Nationalism was not the only ideology to harden after the failures of 1848.
In the middle of the 19th century, ideas unleashed by the Enlightenment and the French Revolution inspired revolutions across Europe. It does not take much imagination to connect the 1848 Revolutions of Italy, France, Germany, and the then-vast Austrian Empire with the present day. From do-gooding liberals to revolutionary socialists, the characters and ideologies that shaped this era are instantly recognizable to modern readers.
Early nationalism had a cosmopolitan, international character, with Greek, Italian, and Polish patriots attracting sympathy and support from intellectuals, journalists, and romantics across Europe. Its supporters were often fixated on intellectual concerns such as the revival of poetry in the local vernacular, though few peasants were ever roused to action by stirring recitations of patriotic verse.
Despite these modest origins, nationalism was the one"ism" that eventually developed mass appeal. It is fashionable, particularly on the Left, to deride national identities as recent inventions, the implication being they should be easily discarded. There is some truth to the idea that national consciousness is created; Clark describes how a few intellectuals tried to shoehorn several Slavic dialects into a short-lived “Illyrian” national movement along the Adriatic coast.
The acid test of nationalism’s appeal would come later, after it had transformed from a fringe concern into a truly frightening political force. By the early 20th century, the embers stoked by the poets, romantics, and intellectuals of 1848 would roar into an all-consuming flame. In August 1914, Kaiser Wilhelm II thundered, “Henceforth I no longer know any parties. I know only Germans.” Liberals and socialists in the Reichstag were immediately overcome by war fever.
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