Napoleon and the Growth of Nationalism in Europe
Nationalism is the love and strong loyalty people feel towards their country. Before the French Revolution, this loyalty was for the local community. It was during the Revolution and the Napoleonic period when intense national feeling for the country developed in France. The wars fought were "total wars," with the people of France united in arms for ideological reasons--they fought on behalf of the nation. The wars of Napoleon spread the ideas of the French Revolution to other European countries. Nationalism grew in imitation of the French, and also in reaction against Napoleon's oppressive rule in countries conquered and controlled. The people did not like having to pay high taxes to France and having to send soldiers to serve in Napoleon's armies. They wanted their policies, customs, traditions, to which they felt an attachment, as their own. They wanted to be free from French control. In nationalism rose the belief among the people in the right to choose who they would be governed by. |