Frederic Sorrieu's Vision of Nations

India and the Contemporary World - II

Events and Processes

Rise of Nationalism in Europe

• Frédéric Sorrieu, a French artist, created four prints in 1848 visualizing a world of ‘democratic and social Republics.’
• The first print shows people of Europe and America marching and paying homage to the Statue of Liberty.
• Liberty is personified as a female figure holding the torch of Enlightenment and the Charter of the Rights of Man.
• The foreground of the images show shattered symbols of absolutist institutions.
• Sorrieu’s utopian vision groups people as distinct nations, identified by flags and national costumes.
• United States and Switzerland led the procession past the Statue of Liberty, having already become nation-states.
• France, identified by the tricolor, is followed by Germany with a black, red, and gold flag.
• Unification of Germany didn't exist, the flag expresses liberal hopes to unify German-speaking principalities under a democratic constitution.
• Peoples of Austria, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Lombardy, Poland, England, Ireland, Hungary, and Russia follow.
• Christ, saints, and angels symbolize fraternity among nations.
• In the 19th century, nationalism brought significant changes to Europe's political and mental landscape.
• The nation-state emerged, replacing multi-national dynastic empires.
• A nation-state is defined by a majority of citizens, not just rulers, developing a common identity and shared history.
• This commonality wasn't immemorial but was forged through struggles and actions of leaders and people.
• Absolutist: A government with no constraints on its power, often centralized, militarized, and repressive.
• Utopian: A vision of an ideal, yet likely unattainable, society.
• Ernst Renan, in his 1882 lecture, defines a nation as a culmination of shared endeavors, sacrifices, and devotion and criticizes language, race, religion, or territory for a nation.
• He states that a common will, glories in the past, great deeds, and the wish to perform more are essential, and that a nation's existence is a daily plebiscite based on the will of its inhabitants.
• Annexation against a country's will is against the principle of nationhood.
• Nations are a guarantee of liberty, which is defended if there is only one law and master.
• Plebiscite: A direct vote where people accept or reject a proposal.

The French Revolution and the Idea of the Nation

• The French Revolution in 1789 was the first clear expression of nationalism.
• The revolution transferred sovereignty from the French monarchy to a body of French citizens.
• Proclaimed it and its people would shape its destiny
• French revolutionaries took measures to create a sense of collective identity.
• The ideas of la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen) focused on a united community enjoying equal rights under a constitution.
• A new French flag, the tricolor, replaced the oyal standard.
• The Estates General was elected by active citizens and renamed the National Assembly.
• New hymns were composed, oaths were taken, and martyrs were commemorated in the name of the nation.
• A centralized administrative system was introduced.
• Uniform laws for all citizens were formulated within its territory.
• Internal customs duties and dues were abolished.
• A uniform system of weights and measures was adopted.
• Regional dialects were discouraged with French as the common language.
• Furthermore the revolutionaries declared to liberate Europe from despotism.
• Inspired by events in France, students and educated middle classes across Europe set up Jacobin clubs.
• This paved the way for French armies into Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy in the 1790s.

