NATIONALISM IN EUROPE – NOTES

1. How has the French artist Frederic Sorrieu visualise his dream of a world made
up of ‘Democratic and Social Republics’? Explain.
Ans: 1. The first print shows the peoples of Europe and America – men and
women of all ages and social classes – marching in a long train, and offering
homage to the statue of Liberty as they pass by it.
2. Artists of the time of the French Revolution personified Liberty as a female
figure – here you can recognise the torch of Enlightenment she bears in one
hand and the Charter of the Rights of Man in the other.
3. On the earth in the foreground of the image lie the shattered remains of the
symbols of absolutist institutions.
4. In Sorrieu’s utopian vision, the peoples of the world are grouped as distinct
nations, identified through their flags and national costume.
5. Leading the procession, way past the statue of Liberty, are the United States
and Switzerland, which by this time were already nation-states.
6. France, identifiable by the revolutionary tricolour, has just reached the statue.
7. She is followed by the peoples of Germany, bearing the black, red and gold flag.
8. Following the German peoples are the peoples of Austria, the Kingdom of the
Two Sicilies, Lombardy, Poland, England, Ireland, Hungary and Russia.
9. From the heavens above, Christ, saints and angels gaze upon the scene.
10. They have been used by the artist to symbolise fraternity among the nations
of the world.

2. What led to the emergence of feelings of nationalism in Europe?

Ans: 1. During the nineteenth century, nationalism emerged as a force which
brought about sweeping changes in the political and mental world of Europe.
2. The end result of these changes was the emergence of the nation-state in place
of the multi-national dynastic empires of Europe.
3. The concept and practices of a modern state, in which a centralised power
exercised sovereign control over a clearly defined territory, had been developing
over a long period of time in Europe.
4. But a nation-state was one in which the majority of its citizens, and not only its
rulers, came to develop a sense of common identity and shared history or descent.
5. This commonness was forged through struggles, through the actions of leaders
and the common people.

3. What steps did the French Revolutionaries take to create a sense of collective
identity among the French people?
Ans: 1. The ideas of la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen)
emphasized the notion of a united community enjoying equal rights under a
constitution.
2. A new French flag, the tricolour, was chosen to replace the former royal
standard.
3. The Estates General was elected by the body of active citizens and renamed the
National Assembly.
4. New hymns were composed, oaths taken and martyrs commemorated, all in the
name of the nation.
5. A centralised administrative system was put in place and it formulated uniform
laws for all citizens within its territory.
6. Internal customs duties and dues were abolished and a uniform system of
weights and measures was adopted.
7. Regional dialects were discouraged and French, as it was spoken and written in
Paris, became the common language of the nation.

4. How did the ideas of the French Revolution spread to other parts of Europe?
Ans: 1. When the news of the events in France reached the different cities of
Europe, students and other members of educated middle classes began setting up
Jacobin clubs.
2. Their activities and campaigns prepared the way for the French armies which
moved into Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and much of Italy in the 1790s.
3. With the outbreak of the revolutionary wars, the French armies began to
carry the idea of nationalism abroad.

5. What changes did Napoleon introduce to make the administrative system more
efficient in the territories ruled by him?
Ans: 1. In the administrative field he had incorporated revolutionary principles
in order to make the whole system more rational and efficient.
2. The Civil Code of 1804 – usually known as the Napoleonic Code – did away with
all privileges based on birth, established equality before the law and secured the
right to property.
3. This Code was exported to the regions under French control.
4. In the Dutch Republic, in Switzerland, in Italy and Germany, Napoleon simplified
administrative divisions, abolished the feudal system and freed peasants from
serfdom and manorial dues.
5. In the towns too, guild restrictions were removed.
6. Transport and communication systems were improved.
7. Peasants, artisans, workers and new businessmen enjoyed a new-found
freedom.
8. Businessmen and small-scale producers of goods, in particular, began to realise
that uniform laws, standardised weights and measures, and a common national
currency would facilitate the movement and exchange of goods and capital from
one region to another.

6. Till the mid-eighteenth century there were no nation states in Europe. Support
the statement with examples.
Ans: 1. Germany, Italy and Switzerland were divided into kingdoms, duchies and
cantons whose rulers had their autonomous territories.
2. Eastern and Central Europe were under autocratic monarchies within the
territories of which lived diverse peoples.
3. They did not see themselves as sharing a collective identity or a common culture.
4. Often, they even spoke different languages and belonged to different ethnic
groups.

