.
  5. Food shortage and widespread unemployment brought the population of Paris out on the roads.
  6. National Assembly proclaimed a republic, granted suffrage to all adult males above 21, and guaranteed the right to work.
  7. Earlier, in 1845, weavers in Silesia had lead a revolt against contractors who supplied them raw material and gave them orders for finished textile.
  8. On 4 June at 2 p.m. a large crowd of weavers emerged from their homes and marched in pairs up to the mansion of their contractors demanding higher wages.
  9. The contractors fled with his family to a neighbouring village which, however, refused to shelter such a person.
  10. He returned 24 hours later having requisitioned the army.
  11. In the exchange that followed, eleven weavers were shot.

1848: The Revolution of the Liberals

  1. The poor, unemployment and starving peasants and workers in many European countries in the years 1848, a revolution led by the educated middle classes was under way.
  2. Men and women of the liberal middle classes combined their demands for constitutionalism with national unification.
  3. They drafted a constitution for a German nation to be headed by a monarchy subject to a parliament.
  4. Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia, rejected it and joined other monarchs to oppose the elected assembly.
  5. While the opposition of the aristocracy and military became stronger, the social basis of parliament eroded.
  6. The issue of extending political rights to women was a controversial one within the liberal movement.
  7. Women had formed their own political associations, founded newspaper and taken part in political meeting and demonstrations.
  8. Women were admitted only as observers to stand in the visitors’ gallery.
  9. Monarchs were beginning to realize that the cycles if revolution and repression could be ended by granting concessions to the liberal-nationalist revolutionaries.

The Making of German and Italy

Germany – can the Army be the Architect of a National

  1. After 1848, nationalism in Europe moved away from its association with democracy and revolution.
  2. This can be observed in the process by which Germany and Italy came to be unified as nation-states.
  3. Nationalist feelings were widespread among middle-class Germans.
  4. This liberal initiative to nation-building was, however, repressed by the combined forces of the monarchy and the military, supported by the large landowners of Prussia.
  5. Prussia took on the leadership of the movement.
  6. Three wars overseen years-with Austria, Denmark, and France-ended in Prussian victory and completed the process of unification.
  7. The nation-building process in Germany had demonstrated the dominance of Prussian state power.
  8. The new state placed a strong emphasis on modernising the currency, banking, legal and judicial systems in Germany.

Italy Unified

  1. Like Germany, Italy too had a long history of political fragmentation.
  2. Italians were scattered over several dynastic states as well as the multi-national Habsburg Empire.
  3. Italy was divided into seven states.
  4. Italian language had not acquired one common form and still had many regional and local variations.
  5. Giuseppe Mazzini had sought to put together a coherent programme for a unitary Italian Republic.
  6. Young Italy for the dissemination of his goals.
  7. The failure of revolutionary uprising both in 1831 and 1848 meant that the mantle now fell on Sadinia-Piedmont under its ruler King Victor Emmanuel II to unify the Italian states through war.
  8. Italy offered them the possibility of economic development and political dominance.
  9. Italy was neither a revolutionary nor a democrat.
  10. Italian population, among whom rates of illiteracy were high, remained blissfully unaware of liberal-nationalist ideology.

The strange case of Britain

  1. The model of the nation or the nation-state, some scholars have argued, is Great Britain.
  2. It was the result of a long-drawn-out process.
  3. There was no British nation prior to the eighteenth century.
  4. ‘United Kingdom of great Britain’ meant, in effect, that England was able to impose its influence on Scotland.
  5. The British parliament was henceforth dominated by its English members.
  6. Ireland was forcibly incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801.
  7. British flag, the national anthem, the English language – were actively promoted and the older nations survived only as subordinate partners on this union.

Visualising the Nation

  1. While it was easy enough to represent a ruler through a portrait or a statue.
  2. In other words they represented a country as if it were a person.
  3. Nations were then portrayed as a female figure.
  4. The female figures became an allegory of the nation.
  5. Christened Marianne, a popular Christian name, which underlined the idea of people’s nation.

