What Did Liberal Nationalism Stand For?

Ideas of national unity in early-nineteenth-century Europe were closely allied to liberalism. The term comes from the Latin liber, meaning free. For the new middle classes, liberalism stood for:

  • freedom for the individual and equality of all before the law;
  • politically, government by consent — the end of autocracy and clerical privileges, a constitution and representative government through parliament;
  • the inviolability of private property.

But equality before the law did not mean universal suffrage. In revolutionary France the right to vote was granted only to property-owning men; men without property and all women were excluded. The Napoleonic Code even reduced women to the status of a minor. Throughout the century, women and non-propertied men organised movements demanding equal political rights.

Economic Liberalism and the Zollverein

In the economic sphere, liberalism stood for the freedom of markets and the abolition of state-imposed restrictions on the movement of goods and capital.

Napoleon's measures had created a confederation of 39 German states, each with its own currency, weights and measures. A merchant travelling in 1833 from Hamburg to Nuremberg had to pass through 11 customs barriers, paying a duty of about 5 per cent at each. The unit of measure, the elle, differed from region to region.

In 1834, a customs union or zollverein was formed at the initiative of Prussia and joined by most German states. It abolished tariff barriers and reduced the number of currencies from over thirty to two. A network of railways further stimulated mobility, and this wave of economic nationalism strengthened wider nationalist feeling.

The New Conservatism after 1815 and the Congress of Vienna

After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, European governments were driven by conservatism — the belief that traditional institutions (monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family) should be preserved. Conservatives did not want a full return to the past; they realised modernisation could strengthen monarchy.

In 1815, the representatives of Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria — who had defeated Napoleon — met at the Congress of Vienna, hosted by the Austrian Chancellor Duke Metternich. The Treaty of Vienna (1815) aimed to undo the changes of the Napoleonic era: the Bourbon dynasty was restored, France lost its annexed territories, and a series of buffer states was set up (the kingdom of the Netherlands including Belgium in the north; Genoa added to Piedmont; Prussia given new western territories; Austria given northern Italy). These regimes were autocratic and imposed censorship.

The Revolutionaries and Mazzini

Fearing repression, many liberal-nationalists went underground. Secret societies sprang up across Europe to train revolutionaries and spread their ideas. To be a revolutionary meant a commitment to oppose monarchical forms set up after 1815 and to fight for liberty and freedom, with the nation-state as a necessary goal.

One such revolutionary was the Italian Giuseppe Mazzini, born in Genoa in 1805, a member of the secret society of the Carbonari. Sent into exile in 1831, he founded two underground societies — Young Italy in Marseilles and Young Europe in Berne — with like-minded young men from Poland, France, Italy and the German states. Mazzini believed that God had intended nations to be the natural units of mankind, so Italy had to be forged into a single unified republic. Metternich described him as 'the most dangerous enemy of our social order'.

Questions and Answers

Q1. What did liberalism stand for in the political sphere? Ans. Politically, liberalism stood for the end of autocracy and clerical privileges, government by consent, a constitution and representative government through parliament, equality before the law, and the inviolability of private property.

Q2. What was the zollverein and when was it formed? Ans. The zollverein was a customs union formed in 1834 at the initiative of Prussia and joined by most German states. It abolished tariff barriers and reduced the currencies from over thirty to two, binding the Germans economically.

Questions and Answers (continued)

Q3. What did conservatives believe after 1815? Ans. Conservatives believed that traditional institutions — the monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family — should be preserved. They accepted that modernisation (a modern army, efficient bureaucracy, the abolition of serfdom) could strengthen these institutions.

Q4. Why did liberalism not mean democracy in the sense of universal suffrage? Ans. Because the right to vote was limited to property-owning men; men without property and all women were excluded, and the Napoleonic Code reduced women to the status of a minor.

Questions and Answers (continued)

Q5. Who was Giuseppe Mazzini and what did he believe? Ans. Giuseppe Mazzini was an Italian revolutionary (born Genoa, 1805) who founded the secret societies Young Italy and Young Europe. He believed that God had intended nations to be the natural units of mankind, and that Italy must be forged into a single unified republic. Metternich called him the 'most dangerous enemy of our social order'.