The Making of Nationalism in Europe

• Mid-18th-century Europe lacked 'nation-states' as Germany, Italy, and Switzerland were divided into kingdoms, duchies, and cantons with autonomous rulers.
• Eastern and Central Europe were under autocratic monarchies with diverse peoples who lacked a shared identity.
• The Habsburg Empire was a patchwork of regions and peoples, including German-speaking aristocrats in Bohemia and speakers of Italian.
• In Hngary half the population spoke Magyar and Polish spoken in Galicia.
• Differences hindered political unity, the only common tie being allegiance to the emperor.
• Landed aristocracy was the dominant social class united by cross-regional lifestyles - estates in the country and townhouses.
• They used French for diplomacy, families connected by marriage, but this group small.
• West was farmed by tenants and small owners and characterized by vast estates farmed by serfs
• Industrialization spurred the growth of towns, trade, and commercial classes.
• In Central and Eastern Europe, these groups were fewer until the late 19th century.
• Educated, liberal middle classes embraced national unity and the abolition of aristocratic privileges.
• Liberalism, from the Latin 'liber' (free), advocated for freedom of the individual and equality before the law.
• Emphasized elected government over autocracy, a constitution, and representative government.
• Endorsed the inviolability of private property.
• Equality did not require universal suffrage as initially, the right to vote was limited to property-owning men, excluding others including women
• Under the Jacobins, all adult males could vote; the Napoleonic Code restricted suffrage and reducing many women
• Throughout the 19th/20th C’s women and non-propertied men pushed for political rights.
• List hoped to bind Germans into a nation with economic measures - strengthen interests and raise national sentiment through individual interests.
• Such conditions were obstacles to economic exchange/growth which led in 1834, to a customs union or zollverein formed and removed barriers
• railway stimulated mobility/economies to harness national unity to harness national unification.
• With the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, European governments drove the spirit of conservatism and should preserve traditional state: monarchy/church/power and family.
• Monarchies can be effective to a modernized army/efficient bureaucracy/abolish feudalism/strenghten autocratic monarchies
• 1815 representatives at Vienna to draw up a settlement where Austria Chancellor Duke Metternich hosted delegates and drew up the Treaty of Vienna.
• Undoing the effects of Europe in Napoleonic Wars and restored power to Bourbon with France and territories but placed boundaries so to not expand
• Dutch and Belgium were set up in the north and Genoa added Piedmont and Austria was not untouched. There main intention monarchies previously by Napoleon, and create conservative Europe
• Intolerant of criticism, censorship laws to control reflected ideas/freedom of newspapers

The Making of Germany and Italy

• Post-1848 nationalism in Europe shifted from democracy and revolution to conservatives using nationalist sentiments for state power.
• Germany and Italy are examples of which was Germany and Italy came to be unified as nation-states.
• In 1848, middle-class Germans tried uniting German regions into a nation-state governed by an elected parliament that repressed forces supported by Prussia
• Prussia took leader and led the movement for national unification, Bismarck was chief
• This process carried out with Prussia -Austri, Denmark and victory completed in 1871 where Prussian proclaim Germans Empire etc.
• Bismarck work 2. 7m 2. 7m was artists 70th etc on power. The new emphasis systems rest for Germany.Prussian process
• A history of fragmentation and like italy/scattered dynastic states as the Habsburg by Giuseppi.Mazzini
• 1830 giusepe/Italy and Sardinia etc and with/war/elite
• Victor and mass italia liberal Italy for italia. Victor/the and tali itala
• Italy and Cavour - Sardinia defeating Austria forces of troops leadership local to drive spanish
• Victor was procalaim high liberal italy ideology mass Italia belief Victor Emmanuel/his Wife!

Visualizing the Nation

• Visualizing the Nation-Easy to rulers/statue
• Artists were 18th/19th centuries with countries with is to countries
• Figure became allegories of the nation
• During french revolution are red cups/chains/Justice pair scale
• Female century
• Marinane
• Characteristics are free code/tri colur
• Marianne symbol coins and stamps/germinia
• Oak stands for heroes/abstract allegory/two meanings/example/symbolic
• Symbolism and attributes/example
• Liberty from broken chains/eagle

Nationalism and imperialism

• By nineteenth, no longer
• Intolerant and go to way
• Inspire to for other
• BAlkans. The and ethnic todays
• Slaves. Bulgaria. Greece
• Otronia empires toexplosive
• One foreign on rights to
• As/conflict etc to them/lose
• Empire was keen controls
• This and is War!

Print Culture and the Modern World

The First Printed Books

• The earliest print technology developed in China, Japan, and Korea, using hand printing from AD 594 and books
• The thin paper used for books meant folded at side as an ‘accordion’.
• Superbly skilled craftsmen created this duplicated that could beauty by calligraphy and China Imperial for produced etc.
• Examinations were tested and written by this paper, 16th c, used for merchants/recreated a traditional

Print Comes to Europe

• Silk/spices came through China in the silk centuries to travel around
• Chinese spread through 1295
• Marco used printing/scribbles for aristocatic libraries/students who could buy cheep/paper
• Scribes took too long with this so Gutenberg first did printing and in 1430/1488/made it better

Explore Frederic Sorrieu's utopian vision of nations and the concepts represented in his prints. Understand how he grouped people and the symbolic roles of liberty and nations in his depiction. Analyze the cultural and political contexts that shaped nationalist sentiments.