Nationalism and revolution during the
Chilean War of Independence by
Pedro Subercaseaux In the Balkans, Romantic views of a connection with
classical Greece, which inspired
Philhellenism infused the
Greek War of Independence (1821–30), in which the Romantic poet
Lord Byron died of high fever.
Rossini's opera
William Tell (1829) marked the onset of the
Romantic opera, using the central
national myth unifying Switzerland; and in Brussels, a riot (August 1830) after an opera that set a doomed romance against a background of foreign oppression (
Auber's
La Muette de Portici) sparked the
Belgian Revolution of 1830–31, the first successful revolution in the model of Romantic nationalism.
Verdi's opera choruses of an oppressed people inspired two generations of patriots in Italy, especially with "Va pensiero" (
Nabucco, 1842). Under the influence of romantic nationalism, among economic and political forces, both Germany and Italy found political unity, and movements to create nations similarly based upon ethnic groups. It would flower in the Balkans (see for example, the
Carinthian Plebiscite, 1920), along the Baltic Sea, and in the interior of Central Europe, where in the eventual outcome, the
Habsburgs succumbed to the surge of Romantic nationalism. In
Norway, romanticism was embodied, not in literature, but in the movement toward a national style, both in architecture and in
ethos. Earlier, there was a strong romantic nationalist element mixed with
Enlightenment rationalism in the rhetoric used in
North America, in the American colonists'
declaration of independence from
Great Britain and the drafting of the
U.S. Constitution of 1787, as well as the rhetoric in the
wave of rebellions, inspired by new senses of localized identities, which swept the American colonies of Spain, one after the other, from the May Revolution of
Argentina in 1810.
Conservatism and revolution in the 19th century Following the ultimate collapse of the
First French Empire with the fall of Napoleon, conservative elements took control in Europe, led by the Austrian noble
Klemens von Metternich, ideals of the
balance of power between the
great powers of Europe dominated continental politics of the first half of the 19th century. Following the
Congress of Vienna, and subsequent
Concert of Europe system, several major empires took control of European politics. Among these were the
Russian Empire; the
restored French monarchy; the
German Confederation, under the dominance of
Prussia; the
Austrian Empire; and the
Ottoman Empire. The conservative forces held sway until the
Revolutions of 1848 swept across Europe and threatened the old order. Numerous movements developed around various cultural groups, who began to develop a sense of national identity. While initially, all of these revolutions failed, and
reactionary forces would re-establish political control, the revolutions marked the start of the steady progress towards the end of the Concert of Europe under the dominance of a few multi-national empires and led to the establishment of the modern
nation state in Europe; a process that would not be complete for over a century and a half.
Central and Eastern Europe's political situation was partly shaped by the two
World Wars, while many national identities in these two regions formed modern nation states when the collapse of the
Soviet Union and the multinational states
Yugoslavia and
Czechoslovakia led to numerous new states forming during the last decade of the 20th century. ,
American Progress, (circa 1872) celebrates
U.S. romantic nationalism in the form of westward expansion – an idea known as "
Manifest Destiny".
Folk culture Romantic nationalism inspired the collection of
folklore by such people as the
Brothers Grimm. The view that fairy tales, unless contaminated from outside literary sources, were preserved in the same form over thousands of years, was not exclusive to Romantic Nationalists, but it fit in well with their views that such tales expressed the primordial nature of a people. The
Brothers Grimm were criticized because their first edition was insufficiently German, and they followed the advice. They rejected many tales they collected because of their similarity to tales by
Charles Perrault, which they thought proved they were not truly German tales;
Sleeping Beauty survived in their collection because the tale of
Brynhildr convinced them that the figure of the sleeping princess was authentically German. They also altered the language used, changing each "Fee" (fairy) to an enchantress or wise woman, every "prince" to a "king's son", every "princess" to a "king's daughter". Discussing these views in their third editions, they particularly singled out
Giambattista Basile's
Pentamerone as the first
national collection of fairy tales, and as capturing the
Neapolitan voice. The work of the Brothers Grimm influenced other collectors, both inspiring them to collect tales and leading them to similarly believe that the fairy tales of a country were particularly representative of it, to the neglect of cross-cultural influence. Among those influenced were the Russian
Alexander Afanasyev, the Norwegians
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and
Jørgen Moe, and the Australian
Joseph Jacobs.
National epics , a French national epic The concept of a "
national epic", an extensively mythologized legendary work of poetry of defining importance to a certain nation, is another product of Romantic nationalism. The "discovery" of
Beowulf in a single manuscript, first transcribed in 1818, came under the impetus of Romantic nationalism, after the manuscript had lain as an ignored curiosity in scholars' collections for two centuries.
Beowulf was felt to provide people self-identified as "
Anglo-Saxon" with their missing "national epic", just when the need for it was first being felt: the fact that Beowulf himself was a
Geat was easily overlooked. The pseudo-Gaelic literary forgeries of "
Ossian" had failed, finally, to fill the need for the first Romantic generation. The first publication of ''
The Tale of Igor's Campaign'' coincided with the rise in Russian national spirit in the wake of the
Napoleonic wars and
Suvorov's campaigns in Central Europe. The unseen and unheard
Song of Roland had become a dim memory, until the antiquary
Francisque Michel transcribed a worn copy in the
Bodleian Library and put it into print in 1837; it was timely: French interest in the national epic revived among the Romantic generation. In Greece, the
Iliad and
Odyssey took on new urgency during the
Greek War of Independence. Amongst the world's Jewish community, the early
Zionists considered the
Bible a more suitable national epic than the
Talmud. Many other "national epics",
epic poetry considered to reflect the national spirit, were produced or revived under the influence of Romantic nationalism: particularly in the
Russian Empire, national minorities seeking to assert their own identities in the face of
Russification produced new national poetry – either out of whole cloth, or from cobbling together folk poetry, or by resurrecting older narrative poetry. Examples include the
Estonian
Kalevipoeg,
Finnish Kalevala,
Polish Pan Tadeusz,
Latvian
Lāčplēsis,
Armenian
Sasuntzi Davit by
Hovhannes Tumanyan,
Georgian ''
The Knight in the Panther's Skin and Greater Iran, Shahnameh.'' ==German Romantic nationalism==