Europe, such as the liberal Spanish constitution of 1812, and subsequent
revolutionary events of the early 1820s, early 1830s, and 1848. All these
were part of the same political movement, a logical consequence of the
ideas put forward by the Enlightenment.
The era of the revolutions brought about a new, radical change in politics.
This change can be summarized in the transformation which the concept of
nation experienced. As seen in Chapter 2, the term had certainly been used
widely throughout the eighteenth century but it now became central to the
new political scene, its signiWcance being changed in the process. While
‘nation’ had until this time meant a group of people who were born in the
same territory, whether this was a region or a country, from now on it became
intimately linked to the concept of state. Or rather, we could say that to begin
with, in civic nationalism, larger states appropriated the concept of nation.
From 1789 until the 1870s only long-established states, or as an exception
those who were granted a glorious ancient history such as Greece, were
acknowledged as nations. Smaller states were considered non-viable, and
therefore against the idea ofutilitas central to the philosophy inherited
from the Enlightenment. This limitation in size conWned the range of possible
nations to just a few located in Western and Northern Europe as well as in the
Americas. Neoclassical ideals of freedom, utility, and truth remained preva-
lent, and when taken to their extreme they aVected the political basis of the
state. Until then the state had been united by the monarchy which, under the
ideas of the Enlightenment, could not but be linked with the concepts
outlined above. However, once this linkage showed itself wanting, as occurred
in France, it was then felt legitimate and patriotic to abolish the monarchy.
The concept of nation replaced that of the monarchy as the basis of the state.
The French Revolution of 1789 gave the term ‘nation’ a new political mean-
ing. A nation was formed by a body of citizens and the state was the political
expression of their collective sovereignty (Hobsbawm 1990: 19). From that
point on, the state would no longer be founded on the basis of a monarchy,
but of the people who formed the nation itself. This did not signify the
automatic disappearance of all monarchies, but their subordination to the
authority of the state occurred more quickly in some areas of Europe, mainly
Western Europe, than in others.
The French Revolution, a movement initiated by civil society in 1789,
which embodied most of the changes occurring in that period, ultimately
led to a shift in the political outlook of the West and in turn of the whole
world. The revolution began as an opposition to a new tax that the monarchy
wanted to impose. In order to overcome the resistance, for theWrst time
in over one hundred years, the king called the Estates General to meet in
- This was a representative chamber in which three estates or classes
64 Early Archaeology of Great Civilizations