The Spring of Nations and birth of Europe of Nations

Abstract

The Spring of Nations is a sequence of events in European history. Within a few months of 1848 and 1849, almost in all countries of the continent there was violent and armed rising of people against the existing political and social order. Citizens of France demanded civil rights and equal access to power for representatives of all social classes. Italians and Germans, who lived in the politically divided countries, manifested the desire to unite and create a common, state. Hungarians, Czechs, Poles, and the Slavic nations of the Balkans, which lived under domination of the foreign dynasties, raised the weapon in the struggle for independence. The Spring of Nations, as no movement before it, claimed the right of peoples to self-determination, i.e. the possibility for each nation to have their own, separate and free country. Although this idea was impracticable in the nineteenth century, the Spring of Nations highlighted the emerging problem of nationalism. It showed also the need to organize a new policy of coexistence of communities with different languages, cultures and religions within the framework of the European continent. The thoughts and ideas that emerged at that time are particularly important for us, because they also lie at the root of the European Union.