Nationalism and Imperialism

  1. By the quarter of the nineteenth century nationalism no longer retained its idealistic liberal-democratic sentiment of the first half of the century, but became a narrow creed with limited ends.
  2. The most serious source of nationalists tension in Europe after 1871 was the area called the Balkans.
  3. The Balkans was a region of geographical and ethnic variation.
  4. One by one its European subjects nationalities broke away from its control and declared independence.
  5. The Balkan area became an era of intense conflict.
  6. The Balkan states were jealous of each other and each hoped to gain more territory at the expense of each other.
  7. But the idea that societies should be organized into ‘nation-states’ came to be accepted as natural and universal.

Question 1. Write a note on:

a) Guiseppe Mazzini
b) Count Camillo de Cavour
c) The Greek war of independence
d) Frankfurt Parliament
e) The role of women in nationalist struggles

Answer: a.

  • Giuseppe Mazzini: Giuseppe Mazzini was an Italian revolutionary, born in Genoa in 1807. He was a member of the secret society of the Carbonari. At the age of 24, he was sent into exile in 1831 for attempting a revolution in Liguria.
  • Mazzini believed that God has intended the nations to be the natural units of mankind, So he did not want Italy to be a patchwork of small states and kingdoms.
  • He founded underground societies named ‘Young Italy’ in Marseilles and ‘Young Europe’ in Berne, whose members were like-minded young men from Poland, France, Italy and the German States. Young Italy was a secret society formed to promote Italian unification: “One, free, independent, Republican Nation.”
  • Mazzini, an Italian nationalist was a fervent advocate of republicanism and envisioned a united, free and independent Italy.
  • Often viewed in Italy of the time as a god-like figure, the antifascist Mazzini Society, founded in the United States in 1939 by Italian political refugees, took his name; they, like him, served Italy from exile.

b.

  • Count Camilo de Cavour: Cavour was chief minister of Sardinia-Piedmont state who led the movement to unify the regions of Italy. He was neither a revolutionary nor a Democrat. Like many other wealthy and educated members of the Italian elite, he spoke French much better than he did Italian. He engineered a careful diplomatic alliance with France, which helped Sardinia-Piedmont defeat the Austrian forces in 1859, and thereby free the northern part of Italy from the Austrian Habsburgs.
  • Cavour’s diplomacy had by this time earned him the reputation of being one of the most skilful of European statesmen.
  • Cavour is remembered as probably the most significant figure in the Italian Risorgimento or resurgence.

c.

  • The Greek War of Independence mobilised nationalist feelings among educated elite across Europe.
  • This was a successful war of independence waged by Greek revolutionaries between 1821 and 1829 against the Ottoman Empire.
  • Following years of negotiation, three Great Powers—Russia, Britain and France—decided to intervene in the conflict and each nation sent a navy to Greece.
  • The Greeks were supported by the West European countries, while poets and artists hailed Greece as the cradle of European civilisation and mobilised the public opinion to support its struggle against a Muslim empire. Finally, the Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognised Greece as an independent nation.
  • The Greek Revolution is celebrated by the modern Greek state as a national day on 25 March.

d.

  • The Frankfurt Parliament: It was an all-German National Assembly formed by the middle-class professionals, businessmen and prosperous artisans belonging to the different German regions.
  • It was convened on 18 May 1848 in the Church of St. Paul, in the city of Frankfurt. This assembly drafted a constitution for the German nation to be headed by a monarchy subject to a parliament.
  • After long and controversial debates, the assembly produced the so-called Frankfurt Constitution which proclaimed a German Empire based on the principles of parliamentary democracy.
  • However, it faced opposition from the aristocracy and military. Also, as it was dominated by the middle classes who resisted the demands of workers and artisans and consequently lost their support. In the end, it was forced to disband on 31 May 1849.

e.

  • The role of women in nationalist struggles: The issue of extending political rights to women was a controversial one within the liberal movement, in which large numbers of women had participated actively over the years.
  • Women had formed their own political associations, founded newspapers and taken part in political meetings and demonstrations. Despite this, they were denied suffrage during the election of the Assembly.
  • When the Frankfurt Parliament convened in the Church of St. Paul, women were admitted only as observers to stand in the visitors’ gallery.
  • Nations were portrayed as female figures. The female form that was chosen to personify the nation did not stand for any particular woman in real life rather it sought to give the abstract idea of a nation a concrete form.
  • Thus women participated in nationalist movements but were not given equality in political rights.

Question 2. What steps did the French revolutionaries take to create a sense of collective identity among the French people?