7. How was the Habsburg Empire a patchwork of many different regions and
people in Europe? Explain.
Ans: 1. The Habsburg Empire that ruled over Austria-Hungary, for example, was a
patchwork of many different regions and peoples.
2. It included the Alpine regions – the Tyrol, Austria and the Sudetenland – as well
as Bohemia, where the aristocracy was predominantly German-speaking.
3. It also included the Italian-speaking provinces of Lombardy and Venetia.
4. In Hungary, half of the population spoke Magyar while the other half spoke a
variety of dialects.
5. In Galicia, the aristocracy spoke Polish. Besides these three dominant groups,
there also lived within the boundaries of the empire, a mass of subject peasant
peoples – Bohemians and Slovaks to the north, Slovenes in Carniola, Croats to the
south, and Roumans to the east in Transylvania.
6. Such differences did not easily promote a sense of political unity.
7. The only tie binding these diverse groups together was a common allegiance to
the emperor.

8. Discuss the lives of the aristocrats and the new middle class in nineteenth
century Europe.
Ans: 1. Socially and politically, a landed aristocracy was the dominant class
on the continent.
2. The members of this class were united by a common way of life that cut across
regional divisions.
3. They owned estates in the countryside and also town-houses.
4. They spoke French for purposes of diplomacy and in high society.
5. Their families were often connected by ties of marriage.
6. This powerful aristocracy was, however, numerically a small group.
7. In Western and parts of Central Europe the growth of industrial production and
trade meant the growth of towns and the emergence of commercial classes whose
existence was based on production for the market.
8. New social groups came into being: a working-class population, and middle
classes made up of industrialists, businessmen, professionals.
9. In Central and Eastern Europe these groups were smaller in number till late
nineteenth century.
10. It was among the educated, liberal middle classes that ideas of national unity
following the abolition of aristocratic privileges gained popularity.

9. What did liberal nationalism stand for?

Ans: 1. The term ‘liberalism’ is derived from the Latin root liber, meaning free.
2. For the new middle classes liberalism stood for freedom for the individual and
equality of all before the law.
3. Politically, it emphasised the concept of government by consent.
4. Since the French Revolution, liberalism had stood for the end of autocracy and
clerical privileges, a constitution and representative government through
parliament.
5. Nineteenth-century liberals also stressed the inviolability (protection)of private
property.

10. Equality before the law did not necessarily stand for universal suffrage in
Europe. Discuss.
Ans: 1. In revolutionary France, which marked the first political experiment in
liberal democracy, the right to vote and to get elected was granted exclusively to
property-owning men.
2. Men without property and all women were excluded from political rights.
3. Only for a brief period under the Jacobins did all adult males enjoy suffrage.
4. However, the Napoleonic Code went back to limited suffrage and reduced
women to the status of a minor, subject to the authority of fathers and husbands.
5. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries women and non-
propertied men organised opposition movements demanding equal political rights.

11. Mention any two obstacles that the liberal nationalists wanted to overcome. In
what way did the Zollverein or Customs Union of 1834 try to overcome these
shortcomings?
Ans: 1. In the economic sphere, liberalism stood for the freedom of markets
and the abolition of state-imposed restrictions on the movement of goods and
capital.
2. Napoleon’s administrative measures had created out of countless small
principalities a confederation of 39 states. Each of these possessed its own
currency, and weights and measures.
3. Such conditions were viewed as obstacles to economic exchange and growth by
the new commercial classes.
4. In 1834, a customs union or zollverein was formed at the initiative of Prussia and
joined by most of the German states.
5. The union abolished tariff barriers and reduced the number of currencies from
over thirty to two.
6. The creation of a network of railways further stimulated mobility, harnessing
economic interests to national unification.
12. What views did the conservatives hold?
Ans: 1. Conservatives believed that established, traditional institutions of state and
society – like the monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family
– should be preserved.
2. Most conservatives, however, did not propose a return to the society of pre-
revolutionary days.
3. Rather, they realised, from the changes initiated by Napoleon, that
modernisation could in fact strengthen traditional institutions like the monarchy.
4. It could make state power more effective and stronger.
5. A modern army, an efficient bureaucracy, a dynamic economy, the abolition of
feudalism and serfdom could strengthen the autocratic monarchies of Europe.

