A BACKGROUND: NATIONALISM, SOCIALISM, FEMINISM,
AND THE ECONOMIC CRISIS OF 1873In 1861 Italy became a united state (map 3), although the process of uniWca-
tion was only completed after the acquisition of Rome in 1870. Moreover,
after more than half a century of attempts at German uniWcation, following
the Franco-Prussian War, thirty-nine of the German states were uniWed in
- From 1878 a number of European states, which had hitherto been
integrated into the Ottoman Empire, achieved independence after the war
between Russia and Turkey. These political reshuZes marked the establish-
ment of the nation-state as the dominant form of political organization in
Europe (a form that would attain world-wide recognition in 1918 (Lynch
2002)). Yet, only a few national movements for independence were successful
at this stage: in Ireland and many countries in Eastern Europe the national
liberation struggles were still in progress at the end of the century. Regarding
the existing nation-states, despite declaring their unity rooted in the past as
well as in their racial and linguistic homogeneity, the reality of both the newly
created and the long-established countries was that they were neither linguis-
tically nor culturally homogeneous. In Italy and Germany, as well as France
and Spain, several languages and dialects were spoken that were mutually
incomprehensible. The situation was embodied by a remark attributed to the
nationalist leader Massimo d’Azeglio (Massimo Taparelli, marquis d’Azeglio,
1798–1866), in 1861: ‘We have made Italy, now we must make the Italians.’
Traditions diVered widely within the national territory and in some countries
there were important minorities some of which became politically aware
during this period. The dramatic improvements in the means and speed of
transport had a universal impact, and their eVect was especially noticeable in
less developed countries. Their growth and even the state nationalization of
services such as the postal networks, schooling (particularly with the teaching
of geography and history), the police, and military conscription, served to
reproduce the nation in everyday life and, therefore, in making adherence to
the nation the norm (see Weber 1976; 1991 for data on this related to France).
These changes were the outcome of the state’s eVorts to foster the feeling
of nationhood among its people, as well as the result of private initiative.
An example of the latter is the lobbying of train operators for the state to
unify the time for the whole of the national territory. Their success meant
that not only the nationalization of geographical space was solidiWed with
the mapping andWxation of national frontiers, but that of time also became
a reality. Both became powerful means to make the nation identiWable, real
as well as imaginable.
370 National Archaeology in Europe