Answer: The French revolutionaries took many important steps to create a sense of collective identity among the French people which were:

  • Ideas of la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen) emphasising the notion of a united community enjoying equal rights under a constitution.
  • A new French flag, a tricolour replaced the royal standard.
  • The Estates General was renamed the National Assembly and was elected by a group of active citizens.
  • New hymns, oaths and martyrs commemorated in the name of the nation.
  • A central administrative system made uniform laws for the entire nation.
  • Internal custom duties and dues were abolished and a uniform system of weights and measures was adopted.
  • Discouraging regional dialects and promoting French as a common language of the nation.

Question 3. Who were Marianne and Germania? What was the importance of the way in which they were portrayed?

Answer: Marianne and Germania were respective female allegories for the French and the German nation. They stood as personifications of ideals like ‘liberty’ and ‘the republic’. Statues of Marianne were erected in public squares to remind the public of the national symbol of unity to persuade them to identify with it. Marianne images were marked on coins and stamps. The importance of the way in which they were portrayed lay in the fact that the public could identify with their symbolic meaning, and this would instil a sense of national unity in them. Germania wears a crown of oak leaves as the German oak stands for heroism.

Question 4. Briefly trace the process of German unification.

Answer: In the 1800s, nationalist feelings were strong in the hearts of the middle-class Germans. They united in 1848 to create a nation-state out of the numerous German States. But the monarchy and the military got together to repress them and they gained support from the landowners of Prussia (the Junkers) too. Prussia soon became the leader of German unification movement. Its Chief Minister Otto von Bismarck was the architect of the process with support from Prussian army and Prussian bureaucracy. The unification process was completed after Prussia won wars with Austria, Denmark and France over seven years time. The new state placed a strong emphasis on modernising currency banking, legal and judicial systems in Germany. In January 1871, the Prussian king, William I, was proclaimed the German Emperor in a ceremony held at Versailles.

Question 5. What changes did Napoleon introduce to make the administrative system more efficient in the territories ruled by him?

Answer: Napoleon introduced the following changes to make the administrative system more efficient in the areas ruled by him:

  • He established civil code in 1804 also known as the Napoleonic Code. It did away with all privileges based on birth. It established equality before the law and secured the right to property.
  • He simplified administrative divisions, abolished feudal system, and freed peasants from serfdom and manorial dues.
  • In towns too, guild systems were removed. Transport and communication systems were improved.
  • Peasants, artisans, businessmen and workers enjoyed the new found freedom.
  • Each state possessed its own currency and weights and measures.

Discuss

Question 1. Explain what is meant by the 1848 revolution of the liberals. What were the political, social and economic ideas supported by the liberals?

Answer: The 1848 revolution of the liberals refers to the discontent and various national movements pioneered by educated middle classes alongside the revolts of the poor, unemployed and starving peasants and workers in Europe. While in countries like France, food shortages and widespread unemployment during 1848 led to popular uprisings, in other parts of Europe (such as Germany, Italy, Poland and the Austro-Hungarian Empire), men and women of the liberal middle classes came together to voice their demands for the creation of nation-states based on parliamentary principles. The political, social and economic ideas supported by the liberals were:

  • Politically, they demanded constitutionalism with national unification, a nation-state with a written constitution and parliamentary administration. They wanted to establish individual freedom and equality before the law and equal political rights.
  • Socially, they wanted to rid society of its class-based partialities and birthrights. Serfdom and bonded labour had to be abolished.The Issue of political rights to women also was a social issue. Liberal also stressed the inviolability of private property.
  • Economically they demanded freedom of markets and right to property. Abolition of state imposed restrictions on the movements of goods and capital.

Question 2. Choose three examples to show the contribution of culture to the growth of nationalism in Europe.

Answer: Three examples to show the contribution of culture to the growth of nationalism in Europe were:

