The Rise of Nationalism in Europe

The Rise of Nationalism in Europe

The Rise of Nationalism in Europe carried 4 to 6 marks in the 2026-27 sample paper and the 2025 and 2026 board papers. It set the History 5-marker in February 2026 (unification of Germany or Italy) and in 2025 (the Napoleonic Code or liberalism), a 3-marker in the sample paper (the female allegory or the Greek war) and in May 2026 (the Polish language), and MCQs such as a chronological order and a picture of a stamp.

Marks are most often lost on mixing up the dates 1815, 1830, 1848 and 1871, on treating liberals as democrats, on telling the story of Germany or Italy when the question asks how or why, and on long answers without names such as Bismarck, Cavour, Garibaldi or Mazzini.

Revise in 5 Minutes

Dates to fix

Key cases

• Napoleon's rule: uniform laws, standard weights and measures, common currency, guilds removed; then higher taxes, censorship, forced conscription.
• Poland: partitioned; Russian forced into schools; the Church kept Polish alive, so the language became resistance.
• Greece: Ottoman rule; war from 1821; Byron died in 1824; independent in 1832.
• Britain: Parliament's power from 1688; union with Scotland in 1707 (Gaelic banned in the Highlands); Ireland joined by force in 1801; Union Jack, anthem, English.
• Balkans after 1871: Slav peoples, Ottoman decline, big-power rivalry, then the First World War.

People: Mazzini (Young Italy, Young Europe), Metternich, Bismarck, Cavour, Garibaldi, the Grimm brothers, Herder, Kurpinski, Sorrieu, Renan.

Terms: nation-state, absolutist, utopian, plebiscite, liberalism (liber = free), conservatism, Romanticism, allegory (Marianne: red cap, tricolour, cockade; Germania: oak-leaf crown).

Traps

• Liberals were not democrats: no vote for women or men without property.
• Germany was united from above by the Prussian army, not by the Frankfurt Parliament.
• Italy: Mazzini (secret societies), Cavour (diplomacy), Garibaldi (volunteers) did different jobs.
• Zollverein (1834) is not the Treaty of Vienna (1815).

How to use this page: try each question on paper first, then read the answer. The marks against each step show what an examiner looks for. The 1-mark MCQs and Assertion-Reason questions are in the quiz at the end, together with questions that test how well you understand the chapter; every quiz answer comes with its explanation.

Short Answer Questions (2 and 3 Marks)

Question 1 (2 marks)

'For the liberals of early nineteenth-century Europe, equality before the law did not mean equal political rights for all.' Support the statement with two points.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. Liberals gave the right to vote and to stand for election only to men who owned property.
2. Men without property and all women had no political rights at all.

Marking scheme:

1. The right to vote and to be elected was given only to men who owned property. — 1 mark
2. Men without property and all women were kept out of political rights. (Also accept: political rights depended on owning property, not on being a citizen; or, the Napoleonic Code limited the vote and treated women as minors under their fathers and husbands.) — 1 mark

Question 2 (3 marks)

Explain why the new middle classes, and not the aristocracy, became the main supporters of national unity in nineteenth-century Europe.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. The aristocracy was a small class. Its members spoke French and married into noble families of other regions, so they felt no need for one nation.
2. Industrialisation created a new middle class of industrialists, businessmen and professionals.
3. These educated liberals wanted an end to aristocratic privileges and one national market for trade, so they backed national unity.

Marking scheme:

1. The aristocracy was a small class with a common way of life across regions; its members spoke French and married into noble families of other regions, so they felt no need for one nation. — 1 mark
2. Industrialisation created a new middle class of industrialists, businessmen and professionals. — 1 mark
3. Among these educated, liberal groups the idea of national unity, together with the end of aristocratic privileges, became popular; a single national market also suited their trade. (Accept either part.) — 1 mark

Question 3 (2 marks)

Metternich once remarked, 'When France sneezes, the rest of Europe catches cold.' What did he mean? Support your answer with one event of 1830.

Answer.