13. How did the Treaty of Vienna come into being?

Ans: 1. In 1815, representatives of the European powers – Britain, Russia, Prussia
and Austria – who had collectively defeated Napoleon, met at Vienna to draw up a
settlement for Europe.
2. The Congress was hosted by the Austrian Chancellor Duke Metternich.
3. The delegates drew up the Treaty of Vienna of 1815 with the object of undoing
most of the changes that had come about in Europe during the Napoleonic wars.

14. How did the French territories undergo changes due to the Treaty of Vienna in
1815?
Ans: 1. The Bourbon dynasty, which had been deposed during the French
Revolution, was restored to power, and France lost the territories it had annexed
under Napoleon.
2. A series of states were set up on the boundaries of France to prevent French
expansion in future.
3. Thus the kingdom of the Netherlands, which included Belgium, was set up in the
north and Genoa was added to Piedmont in the south.
4. Prussia was given important new territories on its western frontiers, while
Austria was given control of northern Italy.
5. But the German confederation of 39 states that had been set up by Napoleon
was left untouched.
6. In the east, Russia was given part of Poland while Prussia was given a portion of
Saxony.
7. The main intention was to restore the monarchies that had been overthrown by
Napoleon, and create a new conservative order in Europe.

15. Enumerate the features of conservative regimes set up in Europe following the
defeat of Napoleon in 1815.
Ans: 1. Conservative regimes set up in 1815 were autocratic.
2. They did not tolerate criticism and dissent, and sought to curb activities that
questioned the legitimacy of autocratic governments.
3. Most of them imposed censorship laws to control what was said in newspapers,
books, plays and songs and reflected the ideas of liberty and freedom associated
with the French Revolution.

16. What led to the rise of revolutionaries after the establishment of Conservative
regimes in Europe after 1815?
Ans: 1. The imposition of censorship laws led to the rise of revolutionaries.
2. During the years following 1815, the fear of repression drove many
liberal-nationalists underground.
3. Secret societies sprang up in many European states to train revolutionaries and
spread their ideas.
4. To be revolutionary at this time meant a commitment to oppose monarchical
forms that had been established after the Vienna Congress, and to fight for liberty
and freedom.
5. Most of these revolutionaries also saw the creation of nation-states as a
necessary part of this struggle for freedom.

17. Write a note on Guiseppe Mazzini.

Ans: 1. Guiseppe Mazzini was an Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini.
2. Born in Genoa in 1807, he became a member of the secret society of the
Carbonari.
3. As a young man of 24, he was sent into exile in 1831 for attempting a revolution
in Liguria.
4. He subsequently founded two more underground societies, first, Young Italy in
Marseilles, and then, Young Europe in Berne, whose members were like-minded
young men from Poland, France, Italy and the German states.
5. Mazzini believed that God had intended nations to be the natural units of
mankind.
6. So Italy could not continue to be a patchwork of small states and kingdoms.
7. It had to be forged into a single unified republic within a wider alliance of
nations.
8. This unification alone could be the basis of Italian liberty.
9. Mazzini’s relentless opposition to monarchy and his vision of democratic
republics frightened the conservatives.
10. Metternich described him as ‘the most dangerous enemy of our social order’.

18. The first upheaval took place in France in July 1830. Explain.
Ans: 1. The Bourbon kings who had been restored to power during the conservative
reaction after 1815, were now overthrown by liberal revolutionaries
who installed a constitutional monarchy with Louis Philippe at its
head.
2. ‘When France sneezes,’ Metternich once remarked, ‘the rest of
Europe catches cold.’
3. The July Revolution sparked an uprising in Brussels which led to Belgium breaking
away from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

19. How did Greek War of Independence mobilise nationalist feelings among the
educated elite across Europe?
Ans: 1. Greece had been part of the Ottoman Empire since the fifteenth century.
2. The growth of revolutionary nationalism in Europe sparked off a struggle for
independence amongst the Greeks which began in 1821.
3. Nationalists in Greece got support from other Greeks living in exile and also from
many West Europeans who had sympathies for ancient Greek culture.
4. Poets and artists lauded Greece as the cradle of European civilisation and
mobilised public opinion to support its struggle against a Muslim empire.
5. The English poet Lord Byron organised funds and later went to fight in the war,
where he died of fever in 1824.
6. Finally, the Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognised Greece as an
independent nation.

