World History

Unit 5: Industrialism and Nationalism

Chapter 22: Nationalism in Europe

47. Thu, Feb 27, 2014

The story of the rise of one part of Europe (mostly in the north and the west) is also a story of the collapse of another (the older Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was the last legacy of the Holy Roman Empire formed under Charlemagne) and the Ottoman Empire, which was largely centered in Turkey. Neither of these completely disappears: not until the First World War is the Ottoman Empire really dismantled conclusively, and Austria-Hungary remained a political entity well into the twentieth century. this leads us to ask:

• What kinds of forces pull nation-states apart? Is that the sort of thing that could happen here? (It's worth bearing in mind that the Soviet Union seemed here to stay as late as 1980. By 1990 it was gone.
• What kinds of cultural and political opposition creates a climate for dissent? Is it wiser to foster dissent, tolerate it, or suppress it, from the point of view of the established power?
• Is there some other great pressure, as Tolstoy suggested, that drives history irrespective of people or even states?
• What happens when states fall apart? What form of power moves in to fill the vacuum? (States and peoples may break apart, but large populations will not continue ungoverned forever.)

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