Nationalism - Process Step 5

Nationalism Breaks Empires Apart
NATIONALISM SHAKES AGING EMPIRES
Three aging empires—the Austrian Empire of the Hapsburgs, the Russian Empire of the Romanovs, and the Ottoman Empire of the Turks—contained a mixture of ethnic groups. Control of land and ethnic groups moved back and forth between these empires, depending on victories or defeats in war and on royal marriages. When nationalism emerged in the 19th century, ethnic unrest threatened and eventually toppled these empires. The  Breakup  of  the  Austrian  Empire The Austrian  Empire  brought  together Slovenes, Hungarians, Germans, Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, Poles, Serbs, and Italians. In  1866,  Prussia  defeated  Austria  in  the Austro-Prussian  War. With  its  victory, Prussia  gained  control  of  the  newly  organized  North  German  Confederation,  a union  of  Prussia  and  21  smaller  German  political  units. Then,  pressured  by  the Hungarians, Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria split his empire in half, declaring Austria and Hungary independent states, with himself as ruler of both. The empire was now called Austria-Hungary or the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Nationalist disputes continued to weaken the empire for more than 40 years. Finally, after World War I, Austria-Hungary broke into several separate nation-states. The Russian Empire Crumbles Nationalism also helped break up the 370-year-old empire of the czars in Russia. In addition to the Russians themselves, the czar ruled  over  22  million  Ukrainians,  8  million  Poles,  and  smaller  numbers  of Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Finns, Jews, Romanians, Georgians, Armenians, Turks, and others. Each group had its own culture. The ruling Romanov dynasty of Russia was determined to maintain iron control over this diversity. They instituted a policy of Russification, forcing Russian culture on  all  the  ethnic  groups  in  the  empire. This  policy  actually  strengthened  ethnic nationalist  feelings  and  helped  to  disunify  Russia. The  weakened  czarist  empire finally could not withstand the double shock of World War I and the communist revolution. The last Romanov czar gave up his power in 1917.  The Ottoman Empire Weakens The ruling Turks of the Ottoman Empire controlled Greeks, Slavs, Arabs, Bulgarians, and Armenians. In 1856, under pressure from the British and French, the Ottomans granted equal citizenship to all the people under their rule. That measure angered conservative Turks, who wanted no change in the situation, and caused tensions in the empire. For example, in response to nationalism in Armenia, the Ottomans massacred and deported Armenians from 1894 to 1896 and again  in  1915.  Like Austria-Hungary,  the  Ottoman  Empire  broke  apart  soon  after World War I.

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