“Nationalism has now behind it at least two centuries as the most successful revolutionary force in modern politics.”
J.M. Roberts, A History of Europe, page 396
In developing societies where old social ties and loyalties were breaking down in great cities and large, anonymous markets, there was a social vacuum to be filled. Personal and collective identities had to be redefined, new emotional foci developed. This shift was occurring at a time when a new and more immediate sharing of information and emotion was becoming available through greater literacy, more popular newspapers, and speedier world communications.
“It could not be said in 1871 that the omens were good. The century’s history down to that year had been studded with revolution and war in the name of nationalism… For all the success of German and Italian nationalism in the mid-century decade and in spite of the establishment of new national states in Serbia, Greece and Romania by 1870, the threat of national aspirations posed to European peace did not go away.”
Ottoman Empire: Bulgaria and Montenegro emerged in the 1870s, Albania in 1913. Crete had obtained the sultan’s recognition of an autonomous government under a Greek governor.
Russian Empire: The more reactionary regimes of Alexander III and Nicholas II were able to contain disorder and maintain the de facto domination of the Russian peoples over other subjects of the empire.
The Dual Monarchy: In Hungary, Slavs who formed local majorities in some places felt oppressed and activists among them looked to Serbia as a possible future protector against Magyar domination.
There was also a large Romanian population in Transylvania, which might be encouraged by the new independent Romanian kingdom.
Any Austrian attempts to satisfy other nationalities ran into bitter opposition from the Magyars, stakeholders in the Dualist outcome.
Great Britain: Had two intransigent European nationalist movements to deal with, both in Ireland. The most obvious was that of the Catholic Irish and by 1900 concessions had been made in attempts to soothe tensions, though they fell short of the solution of autonomy, or “Home Rule”. Progress toward the goal of Home Rule was opposed by the Protestant nationalism of Ulster, encouraged by the Conservative (Unionist) Party, which was committed to the maintenance of existing constitutional connection with England.
“National feeling among the populations of the great powers themselves – or what was claimed to be such a feeling in the first age of mass newspapers – was another potentially disturbing force.”
France and Germany were psychologically sundered by the German seizure of Alsace-Lorraine as spoils of victory in 1871. French politicians were long able to cultivate and exploit the seductive theme of revanche.
The British were also encouraged to feel antagonized by Germany over its commercial success in world markets and the danger it was supposed to present. The two countries were actually each other’s best customers, but this fact was ignored in an era of awakening political excitement.
“It was unfortunate that because no united Germany had existed thirty years earlier, even Bismarck had found it easy to exaggerate the divisive dangers confronting a new nation as he sought support from nationalist politicians.”
German national feeling began being vehemently expressed during the reign of William II, the emperor of Germany and king of Prussia. Bismarck thought and preached that German Catholics who looked to ultramontane Rome and socialists who talked about the international working class were equally “enemies of the empire”.
Germany’s “new course” in the 1890s led not only to a new assertiveness about Germany’s role in Europe, but evolved into the promotion of a global vision of the country’s proper standing, a “world policy”.
One expression of this was the beginning of the building of a big navy; which raised questions about who the High Seas Fleet might be employed against, if not Great Britain. By this time there was a growing impression in several European countries, far from unjustified, that the German empire tended to throw it weight around too much in international affairs. Speculative sentiments of public opinion like these reflect some of the disturbing and unintended effects which nationalist politics could have as the 20th century began, for, in constitutional states, governments could not ignore public opinion.
The Normal Times 