Question

Describe the role of Romanticism in developing nationalist feelings among Europeans during the nineteenth century.

Answer 1

Romanticism, a cultural movement, sought to develop a particular form of nationalist sentiment. It generally criticized the glorification of reason and science and focused instead on emotions, intuition, and mystical feelings. Its effort was to create a sense of a shared collective heritage, a common cultural past, as the basis of a nation.

Romanticism is a cultural movement that sought to develop a particular form of nationalist sentiment. The emphasis on vernacular language and the collection of local folklore was not just to recover an ancient national spirit but also to carry the modern nationalist message to large audiences who were mostly illiterate. Language too played an important role in developing nationalist sentiments. After the Russian occupation, the Polish language was forced out of schools, and the Russian language was imposed everywhere. Polish was used for church gatherings and all religious instruction. As a result, a large number of priests and bishops were put in jail. The use of Polish came to be seen as a symbol of the struggle against Russian dominance.