Nineteenth Century Nationalism DBQ

2015/2016

Directions: The following question is based on the accompanying Documents 1-7. The
documents have been edited for the purpose of this exercise. This question is designed to test
your ability to apply several historical thinking skills simultaneously, including historical
argumentation, use of relevant historical evidence, contextualization, and synthesis. Your
response should be based on your analysis of the documents and your knowledge of the topic.
Write a well-integrated essay that does the following:
States an appropriate theses that directly addresses all parts of the question
Supports the thesis or an appropriate argument with evidence from all or all but one of
the documents AND your knowledge of European history beyond/outside the documents.
Analyzes a majority of the documents in terms of such features as their intended
audience, purpose, point of view, format, argument, limitations, and/or social context as
appropriate to the argument
Places the argument in the context of broader regional, national, or global processes

Question: Using the documents, assess the extent to which the period from 1815 to 1914 was
characterized by nationalism.

--Periodization
 Document 1

Eugene Delacroix, Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi, painting depicting a personification of Greece in its
struggle for independence against the Ottoman Empire, 1826.

Document 2

Source: Daniel OConnell, Speech given to 40,000 Repeal Association members (a group he
founded to agitate for the repeal of the Anglo-Irish union) at Mullaghmast, Ireland, a site
Document 3
where English soldiers had murdered Irish chieftains in 1571, October 1, 1843.
Source: Giuseppe
Among the nations Mazzini, DutiesIreland
of the earth, of Man,stands
weekly publication,
number 1840.
one in the physical strength of her
Document 4 sons and in the beauty and purity of her daughters.
Your first dutiesfirst, at least, in importanceare, as I have told you, to Humanity. You are
menmy
Oh, before you itareis citizens
friends, a country or worth
fathers
fighting forit is a country worth dying for, but above
Source: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, 1848.
all, it is a country worth being tranquil, determined, submissive, and docile for; disciplined as
But what can each of you, with his isolated powers, do for the moral improvement, for the
.The
you are workingmen
in the obedience havetono country.
those Webreaking
who are cannot take
the from
way, them what theydown
and trampling have the
notbarriers
got.
progress of Humanity?...God gave you this means when he gave you a Country, when, like a
Since the proletariat must first of all acquire political supremacy, must
between you and your constitutional liberty, I will see every man of you having a vote, andrise to be the leading
wise overseer of labour, who distributes the different parts of the work according to the
class of
every mantheprotected
nation, must constitute
by the itselfthe
ballot from theagent
nation, it is, so far, itself national, though not in
or landlord.
capacity of the workmen, he divided Humanity into distinct groups upon the face of our
the bourgeois sense of the word.
globe, and
Every thus planted
blessing that man the can
seeds of nations.The
bestow and religion map of Europe
can confer uponwill
thebe remade.
faithful The
heart shall
Countries
National
spread of the People
differences
throughout theand will rise, defined
antagonisms
land. by the voice
between peoples
Stand by mejoin of
with meI the free,
are vanishingupon
will say be the ruins
gradually of
obedientfrom the
dayand
to me, to
Countries
day,
Irelandowing and
shall privileged
tobethe development
free. castes.
of the bourgeoisie, to freedom of commerce, to the world
market, to uniformity in the mode of production in the conditions of life corresponding
To you, who have been born in Italy, God has allotted, as if favouring you specially, the best
thereto.
defined country in Europe
 Document 5

Source: French political cartoon of Otto Von Bismarck sewing Prussia, Hanover, Saxony, and
other German territories together, the caption says, This is what it is to know how to use a
needle, but it is a skill that one should not abuse, 1866.

Document 6

Source: Peter Kropotkin, leading theoretician of anarchism, Anarchism: Its Philosophy and
Ideal, pamphlet, 1896.

Document 7 Far from living in a world of visions and imagining men better than they are, we see them
as they are; and that is why we affirm that the best of men is made essentially bad by the
exerciseStatutes
Source: of authority,
of theand thatHand,
Black the theory of thenationalist
a Serbian balancinggroup,
of powers
1914. and control of
authorities is a hypocritical formula, invented by those who have seized power, to make the
Article 1. This
sovereign organization
people, has been
whom they created
despise, withthat
believe thethe
object of realising
people the are
themselves national ideal: It
governing.
The union of
is because weall the Serbs.
know men thatAllwe
Serbs without
say to those distinction
who imagine of that
sex, men
religion,
wouldplace of birth,
devour one and
all who are
another sincerely
without thosedevoted to this
governors: cause,
you may
reason become
like members.
the king, who, being sent across the
frontier,2.called out, What will become of my poor tosubjects without me? and for this
Article This organization prefers terrorist action intellectual propaganda
reason must be kept absolutely secret from persons who do not belong to it.
Article 3. This organization bears the name Union or Death.
Article 4. To accomplish its task, the organization:
2. Organizes revolutionary action in all territories inhabited by Serbs.