Model answer:

He meant that a revolution in France soon set off uprisings elsewhere in Europe. In 1830, the July Revolution in Paris sparked an uprising in Brussels, and Belgium broke away from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Marking scheme:

1. Meaning: a revolution in France quickly set off uprisings in other parts of Europe. — 1 mark
2. Example: the July Revolution of 1830, which overthrew the Bourbon king, sparked an uprising in Brussels, and Belgium broke away from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. — 1 mark

Question 4 (3 marks)

The conservatives who controlled Europe after 1815 did not reject every change of the revolutionary years. Explain what they wanted to preserve, what they were ready to accept, and why.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. They wanted to keep the traditional institutions: the monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family.
2. They accepted a modern army, an efficient bureaucracy, a growing economy and the end of feudalism and serfdom.
3. They accepted these changes because they felt such changes would strengthen the power of the monarchs, not weaken it.

Marking scheme:

1. Preserve: the traditional institutions of state and society, such as the monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family. — 1 mark
2. Accept: modernisation such as a modern army, an efficient bureaucracy, a dynamic economy, and the end of feudalism and serfdom. — 1 mark
3. Why: they believed these changes would make the autocratic monarchies of Europe stronger. — 1 mark

Question 5 (2 marks)

How did the Grimm brothers' work on folktales and the German language become part of the struggle against French rule? Give two points.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. The Grimm brothers felt that folktales gathered from common people showed the true German spirit.
2. They saw French rule as a threat to German culture, so their folktales and German dictionary helped build a German national identity.

Marking scheme:

1. They believed that folktales collected from ordinary people expressed a pure and authentic German spirit. — 1 mark
2. They saw French domination as a threat to German culture; collecting folktales and preparing a German dictionary helped oppose it and build a German national identity. — 1 mark

Question 6 (3 marks)

Imagine a cloth trader in a German town under French rule in the early 1800s. Explain three changes made under Napoleon's rule that would have made his business easier.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. The same laws applied everywhere, and the Civil Code protected his property.
2. Standard weights and measures and a common currency let him buy and sell in other regions without confusion.
3. Guild restrictions were removed and transport improved, so he could trade more freely.

Marking scheme:

1. Any three, 1 mark each: the same laws everywhere, with the Civil Code giving equality before the law and securing the right to property; standard weights and measures; a common national currency, so goods and money moved easily between regions; guild restrictions in towns removed; better transport and communication; simpler administrative divisions. — 3 marks

Question 7 (2 marks)

In the mid-nineteenth century, the idea of an Italian nation had not yet reached most ordinary Italians. Give two reasons.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. Italian had no one common form; it was spoken in many regional variations.
2. Most peasants could not read and knew nothing of nationalism. Some in the south thought 'La Talia' was Victor Emmanuel's wife.

Marking scheme:

1. The Italian language had no single common form; it had many regional and local variations. — 1 mark
2. Most peasants could not read and knew little of nationalist ideas; peasants in the south who backed Garibaldi thought 'La Talia' was Victor Emmanuel's wife. (Also accept: Italy was split into seven states, and only Sardinia-Piedmont was ruled by an Italian princely house.) — 1 mark

Question 8 (3 marks)

Why was it hard to build a sense of nationhood within the Habsburg Empire? Explain three reasons.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. The empire was made up of very different regions, from the Alpine lands and Bohemia to Italian-speaking Lombardy and Venetia.
2. People spoke many languages. In Hungary, half spoke Magyar; in Galicia, the nobles spoke Polish.
3. Many peasant peoples, such as Slovaks, Slovenes and Croats, lived under it. Only loyalty to the emperor held them together.

Marking scheme:

1. The empire was a patchwork of regions: Alpine lands such as the Tyrol, Austria and the Sudetenland, Bohemia, and Italian-speaking Lombardy and Venetia. — 1 mark
2. Its people spoke many languages: in Hungary half the people spoke Magyar and the rest spoke other dialects; in Galicia the aristocracy spoke Polish. — 1 mark
3. It also had many subject peasant peoples, such as Bohemians, Slovaks, Slovenes and Croats, who shared no common culture; loyalty to the emperor was the only common bond. — 1 mark

Question 9 (2 marks)

How did the idea of the nation-state, which grew in Europe, influence people in the colonies ruled by European powers? Give two points.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. People in the colonies began to oppose imperial rule and fought to form their own independent nation-states.
2. Their unity grew out of the struggle against imperialism, and each people shaped its own kind of nationalism.

