How nationalism spread in Europe

The idea of nationalism spread across other Europeans countries. Nationalism came to be seen in a liberal light. Meaning, the middle class came to hate the aristocracy and absolute monarchies and wanted a popularly elected government in power.

In the economic sphere, they wanted a free market with no government interference with heavy customs duties. Earlier, there was a scattered group of states but now, they popularly wanted a common economic zone.

Return to Conservative Nationalism

After the death of Napoleon, nationalism came to be attached to more conservative ideas. The rulers of nations like Russia, Belgium, Austria and France used modernisation to return to conservative rule. Highly strict laws, a strong army and bureaucracy, etc. would now set up authoritarian regimes.

Unification by Revolutionaries

As a reaction to the autocratic conservatives, there grew a huge force of revolutionaries who still lived with the spirit of liberalism. They created underground societies and clubs and wanted a revolution to unite provinces into democratic nation states. This, along with romanticism and economic hardship created the perfect background for the unification of states and Germany, Italy, Greece and several other European ultimately became nation-states.

Imperialism and Nationalism

After the rise of nationalism culminated into the making of nation-states, these countries competing with one another even more and led to the rise of imperialism. Hence, this was a dangerous occurrence as it led to the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914.