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Extra Questions History
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The Rise of Nationalism in Europe
Question-1
According to Ernst Renan, what are the attributes of a nation
Solution:
The French philosopher Ernst Renan (1823-92) explained his concept of what creates a nation in a speech given at the University of Sorbonne in 1882. ‘Qu’est-ce qu’une nation?’ was the title of a famous essay based on the speech. (‘What is a Nation?’)
Renan criticizes the idea that a nation is founded by a shared language, race, religion, or territory in this essay: ‘A nation is the culmination of a long history of endeavors, sacrifice, and devotion.’ A historic past, great men, and grandeur are the social capital on which a national notion is built. The key criteria of being a nation are to have common glories in the past, a shared will in the present, to have done great deeds together, and to wish to do even more. As a result, a nation is large-scale solidarity… Its existence is a daily referendum… The inhabitants of a province have the right to be consulted; if anyone has the right to be consulted, it is the inhabitant. An annexing or holding on to a country against its will is never in a nation’s best interests. National existence is a positive thing, if not a requirement. Their presence ensures liberty, which would be destroyed if there were only one law and one master in the globe.’
Question-2
Describe the French Revolution.
Solution:
The French Revolution in 1789 was the first explicit statement of nationalism. In 1789, France was a full-fledged territorial state ruled by an absolute monarch, as you may recall. Following the French Revolution, political and constitutional reforms resulted in the transfer of authority from the king to a body of French citizens. The revolution declared that the people would henceforth be the ones to form the nation and determine its fate. The French revolutionaries employed different tactics and practise from the start in order to foster a sense of group identity among the French people. The concepts of la patrie (fatherland) and le citoyen (citizen) emphasised the idea of a cohesive society with equal rights under the law.
The ancient royal standard was replaced by a new French flag, the tricolour. The Estates-General was renamed the National Assembly after being chosen by a body of active citizens. All in the name of the nation, new songs were written, oaths were given, and sacrifices were remembered. A centralised administrative structure was established, with uniform laws enacted for all inhabitants inside the country’s borders. Internal customs charges and fees were removed, and a unified weights and measurements system was implemented. Regional languages were discouraged, and French became the national language as it was spoken and written in Paris.
The revolutionaries went on to say that it was the French nation’s purpose and destiny to free the peoples of Europe from despotism, in other words, to assist other European peoples in becoming countries. As word of the events in France spread throughout Europe, students and other members of the educated middle class began to form Jacobin groups. In the 1790s, their operations and campaigns paved the way for the French forces to invade Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and much of Italy. The French army began to carry the idea of nationalism overseas with the outbreak of the revolutionary wars.
Question-3
How did nationalism and the idea of the nation-state emerge?
Solution:
A landed aristocracy was the dominating social and political elite on the continent. This class was bound together by a similar way of life that transcended regional boundaries. They had country estates as well as city residences. They spoke French in high society and for diplomatic purposes. Their families were frequently linked by marriage ties. However, this powerful aristocracy was a small group in terms of numbers. The peasantry made up the majority of the population. To the west, the majority of the land was farmed by tenants and small landowners, whereas in Eastern and Central Europe, enormous estates cultivated by serfs dominated the landholding pattern.
Question-4
What did Liberal Nationalism Stand for?
Solution:
In early-nineteenth-century Europe, national unity was tightly linked to liberalism’s ideology. The word “liberalism” comes from the Latin word “liber,” which means “free.” Liberalism stood for individual liberty and equality before the law for the new middle classes. In terms of politics, it emphasised the concept of consensual government. Liberalism has advocated for the elimination of despotism and ecclesiastical privileges, a constitution, and representative government through parliament since the French Revolution. The inviolability of private property was likewise emphasised by nineteenth-century liberals. However, equality before the law did not always imply universal suffrage. Political rights were denied to all males without property and all women. All adult males had suffrage for a brief while under the Jacobins. The Napoleonic Code, on the other hand, reinstated limited suffrage and relegated women to minors, subject to the authority of their fathers and spouses. Women and non-propertied men organised opposition movements demanding equal political rights during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Question-5
Give a brief note on the Napoleonic code.
Solution:
The Napoleonic Code, or Civil Code, of 1804 abolished all privileges based on birth, established equality before the law, and guaranteed the right to property. This Code was distributed throughout the French-controlled territories.
Question-6
Give two examples to show that in the 18th century Europe there were no nation states.
Solution:
There were no ‘nation-states’ as we know them today in mid-eighteenth-century Europe. The modern-day countries of Germany, Italy, and Switzerland were divided into kingdoms, duchies, and cantons, each with its own rulers and independent areas. Eastern and Central Europe were ruled by authoritarian rulers over vast swaths of land inhabited by a diverse population. They didn’t think of themselves as having a similar identity or culture. They often spoke different languages and came from several ethnic groups.
