Nation-state

Topic: The Rise of Nationalism in Europe · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 1 "The Rise of Nationalism in Europe"

Meaning

A nation-state is a state where a single sovereign government rules a clearly defined territory, and where most of its citizens, not just the rulers, share a common identity and a common history. That shared feeling was not natural or ancient; it was built over time through struggles, leaders and ordinary people.

It matters because the nation-state became the main way of organising political life in 19th-century Europe. Its spread put pressure on old multi-ethnic empires such as the Habsburg Empire, which ruled many peoples with no common identity.

Explanation

Background: the modern state came first

• The modern state is much older than the nation-state.
• A modern state has centralised power and sovereignty (supreme authority, with no one above it) over a clearly defined territory.

• Such states grew in Europe over many decades, even centuries, before nationalism appeared.

• The nation-state added something new.

• It was not enough to have a king, an army and borders.

• Now the majority of citizens had to feel they belonged to one people with one shared past.

• This feeling was made, not found.

• It did not exist "from time immemorial" (from forever ago).
• It was forged through struggles, through the actions of leaders and of ordinary people.

Main features

• One sovereign power governs one defined territory.
• Shared identity among the many: ordinary citizens, not only the ruling family, see themselves as one nation.
• Common history: people remember shared glory and shared suffering.
• Popular will: according to Ernest Renan, the nation lasts only while people keep choosing to live together.
• Link with liberty: in 1848 the nation-state idea went hand in hand with rights, constitutions and an end to absolutism (rule by one king with no limits on his power).

How the idea was shown and explained

• Sorrieu's dream (1848)
• The French artist Frédéric Sorrieu made a series of four prints in 1848. They show his dream of a world of 'democratic and social Republics'.
• "Democratic and social republic" was a real slogan of 1848 France. It meant a republic that would also deal with the poverty of workers. This demand led to a workers' insurrection (armed uprising) in Paris. [3]
• In the first print, the peoples of Europe and America march in a line. Each nation is known only by its flag and national costume.
• The statue of Liberty holds the torch of Enlightenment (the light of reason and new ideas) and the Charter of the Rights of Man (the French declaration of basic rights).
• The foreground shows the shattered remains of the symbols of absolutist institutions.

• Christ, saints and angels in the sky stand for fraternity among the nations (nations living like brothers).

• The order of the march shows who already had a nation-state.

• The USA and Switzerland lead, because they were already nation-states by 1848.
• France follows, with its tricolour, close to the statue of Liberty.
• The German peoples carry the black, red and gold flag. But no united Germany existed in 1848, so the flag was only a liberal hope.

• Behind them come Austria, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Lombardy, Poland, England, Ireland, Hungary and Russia. Many of these were peoples without states of their own.

• Renan's theory (1882)

• Ernest Renan (1823–1892), a French philosopher and historian [4], gave the lecture 'Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?' ('What is a Nation?') at the Sorbonne on 11 March 1882. [5]
• He called the nation a soul. He said it is a construction (something people build), not an organic whole (not a natural body you are simply born into). [5]
• He rejected common language, race, religion and territory as enough, on their own, to make a nation.
• A nation, he said, is 'a large-scale solidarity' resting on a shared past and a present will to live together. Its existence is 'a daily plebiscite' (a vote by the people, held again every day).
• He argued that nations are a guarantee of liberty.

Results and change over time

• 1848: the hope failed.
• Germany was then the German Confederation, made up of 39 independent states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. [3]
• The Frankfurt National Assembly met in the Church of St Paul (Paulskirche) from May 1848 to June 1849, first sitting on 18 May 1848. [3]

• It drew up a constitution on 28 March 1849, with universal suffrage and a hereditary emperor. Frederick William IV of Prussia refused the crown, and the attempt collapsed. [3]

• Later the dream came true, but in a different way.

• Italy was unified in 1861 and Germany in 1871, both through kings, ministers and wars rather than liberal assemblies.

• Old multi-ethnic empires came under strain.

• The Habsburg, Ottoman and Russian empires ruled many peoples. They could not easily become nation-states, so nationalist demands weakened them.
• France and Britain, which already had a shared national identity, absorbed nationalism more easily.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the idea grew in Europe from 1789 to 1914. It was alive in 1848 and was explained in theory by 1882.
• Places: Paris (Sorrieu's prints, Renan's Sorbonne lecture, the 1848 workers' insurrection); Frankfurt (the National Assembly at the Paulskirche); the German Confederation.
• Key people:
• Frédéric Sorrieu: born 17 January 1807, Paris; died 25 September 1887; a designer, engraver and lithographer (an artist who prints pictures from a flat stone). [2]
• Ernest Renan (1823–1892): French philosopher and historian. [4]

• Frederick William IV of Prussia: refused the crown offered by the Frankfurt Assembly. [3]

• How we know:

• Visual source: Sorrieu's 1848 series of four prints.
• Text: Renan's lecture 'Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?' (1882). [5]
• Official record: the Frankfurt constitution of 28 March 1849. [3]
• Textbook: NCERT Class 10, Ch 1, "The Rise of Nationalism in Europe".

Don't confuse with

• Modern state: this means centralised, sovereign power over a defined territory, and it is centuries older. A nation-state also needs the majority of citizens to share one identity and history. Every nation-state is a state, but not every state is a nation-state.
• Multinational dynastic empire (e.g. the Habsburg Empire): this was a state ruled by a royal family over many peoples with no common identity. It was never a nation-state.
• German Confederation (1815): this was a loose group of 39 independent states set up by the Congress of Vienna [3]. It was not a united German nation-state. The black, red and gold flag in Sorrieu's print was only a hope.
• Nation (in Renan's sense): this is a 'large-scale solidarity' of people, a feeling and a will. A nation-state is that nation combined with a sovereign state and territory. A people such as the Poles in 1848 could be a nation without having a state.

Prelims Hooks

• In Sorrieu's 1848 print, the USA and Switzerland lead the procession because they were already nation-states.
• The German peoples carry the black, red and gold flag. This is a trap, because no united Germany existed in 1848.
• In the print, the statue of Liberty holds the torch of Enlightenment and the Charter of the Rights of Man.
• Ernest Renan delivered 'Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?' at the Sorbonne on 11 March 1882. He called a nation 'a large-scale solidarity' and 'a daily plebiscite'. [5]
• Renan rejected common language, race, religion and territory as the basis of a nation.
• German Confederation = 39 states, created by the Congress of Vienna, 1815. The Frankfurt National Assembly met from May 1848 to June 1849 at the Paulskirche. [3]

Mains Points

• Nations are made, not found.
• Sorrieu's flag for a Germany that did not exist, and Renan's "daily plebiscite", both show that national identity is built by people's choices and struggles. It is not given by nature.

• This is a strong opening for GS-I questions on the origins of nationalism. It also helps explain how Indian nationalism was built through a common struggle against colonial rule.

• Modern state is not the same as nation-state, and this explains why empires broke up.

• Centralised sovereign power is old. The demand that the majority share one identity is a 19th-century novelty.

• Multi-ethnic empires (Habsburg, Ottoman, Russian) cracked under this demand. France and Britain absorbed it.

• Early nationalism was liberal, but it changed.

• In 1848 the nation-state idea was tied to rights, constitutions and fraternity. You can see this in Liberty's Charter and the broken absolutist symbols in Sorrieu's print.
• The failure at Frankfurt, and the later unifications by kings and wars, show a shift towards a more state-led and rival nationalism. This rivalry fed the tensions that ended in 1914.

Related concepts

• Ernest Renan
• Plebiscite
• Civic nationalism

Read more

• The dream of the nation: Sorrieu and Renan