Nationalism and Imperialism in 19th-Century Europe and Beyond

Posted on Dec 28, 2024 in History

1. The Rise of Nationalism in Europe

1.1 France

In 1851, the President of the Republic, Louis Bonaparte, staged a coup, declared himself emperor under the name of Napoleon III, and established the Second Empire. The Bonapartist regime was a mixture of liberalism and order. Napoleon III intervened in every crisis between great powers:

  • Participated in the Crimean War.
  • He performed in Italy, first supporting Piedmont, but then preventing the completion of Italian unity.
  • Tried to establish a French satellite empire in Mexico.
  • He supported Prussia against Austria, but then declared war in 1870 and was defeated; the rule of Napoleon III fell.

1.2 The Unification of Germany

After the failure of 1848, German nationalism was divided in two:

  • Those in favor of a Greater Germany, clustered around Austria.
  • Those who preferred a Little Germany, led by Prussia.

Prussian Chancellor Bismarck, a supporter of Little Germany, achieved unification through a series of wars:

  • War of Schleswig, which pitted Austria and Prussia against Denmark.
  • Austro-Prussian War, Prussia demonstrated its military superiority and achieved the unification of northern Germany.
  • Franco-Prussian War, Napoleon III finally yielded, and the Prussians invaded France. The king of Prussia was proclaimed Kaiser in the Palace of Versailles. The Second Reich would have a federal structure. Germany annexed two provinces, Alsace and French Lorraine.

1.3 The Unification of Italy

The Italian case was very complex, due to the occupation of the northwest of the peninsula by a foreign power, Austria, and the presence of the Papal States, requiring that nationalism confront the temporal power of the Pope. The unification process had several stages:

  • War against Austria with French support, which liberated Lombardy but left Venice in Austrian hands.
  • Nationalist insurrection in the duchies of Parma, Modena, and Tuscany and the papal Romagna.
  • A volunteer army conquered the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Meanwhile, the Piedmontese invaded Umbria and the Marches.
  • Allied with Prussia in the war against Austria, the kingdom of Italy won Veneto.
  • In 1870, Italian troops entered Rome as Pope Pius IX proclaimed himself the “prisoner of the Vatican.”

Italy had to face several problems:

  • The imbalance between the industrial North and the South peasant.
  • The Roman question, which complicated Italian political life.
  • The difficulty to capture a colonial empire in Africa.

2. The Great European Powers

2.1 The Second German Reich

The Second German Reich was consolidated as the first continental power. After reconciliation with Austria, Bismarck made an effort to diplomatically isolate France:

  • His first set of alliances, uniting three emperors, failed due to the Eastern question (competition between Russians and Austrians to divide the territories of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans).
  • Entered into a Triple Alliance with Austria, Hungary, and Italy, while ensuring the support of Russia and the neutrality of Great Britain. Berlin became the center of world diplomacy.

In 1890 the new Kaiser Wilhelm II replaced Bismarck. Germany made an accelerated industrialization. Bismarck, an intelligent conservative, introduced social reforms to counter the influence of the Social Democratic Party.

2.2 The Third French Republic

After the fall of the Second Empire, the Third Republic was proclaimed in Paris. In foreign policy, Bismarck’s diplomacy created a dangerous isolation, which would not end until their approach to Russia. Inside, the division between the secular republican left and the right, clerical and authoritarian, was consummated. Tensions erupted in the Dreyfus Affair, a scandal involving espionage and military corruption that divided society.

2.3 The Austro-Hungarian Empire

The double defeat of Austria marked the end of the dream of a Greater Germany and the loss of their last possessions in Italy. The internal crisis was resolved through the Compromise of 1867: the empire was renamed the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and became a dual monarchy. The biggest threat to the survival of the Empire came from the separatist nationalism of Slavs and other ethnic groups.

2.4 The Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a giant in terms of territory and demographics but long overdue from the standpoint of social, political, and economic development:

  • It was the only power that had not had a parliamentary regime.
  • The enslavement of the peasants was not abolished until 1861.