20. How did culture play an important role in creating the idea of the nation in
Europe? Explain with examples. OR Discuss the importance of language and
popular traditions in the creation of national identity.
Ans: 1. Culture played an important role in creating the idea of the nation: art and
poetry, stories and music helped express and shape nationalist feelings.
2. Romantic artists and poets generally criticised the glorification of reason and
science and focused instead on emotions, intuition and mystical feelings.
3. Their effort was to create a sense of a shared collective heritage, a common
cultural past, as the basis of a nation.
4. Other Romantics such as the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder
(1744-1803) claimed that true German culture was to be discovered among the
common people – das volk.
5. It was through folk songs, folk poetry and folk dances that the true spirit of the
nation (volksgeist) was popularised.
6. In Poland, Karol Kurpinski, for example, celebrated the national struggle through
his operas and music, turning folk dances like the polonaise and mazurka into
nationalist symbols.
7. Poland began to use language as a weapon of national resistance.
8. Polish was used for Church gatherings and all religious instruction.
9. The use of Polish came to be seen as a symbol of struggle against Russian
dominance.

21. ‘The decade of 1830 had brought great economic hardships in Europe.’ Support
the statements with arguments.
Ans: 1. The first half of the nineteenth century saw an enormous increase in
population all over Europe.
2. In most countries there were more seekers of jobs than employment.
3. Population from rural areas migrated to the cities to live in overcrowded slums.
4. Small producers in towns were often faced with stiff competition from imports of
cheap machine-made goods from England.
5. Peasants struggled under the burden of feudal dues and obligations.
6. The rise of food prices or a year of bad harvest led to widespread pauperism in
town and country.

22. The year 1848 was one of widespread pauperism in France. Discuss.
Ans: 1. Food shortages and widespread unemployment brought the population of
Paris out on the roads.
2. Barricades were erected and Louis Philippe was forced to flee.
3. National Assembly proclaimed a Republic, granted suffrage to all adult males
above 21, and guaranteed the right to work.
4. National workshops to provide employment were set up.

23. Describe the cause of the Silesian weavers’ uprising.

Ans: 1. In 1845, weavers in Silesia had led a revolt against contractors who supplied
them raw material and gave them orders for finished textiles but drastically
reduced their payments.
2. In these villages, cotton weaving is the most widespread occupation and the
desperate need for jobs has been taken advantage of by the contractors to reduce
the prices of the goods they order.

24. Give a report of the events in the Silesian village as described by journalist
Wilhelm Wolff.
Ans: 1. On 4 June at 2 p.m. a large crowd of weavers emerged from their homes
and marched in pairs up to the mansion of their contractor demanding higher
wages.
2. They were treated with scorn and threats alternately.
3. Following this, a group of them forced their way into the house, smashed its
elegant windowpanes, furniture, porcelain … another group broke into the
storehouse and plundered it of supplies of cloth which they tore to shreds.
4. The contractor fled with his family to a neighbouring village which, however,
refused to shelter such a person.
5. He returned 24 hours later having requisitioned the army. In the exchange that
followed, eleven weavers were shot.

25. What is the significance of 1848 for France and the rest of Europe? What did
the liberals demand?
Ans: 1. Parallel to the revolts of the poor, unemployed and starving peasants and
workers in many European countries in the year 1848, a revolution led by the
educated middle classes was under way.
2. Events of February 1848 in France had brought about the abdication of the
monarch and a republic based on universal male suffrage had been proclaimed.
3. In other parts of Europe where independent nation-states did not yet exist –
such as Germany, Italy, Poland, the Austro-Hungarian Empire – men and women of
the liberal middle classes combined their demands for constitutionalism with
national unification.
4. They took advantage of the growing popular unrest to push their demands for
the creation of a nation-state on parliamentary principles – a constitution, freedom
of the press and freedom of association.