Marking scheme:

1. Colonised peoples began to oppose imperial rule; their anti-imperial movements were nationalist, because they struggled to form independent nation-states. — 1 mark
2. Their sense of national unity grew out of the fight against imperialism, and each people developed its own kind of nationalism instead of copying Europe. — 1 mark

Question 10 (3 marks)

In nineteenth-century France, even a villager who could not read met the idea of the nation many times a week. Explain how female allegories such as Marianne made this possible, and why artists chose to show the nation as a woman.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. A nation cannot be seen, so artists showed it as a woman people could picture. She was not any real woman.
2. Marianne wore a red cap and carried the tricolour and the cockade, signs of liberty and the Republic.
3. Her statues stood in town squares and her image was on coins and stamps, so everyone saw her often.

Marking scheme:

1. A nation cannot be seen, so artists showed it as a woman whom people could picture; she stood for no real woman. — 1 mark
2. Marianne carried the signs of liberty and the Republic: the red cap, the tricolour and the cockade. — 1 mark
3. Her statues stood in public squares and her image was put on coins and stamps, so people saw her in daily life and were reminded of national unity. — 1 mark

Question 11 (3 marks)

After the Polish rising of 1831 against Russian rule was crushed, priests who would not preach in Russian were jailed or sent to Siberia. Explain why the language used in church had become part of a political struggle.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. Poland had been divided among the big powers and had no state, so its language kept the nation alive.
2. The Russians forced Polish out of schools and imposed Russian everywhere.
3. The Church went on using Polish in its gatherings and teaching, so speaking Polish became a way of resisting Russian rule.

Marking scheme:

1. Poland had been divided among the big powers at the end of the eighteenth century and had no state of its own; national feeling survived through music and language. — 1 mark
2. After the Russian occupation, Polish was forced out of schools and Russian was imposed everywhere, to wipe out Polish identity. — 1 mark
3. The clergy kept using Polish for church gatherings and religious teaching, so using Polish became a sign of the struggle against Russian rule, and the rulers punished the priests for it. — 1 mark

Long Answer and Case-Based Questions

Question 12 (5 marks)

Compare the unification of Germany and Italy on these five points: (a) the state that led it, (b) the main leaders, (c) the methods used, (d) the part played by ordinary people, (e) when the new state was proclaimed.

Answer.

Model answer:

Marking scheme:

1. (a) Germany: Prussia. Italy: Sardinia-Piedmont. (A points answer instead of a table earns full marks.) — 1 mark
2. (b) Germany: chief minister Otto von Bismarck, with King William I. Italy: King Victor Emmanuel II, chief minister Cavour, and Garibaldi. — 1 mark
3. (c) Germany: the Prussian army and bureaucracy; three wars over seven years with Austria, Denmark and France. Italy: Cavour's alliance with France, Austria defeated in 1859, and Garibaldi's march into the south in 1860. — 1 mark
4. (d) Germany: unity came from above, with little part for the people. Italy: Mazzini's risings of 1831 and 1848 had failed; later, Garibaldi's armed volunteers and the peasants of the south helped drive out the Spanish Bourbon rulers. — 1 mark
5. (e) Germany: William I proclaimed German Emperor at Versailles, January 1871. Italy: Victor Emmanuel II proclaimed king of united Italy, 1861. — 1 mark

OR

Explain how the Greek war of independence (1821-1832) shows the close link between culture and the growth of nationalism in early nineteenth-century Europe.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. Greece had been under Ottoman rule since the fifteenth century. Revolutionary nationalism set off its war of independence in 1821.
2. Greeks living in exile and many West Europeans who admired ancient Greek culture helped the nationalists.
3. Poets and artists called Greece the cradle of European civilisation and won public support for its fight against a Muslim empire.
4. Lord Byron raised money, went to fight and died of fever in 1824.
5. The Treaty of Constantinople (1832) made Greece independent. Poetry, art and a shared past had turned a local revolt into a European cause.

Marking scheme:

1. Greece had been part of the Ottoman Empire since the fifteenth century; the spread of revolutionary nationalism set off its war of independence in 1821. — 1 mark
2. Greek nationalists were helped by Greeks living in exile and by many West Europeans who admired ancient Greek culture. — 1 mark
3. Poets and artists praised Greece as the cradle of European civilisation and built public support for its fight against a Muslim empire. — 1 mark
4. The English poet Lord Byron raised funds and went to fight in the war, where he died of fever in 1824. — 1 mark
5. The Treaty of Constantinople (1832) recognised Greece as independent; the war showed that poetry, art and a shared cultural past could turn a local revolt into a European cause. — 1 mark