Russia launched a rapid industrialization that led to serious social tensions. The most visible sign of modernization was the construction of railways, such as the Trans-Siberian, linking Moscow with the Pacific.

2.5 Britain during the Victorian Era

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland reached its maximum strength. Its foreign policy is summarized in the phrase “splendid isolation,” meaning the United Kingdom extended its overseas empire while ignoring European issues. The British political system excelled in its stability. It was based on bipartisanship, on the peaceful alternation of the two major parties in government. The British faced the problem of Ireland, unhappy with their forced incorporation into the UK.

3. Imperialism

3.1 The New Imperialism

Europeans built large colonial empires overseas. This first colonialism was in crisis following the independence of the United States. The new phase of colonial expansion began around 1830; it was from 1870 when the empire reached its height, ensuring economic and cultural domination.

3.2 The Industrial Revolution

Europeans provided the means to consolidate their power over the whole of humanity, thanks to their superior technical, organizational, and economic capabilities. There were important economic reasons that drove colonial expansion:

  • The colonies supplied raw materials to the metropolis and cheap labor to extract them.
  • Europeans sought territories where to invest their surplus capital for maximum profitability.

Networks ranging from colonialism to sovereign states also owed large sums to European capitals, allowing the creditor powers to impose customs or monetary policies.

3.3 Demographic Factors

During the transition to the modern demographic regime, there was a “white explosion”; the European population increased by 75% despite emigration overseas. Some colonies absorbed much of the surplus population of the metropolis. Most European immigrants settled in former colonies that were already independent. The increasing population pressure by European immigration drove the effective conquest and colonization of territories occupied by indigenous peoples.

3.4 Political Reasons for Imperialism

Political reasons also influenced Imperialism:

  • Some colonies had no economic interest, but they were in a strategic position belonging to the domain of sea routes.
  • The colonies brought prestige: it was considered that the position of an empire was a condition for access to high-status power.

The imperialist division of the territories subject to colonization led to climbing tensions. When these lands were sold, there was an increase in international tension, with crises in which strong powers assaulted the weak colonies to take them away.

3.5 The Ideological Alibi

The ideological alibi that justifies it all: racism. The Europeans were convinced that the white race was superior and had the right and duty to dominate all of humanity.

4.1 Colonial Empires

All European powers hoped for a colonial empire:

  • The British Empire, the largest and richest, had about a quarter of the surface and people on Earth. The largest colony was India, an inexhaustible source of wealth and prestige for the UK.
  • The Russian Empire formed a compact mass that stretched across Eurasia. Its weakness impelled him to make his way into the Indian Ocean and the Sea of Japan.
  • The French Empire stretched across Africa, Indochina, and islands in the Indian, Pacific, and Caribbean. Its principal colony was Algeria.
  • Germany and Italy came late to the cast. The first managed colonies in Africa and the Pacific. The second, after failing in Ethiopia, had to wait until 1911 to seize Tripoli from the Turks.
  • Spain lost the remnants of its empire in America and the Pacific and had to settle for small territories in Africa.
  • The Congo was a peculiar case: a long possession privately owned by the king of Belgium was transferred to the Belgian state.

Territories in 1900 that were still independent in Asia and Africa were:

  • Former empires like China, Persia, and Turkey.
  • Buffer states, which softened the tension between the areas of expansion of two powers.

4.2 The United States, from Colony to Empire

Population growth and natural resource abundance made the United States the world’s biggest economy in the late nineteenth century. Two features have marked its history until then:

  • The rivalry between the South, with its slavery and agriculture, and the North, industrial and recipient of European immigration.
  • The westward expansion, which accelerated following the discovery of gold in California.

The United States became an imperialist power: Washington reserved the right to intervene in Latin America in defense of its interests. The United States seized Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Shortly after, it began the construction of the Panama Canal, as it extended its influence in the Pacific.

4.3 Japan

The only new non-European imperialist power was Japan. The emperor came to power, prompting the Meiji Revolution. Japan abandoned feudalism and industrialized.