26. Write a note on the Frankfurt Parliament.

Ans: 1. In the German regions a large number of political associations whose
members were middle-class professionals, businessmen and prosperous artisans
came together in the city of Frankfurt and decided to vote for an all-German
National Assembly.
2. On 18 May 1848, 831 elected representatives marched in a festive procession to
take their places in the Frankfurt parliament convened in the Church of St Paul. 3.
They drafted a constitution for a German nation to be headed by a monarchy
subject to a parliament.
4. When the deputies offered the crown on these terms to Friedrich Wilhelm IV,
King of Prussia, he rejected it and joined other monarchs to oppose the elected
assembly.
5. While the opposition of the aristocracy and military became stronger, the social
basis of parliament eroded.
6. The parliament was dominated by the middle classes who resisted the demands
of workers and artisans and consequently lost their support.
7. In the end troops were called in and the assembly was forced to disband.

27. Discuss the role played by women in the nationalist struggles in Europe.
Ans: 1. The issue of extending political rights to women was a controversial one
within the liberal movement, in which large numbers of women had participated
actively over the years.
2. Women had formed their own political associations, founded newspapers and
taken part in political meetings and demonstrations.
3. Despite this they were denied suffrage rights during the election of the
Assembly.
4. When the Frankfurt parliament convened in the Church of St Paul, women
were admitted only as observers to stand in the visitors’ gallery.

28. Describe the process of the unification of Germany.

Ans: 1. Nationalist feelings were widespread among middle-class Germans, who in
1848 tried to unite the different regions of the German confederation into a nation-
state.
2. Prussia took on the leadership of the movement for national unification.
3. Its chief minister, Otto von Bismarck, was the architect of this process carried
out with the help of the Prussian army and bureaucracy.
4. Three wars over seven years – with Austria, Denmark and France – ended in
Prussian victory and completed the process of unification.
5. On 18 January 1871, the Prussian king, Kaiser William I, was proclaimed German
Emperor in a ceremony held in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, an
assembly comprising of the princes of the German states, representatives of the
army, important Prussian ministers including the chief minister Otto von Bismarck.

29. Like Germany, Italy too had a long history of political fragmentation. Explain.
Ans: 1. Italians were scattered over several dynastic states as well as the
multi-national Habsburg Empire.
2. During the middle of the nineteenth century, Italy was divided into seven states,
of which only one, Sardinia-Piedmont, was ruled by an Italian princely house.
3. The north was under Austrian Habsburgs, the centre was ruled by the Pope and
the southern regions were under the domination of the Bourbon kings of Spain.
4. Even the Italian language had not acquired one common form and still had many
regional and local variations.

30. Explain the process of unification of Italy.

Ans: 1. Italians were scattered over several dynastic states as well as the
multi-national Habsburg Empire.
2. During the middle of the nineteenth century, Italy was divided into seven states,
of which only one, Sardinia-Piedmont, was ruled by an Italian princely house.
3. The north was under Austrian Habsburgs, the centre was ruled by the Pope and
the southern regions were under the domination of the Bourbon kings of Spain.
4. Even the Italian language had not acquired one common form and still had many
regional and local variations.
5. During the 1830’s Guiseppe Mazzini formed a secret society called Young Italy.
6. The failure of revolutionary uprisings both in 1831 and 1848 meant that the
mantle now fell on Sardinia-Piedmont under its ruler King Victor Emmanuel II to
unify the Italian states through war.
7. Chief Minister Count Cavour led the movement to unify the regions of Italy.
8. Through a tactful diplomatic alliance with France, engineered by Cavour,
Sardinia-Piedmont succeeded in defeating the Austrian forces in 1859.
9. Apart from regular troops, a large number of armed volunteers under the
leadership of Giuseppe Garibaldi joined the fray. In 1860, they marched into South
Italy and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and succeeded in winning the support of
the local peasants in order to drive out the Spanish rulers.
10. In 1861 Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of united Italy.