Question 13 (5 marks)

In 1848, two different kinds of revolt shook Europe: a revolt of the poor in Paris, and a revolution of the liberal middle classes in the German states. Explain what each group wanted and what came of its effort.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. In Paris, food shortages and unemployment drove people onto the roads. Barricades went up and Louis Philippe fled.
2. A Republic was proclaimed. All men above 21 got the vote, the right to work was promised and national workshops were opened.
3. In the German states, Italy and Poland, the liberal middle classes wanted a nation-state with a constitution, a parliament, and freedom of the press and association.
4. In May 1848, 831 elected members met as the Frankfurt Parliament and drafted a constitution for a German nation.
5. It failed. The Prussian king refused the crown, nobles and the army opposed it, workers withdrew their support, and troops broke it up.

Marking scheme:

1. Paris: food shortages and widespread unemployment brought people onto the roads; barricades went up and Louis Philippe had to flee. — 1 mark
2. A Republic was proclaimed; all adult males above 21 got the vote; the right to work was promised and national workshops were set up. — 1 mark
3. The liberal middle classes (in Germany, Italy, Poland and the Austro-Hungarian Empire) joined the demand for constitutions with national unity: a nation-state on parliamentary lines, freedom of the press and freedom of association. — 1 mark
4. In the German states, 831 elected representatives met as the Frankfurt Parliament in the Church of St Paul in May 1848 and drafted a constitution for a German nation under a monarchy answerable to parliament. — 1 mark
5. It failed: Friedrich Wilhelm IV rejected the crown, the aristocracy and the army opposed the assembly, the middle-class members lost the support of workers and artisans by resisting their demands, and troops disbanded the assembly. — 1 mark

OR

The Union Jack joins the crosses of older peoples into one flag. Explain how England came to dominate the making of the British nation between 1688 and 1801, and what this meant for the Scots and the Irish.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. Before 1700 there was no British nation. The English, Welsh, Scots and Irish had their own cultures.
2. England grew rich and powerful. After 1688 its Parliament held power and built a nation-state with England at the centre.
3. The Act of Union (1707) joined Scotland to England, and Scotland's culture and institutions were pushed aside.
4. Highlanders were forbidden to speak Gaelic or wear their national dress, and many were driven from their land.
5. In Ireland the English backed the Protestants. After the failed revolt of 1798, Ireland was forced into the Union in 1801. English, the Union Jack and the national anthem became the symbols of Britain.

Marking scheme:

1. Before the eighteenth century there was no British nation; the English, Welsh, Scots and Irish each had their own culture and politics. — 1 mark
2. The English nation grew in wealth and power; its Parliament, which took power from the monarchy in 1688, became the tool for building a nation-state centred on England. — 1 mark
3. The Act of Union (1707) joined England and Scotland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain; England dominated, and Scotland's own culture and institutions were pushed aside. — 1 mark
4. Scottish Highlanders were forbidden to speak Gaelic or wear their national dress, and many were driven out of their homeland. — 1 mark
5. Ireland was divided between Catholics and Protestants, and the English backed Protestant dominance; after Wolfe Tone's failed revolt of 1798 it was forced into the United Kingdom in 1801. A new British culture was spread through English, the Union Jack and the national anthem. — 1 mark

Question 14 (4 marks)

Read the source given below and answer the questions that follow.

What Makes a Nation?

In 1882, the French thinker Ernst Renan spoke at the Sorbonne in Paris on a question that many Europeans were then asking: what is a nation? He set aside the usual answers of his time. A nation, he said, is not formed simply because people speak one language, belong to one race or follow one religion, and the shape of the land does not create it either.

For Renan, a nation grows out of a long shared past of effort, sacrifice and devotion. People who remember great deeds and hard times together, and who honour the same heroes, feel bound to one another. Just as important is the present: the wish to go on living together. He compared the life of a nation to a vote that its people cast afresh every day, a daily plebiscite. A nation, he added, has no real interest in holding on to another country against that country's will. He thought nations were necessary, since a world under a single law and a single ruler would leave no room for liberty.

(a) According to Renan, which features do not by themselves make a nation? Name any two. (1 mark)

Answer.

Model answer:

A common language and a common religion do not by themselves make a nation.

Marking scheme:

1. Any two: a common language; race; religion; territory (the shape of the land). (0.5 + 0.5) — 1 mark

(b) Why did Renan compare the life of a nation to a 'daily plebiscite'? (1 mark)

Answer.

