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Consolidation of Nation-States in Europe The failed revolutions of 1848 created bitter enemies to Europe’s conservative monarchical elites. They also, however, strengthened the monarchies by aligning them with liberal revolutionaries who recoiled from radicalism. National competition justified uniformity within political constituencies and equated diversity with state weakness. While revolutionaries asserted that the state belonged to the "people," few could agree on exactly which people were to be included. Liberals, seeking state strength as well as economic opportunity, determined that the "people" did not include the working class, because they threatened cherished bourgeois values. The union of conservative elites and middle-class liberals led to a nationalism that undercut the radical message.
Unification in Germany and In Italy German and Italian leaders seized on radical and liberal nationalist sentiment to form their respective nations. From nationalist movements arose unified states able to compete with the military and economic might of the great monarchical powers. Both Italy and Germany, however, emerged as aristocratic bureaucracies, not republics. Divisions continually hampered integration. Southern Italian elites resisted northern political objectives, and Germany struggled to integrate ethnic minorities through Germanization programs. Despite difficulties, Germany prospered economically and politically.
Contradictions of the Nation in Europe As suggested by the name, the Austro-Hungarian state suffered from fragmentation in the form of ethnic division. Slavs, Czechs, Poles and others sought representation and voice in the new system. As various interests competed for influence, ethnic nationalist sentiment competed with the multi nationalism of the state, leading to political paralysis. France and Britain also struggled with division, both class and national, as France’s socialist Commune and England’s troubles with the Irish proved. >> Continue to the next part of the Summary: Industry, Science, and Technology
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