For example, the Habsburg Empire that ruled over Austria-Hungary was a patchwork of various areas and peoples. It encompassed the Alpine areas of Tyrol, Austria, and the Sudetenland, as well as Bohemia, which had a primarily German-speaking aristocracy. The Italian-speaking provinces of Lombardy and Venetia were also included.
Half of the people in Hungary spoke Magyar, while the other half spoke a variety of dialects. The nobles in Galicia spoke Polish. Apart from these three dominating populations, the empire had a large number of subject peasant peoples, including Bohemians and Slovaks to the north, Slovenes in Carniola, Croats to the south, and Roumans in Transylvania to the east. Such divisions made it difficult to foster a sense of political unity. The only thing that brought these disparate parties together was their shared devotion to the emperor.
Question-7
What were the reforms made by Napoleon?
Solution:
Napoleon set about implementing many of the reforms that he had already implemented in France over the vast expanse of territory that came under his rule. Napoleon had undoubtedly destroyed democracy in France by returning to monarchy, but in the administrative field, he had absorbed revolutionary concepts in order to make the entire system more rational and efficient.
The Napoleonic Code, or Civil Code, of 1804 abolished all privileges based on birth, established equality before the law, and guaranteed the right to property. This Code was distributed throughout the French-controlled territories. Napoleon streamlined administrative divisions, eliminated the feudal system, and freed peasants from serfdom and manorial dues in the Dutch Republic, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. Guild limitations were also lifted in the towns. The transportation and communication systems have been upgraded.
Peasants, artisans, workers, and new businessmen all reaped the benefits of their newfound freedom. Businessmen and small-scale manufacturers of goods, in particular, realised that unified regulations, standardised weights and measures, and a single national currency would make it easier to shift goods and capital from one region to another. The reactions of the indigenous communities to French control were mixed in the conquered areas. The French forces were first welcomed as harbingers of liberty in many locations, including Holland and Switzerland, as well as cities such as Brussels, Mainz, Milan, and Warsaw. However, once it became evident that the new administrative procedures did not go hand in hand with political freedom, the initial euphoria quickly turned to resentment. Increased taxation, censorship, forced conscription into the French armies required to conquer the rest of Europe, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of the administrative changes.
Question-8
Why were the Middle class so named?
Solution:
A landed aristocracy was the dominating social and political elite on the continent. This class was bound together by a similar way of life that transcended regional boundaries. They had country estates as well as city residences. They spoke French in high society and for diplomatic purposes. Their families were frequently linked by marriage ties. However, this powerful aristocracy was a small group in terms of numbers. The peasantry made up the majority of the population. To the west, the majority of the land was farmed by tenants and small landowners, whereas in Eastern and Central Europe, enormous estates cultivated by serfs dominated the landholding pattern.
The expansion of industrial production and trade in Western and Central Europe coincided with the establishment of towns and the emergence of commercial classes whose existence was based on market production. Industrialisation began in England in the second half of the eighteenth century, but it did not begin until the nineteenth century in France and parts of Germany. New social groupings arose as a result of it: a working-class populace and a middle class comprised of industrialists, businessmen, and professionals. Until the late nineteenth century, these groups in Central and Eastern Europe were much smaller. Following the removal of aristocratic privileges, concepts of national unity were popular among the educated, liberal middle classes.
Question-9
What led to the spread of conservatism in Europe and what were its impacts?
Solution:
Following Napoleon’s defeat in 1815, European nations adopted a conservative mindset. Traditional state and society institutions, such as the monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property, and the family, were seen as important by conservatives. Most conservatives, on the other hand, did not advocate a return to pre-revolutionary society. Rather, they realised, as a result of Napoleon’s reforms, that modernization might actually support old institutions such as the monarchy. It has the potential to increase the effectiveness and strength of state power. The end of feudalism and serfdom, as well as a modern army, an efficient bureaucracy, and a dynamic economy, may strengthen Europe’s authoritarian monarchy.
Question-10
What were the highlights of the Treaty of Vienna 1815?
Solution:
Representatives from the European powers that had defeated Napoleon — Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria – convened in Vienna in 1815 to draught a settlement for Europe. The key points of discussion were how the country could prosper and what economic measures could aid in bringing the country together.
Question-11
What was the Romantic Imagination about a nation?
Solution:
Romanticism was a cultural movement that aimed to foster a specific type of nationalist spirit. The celebration of reason and science was usually criticised by Romantic painters and poets, who instead concentrated on emotions, intuition, and mystical sentiments. Their goal was to instil in people a sense of shared communal heritage, a shared cultural past, as the foundation of a nation.
The emphasis on vernacular language and the gathering of local folklore was intended not only to resurrect a historic national spirit but also to communicate the modern nationalist message to huge, primarily illiterate audiences.
Question-12
What was the cause of the Silesian weavers uprising? Comment on the viewpoint of the
journalist.
Solution:
Weavers in Silesia organised a protest in 1845 against contractors who supplied them with raw materials and placed orders for completed textiles but cut their payments considerably.
