The Growth of Nationalism
ICSE Class 8 · History & Civics · Chapter 2
What this chapter covers
- Nationalism: meaning
- The French Revolution: causes
- The outbreak of the French Revolution and the post-revolution period
- Napoleon Bonaparte
- Impact of the French Revolution
- The thirteen colonies
- The American War of Independence: causes and beginning
- Birth of the United States of America
Key points
- Nationalism is love and loyalty for one's nation together with the belief that its people should govern themselves.
- The American War of Independence (1775–1783) and the French Revolution (1789–1799) are often called the earliest nationalist movements.
- France under the Old Regime was divided into three estates; the Third Estate paid nearly all the taxes but had no power.
- Causes of the French Revolution: inequality, absolute monarchy, an empty treasury and costly bread, and the ideas of Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau.
- The revolution broke out in 1789: the Tennis Court Oath (20 June), the fall of the Bastille (14 July) and the Declaration of the Rights of Man (August).
- France became a republic in 1792; Louis XVI was executed in 1793; the Reign of Terror followed; the Directory ruled from 1795.
- Napoleon Bonaparte ruled from 1799 to 1815, gave France the Napoleonic Code, conquered much of Europe and was defeated at Waterloo.
- The motto of the revolution was Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and its ideas spread nationalism across Europe and the world.
- The thirteen British colonies in North America grew used to self-government and began to see themselves as Americans.
- Mercantilist trade laws, new taxes after the Seven Years' War, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party and the Intolerable Acts led to war in 1775.
- The Declaration of Independence was adopted on 4 July 1776; victory at Saratoga brought French help; the British surrendered at Yorktown in 1781.
- The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognised the United States, which adopted a written constitution in 1787 and chose George Washington as its first President.
Questions answered
Define nationalism. Name the two late-eighteenth-century movements often called the earliest nationalist movements.
Nationalism is the feeling of love and loyalty towards one's nation, together with the belief that its people should be free to govern themselves. The American War of Independence and the French Revolution are often called the earliest nationalist movements.
Name the three estates of France under the Old Regime. Which estate paid almost all the taxes?
The First Estate (clergy), the Second Estate (nobility) and the Third Estate (everyone else). The Third Estate paid almost all the taxes.
How did the philosophers help to cause the French Revolution? Name two of them.
They spread ideas that people have rights, that power comes from the people and that unjust governments can be changed. Voltaire and Rousseau are two of them (Montesquieu is a third).
What was the Tennis Court Oath?
It was the promise taken by members of the Third Estate, who had declared themselves the National Assembly, on 20 June 1789, not to separate until they had given France a constitution.
Why is 14 July important in French history?
On 14 July 1789 a crowd stormed the Bastille, a prison that stood for the king's power. The event marked the outbreak of the revolution and is celebrated as the national day of France.
Give two reforms of Napoleon Bonaparte and one reason for his downfall.
He introduced the Napoleonic Code, which made all citizens equal before the law, and he founded the Bank of France. His disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812 began his downfall, which ended with defeat at Waterloo in 1815.
State any three effects of the French Revolution.
It ended absolute monarchy and feudal privileges in France; it spread the idea that sovereignty belongs to the people; it spread the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity and the feeling of nationalism across Europe.
What did the colonists mean by "No taxation without representation"?
They meant that the British Parliament, in which they had no members, had no right to tax them; only their own elected assemblies could do so.