Model answer:

A plebiscite is a direct vote of the people. A nation lasts only as long as its people keep choosing, every day, to live together.

Marking scheme:

1. A plebiscite is a direct vote by the people; a nation lives only as long as its people keep agreeing, by their own will, to live together. — 1 mark

(c) Explain why Renan's idea of a nation, based on the will of its people, suited the liberal nationalists of the nineteenth century. Give two points. (2 marks)

Answer.

Model answer:

1. Liberals wanted government by the consent of the people, not rule by an autocrat. A nation built on the people's will fits this.
2. Liberals valued individual freedom, and Renan saw nations as a guarantee of liberty.

Marking scheme:

1. Liberals stood for government by consent; a nation resting on its people's will fits this idea and rejects rule by an autocrat or by birth. — 1 mark
2. Liberals valued the freedom of the individual; Renan saw nations as a guarantee of liberty and opposed holding any people against its will. — 1 mark

OR

(c) In 1871 Germany took Alsace from France. Many people there spoke a German dialect, yet a large number of them wished to remain French. Using the source, explain two points on how Renan would judge this annexation. (2 marks)

Answer.

Model answer:

1. For Renan, language does not decide a nation, so a German dialect did not make Alsace German.
2. A nation rests on its people's will. Holding Alsace against the wishes of its people would be wrong in his eyes.

Marking scheme:

1. Language does not make a nation, so speaking a German dialect did not make the people of Alsace part of the German nation. — 1 mark
2. A nation rests on its people's wish to live together, and no nation has a real interest in holding a land against its will; so an annexation without the people's consent would be wrong in his eyes. — 1 mark

Question 15 (4 marks)

Read the source given below and answer the questions that follow.

Museum Label: The Dream of 1848

Frédéric Sorrieu (French), first of four prints on a world of 'democratic and social Republics', 1848

Look first at the crowd, not at the statue. Men and women from many countries walk together, each group behind its own banner, yet no king, bishop or general leads them. That is the artist's point: in the future he imagined, nations would be made by their peoples. Some groups have already passed the figure of Liberty, while others are still far back, as if each nation must arrive in its own time. Near her feet lie the smashed emblems of kings.

Sorrieu made these prints in the year when risings broke out in Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Milan. Within months, most of those risings had been put down. The print records a hope, not an event.

(a) According to the label, who is missing from the head of the procession, and what does this show about how Sorrieu thought nations would be made? (1 mark)

Answer.

Model answer:

No king, bishop or general leads the crowd. Sorrieu thought nations would be made by their own peoples.

Marking scheme:

1. No king, bishop or general leads it (0.5); nations would be made by their own peoples (0.5). — 1 mark

(b) Why does the label say that the print 'records a hope, not an event'? (1 mark)

Answer.

Model answer:

Most of the 1848 risings were crushed within months, so the free nations shown did not yet exist.

Marking scheme:

1. Most of the risings of 1848 were crushed within months, so the free nations shown in the print did not yet exist. — 1 mark

(c) The print shows many nations marching together in peace. Explain two ways in which nationalism in Europe after 1871 turned out differently. (2 marks)

Answer.

Model answer:

1. Nationalist groups turned hostile to each other. In the Balkans, each state wanted land at its neighbours' cost.
2. The big powers used these national hopes for their own empires, and their rivalry ended in the First World War in 1914.

Marking scheme:

1. Nationalist groups grew intolerant of one another and ready to go to war; in the Balkans each new state wanted land at its neighbours' cost. — 1 mark
2. The big powers used the national hopes of subject peoples for their own imperial aims, and their rivalry led to wars and finally to the First World War in 1914. — 1 mark

OR

(c) Suggest two reasons why a conservative government in 1848 might have wanted to ban this print. (2 marks)

Answer.

Model answer:

1. It shows the emblems of kings smashed and no ruler at the head of the people, so it attacks monarchy.
2. It spreads the idea that nations belong to their peoples, which could stir up more revolts.

Marking scheme:

1. It shows the emblems of kings smashed and no ruler leading the people, so it attacks monarchy itself. — 1 mark
2. It spreads the liberal idea that nations belong to their peoples, which could encourage more revolts. (Also accept: it praises liberty, which conservative censorship tried to silence.) — 1 mark