The happenings in a Silesian village were recounted by journalist Wilhelm Wolff as follows: Cotton weaving is the most common occupation in these communities (which have a population of 18,000 people). The labourers’ agony is unbearable. Contractors have taken advantage of the acute need for labour to lower the prices of the things they order.
At 2:00 p.m. on June 4th, a big crowd of weavers emerged from their homes and marched up to their contractor’s mansion in pairs, demanding increased compensation. They were alternately greeted with derision and threats. Following this, a gang of them broke into the house, smashing the exquisite windowpanes, furniture, crockery, and so on… Another gang broke into the storage and stole quantities of cloth, which they ripped apart. The contractor and his family escaped to a nearby community, which, however, refused to take them in. He returned 24 hours later with the army requisitioned. Eleven weavers were killed in the ensuing shootout.
Question-13
How was nation visualized by artists?
Solution:
Personifying a nation was a way out for artists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. To put it another way, they portrayed a country as if it were a person. Nations were then shown as feminine characters. The female figure used to personify the nation was not meant to represent anyone woman in real life; rather, it was meant to give the nation’s abstract idea a concrete form. In other words, the feminine form became a national allegory.
Question-14
On what basis the female allegories were given names?
Solution:
Artists created many female allegories to represent the nation in the nineteenth century. She has baptised Marianne in France, a popular Christian name that emphasised the concept of a people’s homeland. Her features were inspired by Liberty and the Republic: the red cap, the tricolour, and the cockade. Marianne statues were placed in public areas to remind people of the national emblem of unity and to encourage them to associate with it. Images of Marianne can be found on coins and stamps.
Germania, thus, became an allegory for the German nation. Germania wears an oak leaf crown in visual renderings, as the German oak represents heroism.
Question-15
Describe the rise of imperialism.
Solution:
In 1914, imperialism and nationalism worked together to bring Europe to its knees. In the meantime, numerous countries that had been colonised by European powers in the nineteenth century began to rebel against colonial dominance. The anti-imperial movements that arose around the world were all nationalist in the sense that they all sought to establish independent nation-states and were motivated by a feeling of shared national identity established in the face of imperialism. People all across the world evolved their own unique varieties of nationalism in response to European concepts of nationalism. The notion that civilizations should be organised into ‘nation-states’, on the other hand, became widely regarded as natural and universal.
Question-16
According to Ernst Renan, what are the attributes of a nation?
Solution:
In a speech made at the University of Sorbonne in 1882, French philosopher Ernst Renan (1823-92) articulated his notion of what makes a nation. The title of a famous article based on the speech was ‘Qu’est-ce qu’une nation?’ (‘What a Country?’)
In this essay, Renan refutes the notion that a nation is built on shared language, race, religion, or territory: “A nation is the culmination of a long history of endeavours, sacrifice, and dedication.” The social capital on which a national concept is created is a historical past, great men, and grandeur. The key criteria of being a nation are to have common glories in the past, a shared will in the present, to have done great deeds together, and to wish to do even more. As a result, a nation is large-scale solidarity. Its existence is decided on a daily basis. The inhabitants of a province have the right to be consulted; if anyone has the right to be consulted, it is the inhabitant. An annexing or holding on to a country against its will is never in a nation’s best interests. National existence is a positive thing, if not a requirement. Their presence ensures liberty, which would be destroyed if there were only one law and one master in the globe.’
Question-17
How did nationalism and the idea of the nation-state emerge?
Solution:
A landed aristocracy was the dominating social and political elite on the continent. This class was bound together by a similar way of life that transcended regional boundaries. They had country estates as well as city residences. They spoke French in high society and for diplomatic purposes. Their families were frequently linked by marriage ties. However, this powerful aristocracy was a small group in terms of numbers. The peasantry made up the majority of the population. To the west, the majority of land was farmed by tenants and small landowners, whereas in Eastern and Central Europe, enormous estates cultivated by serfs dominated the landholding pattern.
Question-18
What did Liberal Nationalism Stand for?
Solution:
In early-nineteenth-century Europe, national unity was tightly linked to liberalism’s ideology. The word “liberalism” comes from the Latin word “liber,” which means “free.” Liberalism stood for individual liberty and equality before the law for the new middle classes. In terms of politics, it emphasised the concept of consensual government. Liberalism has advocated for the elimination of despotism and ecclesiastical privileges, a constitution, and representative government through parliament since the French Revolution. The inviolability of private property was likewise emphasised by nineteenth-century liberals. However, equality before the law did not always imply universal suffrage.
Political rights were denied to all males without property and all women. All adult males had suffrage for a brief while under the Jacobins. The Napoleonic Code, on the other hand, reinstated limited suffrage and relegated women to minors, subject to the authority of their fathers and spouses. Women and non-propertied men organised opposition movements demanding equal political rights during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
