Economy,_State_and_Society

Banner id: B00221512 Lecturer: Terry McBride Module Title: Economy, state and society Account for the emergence of ‘nation states’ in Europe during the period 1815-1914. This essay will account for the important factors and events that lead to the social and political changes throughout continental Europe and consequently lead to the emergence of nation states between the time periods of 1815-1914. The main focus point in this essay is the emergence of nation states between a certain time period. However it will also include certain events starting from the time period 1789. The year 1789 was the year the French revolution began. The reasons for including this is due to the French revolution paving the way for other nations to want a more democratic society and more rights for citizens. We will also look into Friedrich Engels political views in regards to continental Europe. The French revolution began in 1789 and lasted for a period of 10 years; it was a period of radical political and social upheaval in France. Due to this revolution France was pro claimed a republic in 1792 and in the following year of 1793 King Louis XVI was convicted for treason and executed. In the years following there came numerous attempts to gain control of France, there was a near dictatorship in the form of the committee of public safety who controlled France from 1793-1794. The committee of public safety was headed by Maximillien Robespierre, and there aim was to protect the newly established republic against foreign attacks and internal rebellion. However following the downfall of Robespierre, the committee’s influence diminished and it was disabled in 1795. Following this downfall came the Directory who took control of France and held on to power from 1795-1799 until it was replaced by the consulate under Napoleon Bonaparte. This in turn led to Napoleon’s dictatorship which lead to him becoming emperor of France. This was to become known as the republican phase of the revolution (Fordham web page) In the years to follow came the Napoleonic wars which were a series of wars declared against the French empire from opposing coalitions which ran from the period 1803-1815. During this time French power was growing quickly and this was down to Napoleon’s armies conquering much of Europe, which in turn lead to the birth of Holland and Westphalia where Napoleon’s relatives were placed as rulers this also occurred in Sweden, Italy, Spain and Naples. However some signs of the emergence of nation states in Europe began when Napoleon was defeated at the battle of Waterloo by the British in 1815. When the French were defeated at Waterloo it lead to the congress of Vienna. The congress of Vienna was the first of a series of international meetings between ambassadors from Britain, France, Austria, Prussia and Russia. These meetings became known as the concert of Europe which was an attempt to forge a peaceful balance of power throughout continental Europe after the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars along with the decline of the Holy Roman Empire. This resulted in the re-drawing of the political map. The nations agreed on boundaries which saw some states gain and some states loosing territory. The Holy Roman Empire had dissolved and was replaced by the German confederation which meant that over 300 German states were reduced to only 39. This saw Russia gaining the majority of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which lead to the birth of Poland as a free state. However although the congress of Vienna tried to restore peace to Europe they could not stop the revolutionary movements that were occurring internally. Due to the social and political changes that occurred from the French revolution, the middle class people were influenced by the enlightenment and democracy however the lower class people were influenced more by the socialist and communist views. And one of the most influential philosophers who shared some of these views at this time was Friedrich Engels. Friedrich Engels was a German philosopher, political theorist and father of the Marxist theory alongside Karl Marx. The theory of Marxism is that “a worker is free this means that she has property rights in her own labour is a free proprietor and that the means of production that would permit her to produce and sell anything other than her labour power” (Marx, 1977:271) In 1848 Engels along with Karl Marx they produced the communist manifesto and Engels later funded Karl Marx’s research for his profound work of Ds Kapital, unfortunately only volume 1 was published in his lifetime. However his lifelong friend Engels edited and published the second, third and eventually a fourth volume. (Wikipedia web page) Due to Engels and Marx’s theory capitalism became liberalism. Liberals believed that they should not pay taxes to nobility and that they should be able to own their own land, they also believed in equal rights for people. These views soon spread and caused national uprising in countries such as Poland and Italy followed by Hungary and Germany who all wanted their countries to be free from foreign rule and for their nations to be unified. This now brings us to the period of 1848 and this is when Napoleon’s nephew Napoleonic returned to France after being exiled in the UK. Napoleon III was soon elected to the French parliament, he then went on to stage a coup d etat and became emperor of France. Napoleon III is mainly remembered for an energetic foreign policy which aimed to limitate the damage on relationships imposed on France since 1815 by the concert of Europe. He wanted to re-assert the French influence in Europe. He then became involved in a brief war against Austria in 1859 which lead to the complete unification of Italy. Napoleon then went on to fight in the Crimean war alongside Britain in an allied action against Russia. Russia wanted to gain control of the dissolving Ottoman Empire but the major powers of Europe would not allow this to occur. In 1864 negotiations of peace began between the empires, and the treaty of Paris was up held until 1871. After the war Prussia and many German states united together to form the German empire and in doing so making it a nation state. There were still small pockets of revolutionary groups in Europe but most were defeated. By this time period of 1871 most of the states in Europe had become constitutional instead of absolute monarchies, which is where the monarch is the head of state but does not have the all ruling power. The state is run by parliament fronted by a prime minister with the monarch still performing ceremonial duties. Then came the 1st Russian revolution which began in 1905. During this revolution thousands of workers took to the streets of St Petersburg, their aim was not to overthrow the monarchy it was merely to ask Tsar, Nicholas III for his help to improve their lifestyle. The protest was peaceful at first but soon turned to blood shed when the government’s soldiers began shooting at all the protesters, which left hundreds dead. These events provoked public indignation which lead to a series of massive strikes that quickly spread throughout the industrial centres of the Russian empire. By the end of 1905 over 4000,000 workers were on strike and by the summer of that year demands for increases freedom of speech and an elected government had rapidly increased. The railways came to a standstill and Finland along with Poland called for autonomy and sought the freedom to speak their own language. On the 14th of October Tsar was presented with the October manifesto. The manifesto granted basic civil rights and allowed political parties to form. When the manifesto was confirmed the strikes began to come to an end. The liberals of Russia were content by the manifesto and prepaid for the upcoming Dumas elections, whereas on the other hand the radical socialist along with revolutionaries did not accept it and called for an uprising to destroy the empire. (Washington web page) This then paved the way for the 2nd Russian revolution, eventually the R Russian empire began to dissolve and more and more countries were breaking away and becoming nation states. The various wars between the time period 1815-1914 played a massive part in the emergence of nation states. Another contributor was that of the 2nd industrial revolution. This revolution began in Britain around the 1850’s and subsequently spread throughout Western Europe and eventually the world. This was an important part in regards to the emergence of nation states due to the fact it opened up trading amongst the European states and eventually the rest of the world. Over all there was more than one factor that led to the emergence of nation states and each factor played an important part in the social and political changes encountered by Europe to lead to the emergence of nation states between the period 1815-1914. Refrence list http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook13.asp http://depts.washington.edu/baltic/papers/russianrevolution.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Engels