31. Write a note on Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Ans: 1. Giuseppe Garibaldi is perhaps the most celebrated of Italian freedom
fighters.
2. He is an Italian General, patriot and Republican.
3. In 1833 he met Mazzini, and joined the Young Italy.
4. In 1854, he supported Victor Emmanuel II in his efforts to unify the Italian States.
5. In 1860, Garibaldi led the famous Expedition of the Thousand to South Italy.
6. Their numbers grew to about 30,000 and were popularly known as Red Shirts.
7. In 1867, Garibaldi led an army of volunteers to Rome to fight the last obstacle to
the unification of Italy, the Papal States where a French garrison was stationed.
8. The Red Shirts proved to be no match for the combined French and Papal troops.
9. It was only in 1870 when, during the war with Prussia, France withdrew its troops
from Rome that the Papal States were finally joined to Italy.

32. How was the history of nationalism in Britain unlike the rest of Europe?
Ans: 1. In Britain the formation of the nation-state was not the result of a sudden
upheaval or revolution.
2. There was no British nation prior to the eighteenth century.
3. Britain was inhabited by English, Welsh, Scot or Irish.
4. All of these ethnic groups had their own cultural and political traditions.
5. But as the English nation steadily grew in wealth, importance and power, it was
able to extend its influence over the other nations of the islands.
6. The English parliament, seized power from the monarchy in 1688 at the end of a
protracted conflict, was the instrument through which a nation-state, with England
at its centre, came to be forged.
7. The Act of Union (1707) between England and Scotland that resulted in the
formation of the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain’.
8. The British parliament was henceforth dominated by its English members.

33. Explain how Ireland was incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801?
Ans: 1. Ireland was a country deeply divided between Catholics and Protestants.
2. The English helped the Protestants of Ireland to establish their dominance over a
largely Catholic country.
3. Catholic revolts against British dominance were suppressed.
4. After a failed revolt led by Wolfe Tone and his United Irishmen (1798), Ireland
was forcibly incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801.
5. A new ‘British nation’ was forged through the propagation of a dominant English
culture.
6. The symbols of the new Britain – the British flag (Union Jack), the national
anthem (God Save Our Noble King), the English language – were actively promoted
and the older nations survived only as subordinate partners in this union.

34. How does one go about giving a face to a nation?

Ans: 1. Artists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries found a way out by
personifying a nation.
2. In other words they represented a country as if it were a person.
3. Nations were then portrayed as female figures.
4. The female form that was chosen to personify the nation did not stand for any
particular woman in real life; rather it sought to give the abstract idea of the nation
a concrete form.
5. That is, the female figure became an allegory of the nation.

35. Who were Marianne and Germania? What was the importance of the way in
which they were portrayed?
Ans: 1. Female allegories were invented by artists in the nineteenth century to
represent the nation.
2. In France she was christened Marianne, a popular Christian name, which
underlined the idea of a people’s nation.
3. Her characteristics were drawn from those of Liberty and the Republic – the red
cap, the tricolour, the cockade.
4. Statues of Marianne were erected in public squares to remind the public of
the national symbol of unity and to persuade them to identify with it.
5. Marianne images were marked on coins and stamps.
6. Similarly, Germania became the allegory of the German nation.
7. In visual representations, Germania wears a crown of oak leaves, as the German
oak stands for heroism.

36. Discuss the reasons for the emergence of nationalist tensions in the Balkans.
Ans: 1. The Balkans was a region of geographical and ethnic variation comprising
modern-day Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-
Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro whose inhabitants were broadly
known as the Slavs.
2. A large part of the Balkans was under the control of the Ottoman Empire.
3. The spread of the ideas of romantic nationalism in the Balkans together with the
disintegration of the Ottoman Empire made this region very explosive.
4. It’s European subject nationalities broke away from its control and declared
independence.
5. The Balkan peoples based their claims for independence or political rights on
nationality and used history to prove that they had once been independent but had
subsequently been subjugated by foreign powers.
6. Hence the rebellious nationalities in the Balkans thought of their struggles as
attempts to win back their long-lost independence.
7. As the different Slavic nationalities struggled to define their identity and
independence, the Balkan area became an area of intense conflict.
8. The Balkan states were fiercely jealous of each other and each hoped
to gain more territory at the expense of the others.
9. During this period, there was intense rivalry among the European powers over
trade and colonies as well as naval and military might.
10. Russia, Germany, England, Austro-Hungary – was keen on extending its own
control over the Balkans.
11. This led to a series of wars in the region and finally the First World War.