Ideas of national unity and defining nationalism were also becoming very popular. People wanted to identify their language, culture, traditions and their country. “Nationalists sought to promote the national culture, defined primarily in terms of language and historical heritage, and to equate political structure with the culture.”2 Countries such as Germany and Italy were seeking one big united country instead of having different parts of states. Different ethnic groups within the Habsburg Empire also fought for separation from the Habsburg Dynasty. “Most Slavic nationalists, particularly the Czechs, who were most articulate at this point, sought some system of national autonomy within the empire.”3 The nationalists across Europe wanted their own nation one that is free of oppression from the larger more powerful powers. “Most nationalists believed, in the principal that each nation should have its place in the sun. They purported not to vaunt their own nation at the expense of others. Each united, independent nation would allow its people to make their maximum contribution to the general good of humanity.”4
During the revolutions of 1848, Europe was also experiencing the artistic and intellectual movement of romanticism. This movement became a reaction to previous enlightenment and reality that people lived in. The enlightenment period was all about the person’s ability to reason. Romanticism encouraged people’s intuitions and emotions and focused on how people felt. Before romanticism it was believed that people should confine and live in harmony with the laws, but the romantic movement thought that the laws only imprisoned people. “The romantics believed in the power of the human spirit and in the forced of history. They admired actions and great deeds. They scorned dull, calculating regimes. In these ways romanticism was fillip for revolutionary action.”5
Instead of law and order, people all over Europe were advocating for their own individuality and self. People wanted to be free to follow their inner intuitions and feelings and not be confined to laws that they might not agree with or feel are wrong.
This obviously clashed with the order that was in place because it defied the current law and challenged the order of the law.
Despite their short term failure, the revolutions of 1848 did influence the developments of the coming decades. After the revolutions, the economic development of Italy started to emerge, lower tariffs and railroads were being build in the country. The Piedmont government favored the idea of nationalism and liberalism and started linking parts of Italy together. “Within the decade, of course, it sponsored a new diplomatic and military efforts against the Austrians, with the result that Italy won her unity only a few years after the revolutions failed.”6 The Nationalism movement that was started and spread during the revolutions ended up also uniting the Confederation of the Rhine under Bismarck into one country called Germany. “Both Italian and German unification owe much to the dress rehearsal of 1848.”7 Hungary also received its autonomy within the Austrian Empire and became an independent country.
Notes
1 Stearns, Peter. The Revolutions of 1848. (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974),46.
2 Stearns, Peter. The Revolutions of 1848. (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974),54
3 Eyck, Frank. The Revolutions of 1849-49. (New York: Barns and Noble Books, 1972),76.
4 Stearns, Peter. The Revolutions of 1848. (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974),48.
5 Stearns, Peter. 1848: The Revolutionary Tide in Europe. (New York: W.W Norton and
Company Inc, 1974),49.
6 Robertson, Priscilla. Revolutions of 1848. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1967),240.
7 Eyck, Frank. The Revolutions of 1849-49. (New York: Barns and Noble Books, 1972),179.
Bibliography
Eyck, Frank. The Revolutions of 1849-49. New York: Barns and Noble Books, 1972.
Robertson, Priscilla. Revolutions of 1848. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1967.
Stearns, Peter. 1848: The Revolutionary Tide in Europe. New York: W.W Norton and
Company Inc, 1974.
Stearns, Peter. The Revolutions of 1848. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974