  • Romanticism was a European cultural movement aimed at developing national unity by creating a sense of shared heritage and common history. The Romantic artists’ emphasis on emotions, intuition and mystical feelings gave shape and expression to nationalist sentiments. The strength of art in promoting nationalism is well exemplified in the role played by European poets and artists in mobilising public opinion to support the Greeks in their struggle to establish their national identity.
  • Folk songs, dances, and poetry contributed to popularising the spirit of nationalism and patriotic fervour in Europe. Collecting and recording the different forms of folk culture was important for building a national consciousness. Being a part of the lives of the common people, folk culture enabled nationalists to carry the message of nationalism to a large and diverse audience. The Polish composer Karol Kurpinski celebrated and popularised the Polish nationalist struggle through his operas and music, turning folk dances like the polonaise and mazurka into nationalist symbols.
  • The language also played a distinctive role in developing nationalist feelings in Europe. An example of this is how during the Russian occupation, the use of Polish came to be seen as a symbol of struggle against Russian dominance. During this period, the Polish language was forced out of schools and the Russian language was imposed everywhere. Following the defeat of an armed rebellion against Russian rule in 1831, many members of the clergy in Poland began using language as a weapon of national resistance. They did so by refusing to preach in Russian, and by using Polish for Church gatherings and religious instruction. A large number of priests and bishops were put in jail or sent to Siberia by the Russian authorities as punishment for their refusal to preach Russia. The emphasis on the use of vernacular language, the language of the masses, helped spread the message of national unity.

Question 3. Through a focus on any two countries, explain how nations developed over the nineteenth century.

Answer: The development of the German and Italian nation-states in the nineteenth century.

  • Political fragmentation: Till the middle of the nineteenth century, the present-day nations of Germany and Italy were fragmented into separate regions and kingdoms ruled by different princely houses.
  • Revolutionary uprisings: Nineteenth-century Europe was characterised by both popular uprisings of the masses and revolutions led by the educated, liberal middle classes. The middle classes belonging to the different German regions came together to form an all-German National Assembly in 1848. However, on facing opposition from the aristocracy and military, and on losing its mass support base, it was forced to disband. From then on Prussia took on the leadership of the movement for national unification.
  • In the Italian region, during the 1830s, revolutionaries like Giuseppe Mazzini sought to establish the unitary Italian Republic. However, the revolutionary uprisings of 1831 and 1848 failed to unite Italy.
  • Unification with the help of the army: After the failure of the revolutions, the process of German and Italian unification was continued by the aristocracy and the army. Germany was united by the Prussian chief minister Otto von Bismarck with the help of the Prussian army and bureaucracy. The German Empire was proclaimed in 1871.
  • The Italian state of Sardinia-Piedmont played a role similar to that played by Prussia. Count Camillo de Cavour (the Chief Minister) led the movement to unite the separate states of nineteenth-century Italy with the help of the army and an alliance with France. The regions annexed by Giuseppe Garibaldi and his Red Shirts joined with the northern regions to form a united Italy. The Italian nation was proclaimed in 1861 and Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of united Italy. The papal states joined in 1870.

Question 4. How was the history of nationalism in Britain unlike the rest of Europe?

Answer: The history of nationalism in Britain was unlike the rest of Europe because:
In Britain, the formation of the nation-state was not the result of a sudden upheaval or revolution.

  • The primary identities of the people who inhabited the British Isles were ethnic ones – such as English, Welsh, Scot or Irish.
  • The English parliament, which had seized power from the monarchy in 1688 at the end of a protracted conflict, was the instrument through which a nation state, with England at its centre, came to be forged.
  • The Act of Union (1707) between England and Scotland resulted in the formation of the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain’ meant that England was able to impose its influence on Scotland. Scotland’s distinctive culture and political institutions were systematically suppressed.
  • The Scottish Highlanders were forbidden to speak their Gaelic language or wear their national dress and large numbers were forcibly driven out of their homeland.
  • The English helped the Protestants of Ireland to establish their dominance over a largely Catholic country. Catholic revolts against British dominance were suppressed. Ireland was forcibly incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801.
  • The symbols of the new Britain – the British flag, the national anthem, the English language were actively promoted and the older nations survived only as subordinate partners in this union.

Question 5. Why did nationalist tensions emerge in the Balkans?

Answer:

  •  Balkans were comprised of various geographic and ethnic nations like modern Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and many. A large part of the Balkans was under the control of the Ottoman empire.
  • Nationalist tensions emerged in the Balkans because of the spread of ideas of romantic nationalism as also the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire that had previously ruled over this area. The different Slavic communities in the Balkans began to strive for independent rule. One by one European subject nationalities broke away from its control and declared independence.
  • They were jealous of each other and every state wanted more territory, even at the expense of others. Also, the hold of imperial power over the Balkans made the situation worse. Russia, Germany, England, Austro-Hungary all wanted more control over this area. These conflicts ultimately led to the First World War in 1914.