Mass Politics and Nationalism (^) ‹ 155
Hapsburg Empire, the nationalist aspirations of ethnic minorities worked to undermine
Austrian domination. In France and Russia, the force of nationalism was used to end the
remaining dreams of liberals and to strengthen the hold of autocratic rulers.
The Triumph of Conservative Nationalism
In the first half of the nineteenth century, liberals and nationalists tended to ally themselves
against the forces of conservatism. Both believed that political sovereignty resided in the
people, and they shared an optimistic belief that progress toward their goals was inevitable.
Campaigns for liberal reform (which attempted to break the conservative aristocracy’s grip
on political power and to promote individual rights) tended to merge with the struggle for
national rights or self-determination. Accordingly, most liberals supported the idea of free
and unified nation-states in Germany and Italy, the rebirth of Poland, and Greek independ-
ence; most conservatives opposed these ideas.
However, both partial victory and eventual defeat drove a wedge between liberals and
nationalists. When liberals won temporary victories over conservative aristocrats between
1830 and 1838, fundamental differences between the agendas of liberal reformers and
nationalists began to emerge. The emphasis on individual liberty and limited government
did not mesh well with the nationalist emphasis on the collective national tribe or with the
desire of nationalists for a strong national government. In short, liberals believed in promot-
ing the rights of all peoples; nationalists cared only about promoting their nation’s interests.
When, in 1848, the more radical liberal agenda of democratic reform emerged
as a wave of revolutions across Europe, the conservative tendencies of nationalism
came to the fore. Nationalists not only shared the conservatives’ belief in the value of
historical traditions, they tended to mythologize the past and dream of a return to an
era of national glory. Ultimately, however, what drove a wedge between liberals and
nationalists was the failure of liberals to hold the power they had temporarily seized.
As the conservative reaction in the second half of 1848 smashed liberal movements and
revolutions everywhere in Europe, nationalists dreaming of a strong, unified country
free from foreign rule increasingly turned to conservative leaders. Both the unification
of Italy and the unification of Germany were primarily engineered by and for the con-
servative aristocrats.The Unification of Italy
The Forces Against Unity in Italy
The settlement after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 had greatly disappointed those hoping
for an Italian nation-state. The Italian peninsula consisted of separate states controlled by
powerful enemies of Italian nationalism:
• The Hapsburg Dynasty of Austria controlled, either directly or through its vassals,
Lombardy and Venetia in the north, and the duchies of Tuscany, Parma, and Modena.
• The pope governed an area known as the Papal States in central Italy.
• A branch of the Bourbon dynasty (which ruled France) controlled the Kingdom of the
Two Sicilies in the south.
• An Italian dynasty, the House of Savoy, controlled both the island of Sardinia in the
south and Piedmont in the northwest.19_Bartolini_Ch19_153-164.indd 155 27/04/18 1:55 PM