Editing Romantic nationalism (section)

==Brief history==

===Nationalism and revolution===
[[File:Carga de O'Higgins.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|Romanticized painting of the [[Battle of Rancagua]] during the [[Chilean War of Independence]] by [[Pedro Subercaseaux]]]]
In the Balkans, Romantic views of a connection with [[classical Greece]], which inspired [[Philhellenism]] infused the [[Greek War of Independence]] (1821–30), in which the Romantic poet [[Lord Byron]] died of high fever. [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini]]'s opera ''[[William Tell (opera)|William Tell]]'' (1829) marked the onset of the [[Opera|Romantic opera]], using the central [[national myth]] unifying Switzerland; and in Brussels, a riot (August 1830) after an opera that set a doomed romance against a background of foreign oppression ([[Daniel-François-Esprit Auber|Auber]]'s ''[[La Muette de Portici]]'') sparked the [[Belgian Revolution]] of 1830–31, the first successful revolution in the model of Romantic nationalism. [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]]'s opera choruses of an oppressed people inspired two generations of patriots in Italy, especially with "Va pensiero" (''[[Nabucco]]'', 1842). Under the influence of romantic nationalism, among economic and political forces, both Germany and Italy found political unity, and movements to create nations similarly based upon ethnic groups. It would flower in the Balkans (see for example, the [[Carinthian Plebiscite]], 1920), along the Baltic Sea, and in the interior of Central Europe, where in the eventual outcome, the [[Habsburg]]s succumbed to the surge of Romantic nationalism.<ref>[[Miroslav Hroch]], "Introduction: National romanticism", in Balázs Trencsényi and Michal Kopeček, eds. ''Discourses of collective identity in Central and Southeast Europe'', vol. II ''National Romanticism: The Formation of National Movements'', 2007:4ff.</ref>

In [[Norway]], romanticism was embodied, not in literature, but in the movement toward a national style, both in architecture and in ''[[ethos]]''.<ref>Oscar Julius Falnes, ''National romanticism in Norway'', 1968.</ref> Earlier, there was a strong romantic nationalist element mixed with [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] rationalism in the rhetoric used in [[North America]], in the American colonists' [[United States Declaration of Independence|declaration of independence]] from [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] and the drafting of the [[United States Constitution|U.S. Constitution]] of 1787, as well as the rhetoric in the [[Spanish American wars of independence|wave of rebellions]], inspired by new senses of localized identities, which swept the American colonies of Spain, one after the other, from the May Revolution of [[Argentina]] in 1810.{{cn|date=August 2018}}

===Conservatism and revolution in the 19th century===
{{see also|Concert of Nations|Revolutions of 1848}}

Following the ultimate collapse of the [[First French Empire]] with the fall of Napoleon, conservative elements took control in Europe, led by the Austrian noble [[Klemens von Metternich]], ideals of the [[balance of power (international relations)|balance of power]] between the [[great powers]] of Europe dominated continental politics of the first half of the 19th century.  Following the [[Congress of Vienna]], and subsequent [[Concert of Europe]] system, several major empires took control of European politics.  Among these were the [[Russian Empire]], the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|restored French monarchy]], the [[German Confederation]], under the dominance of [[Prussia]], the [[Austrian Empire]], and the [[Ottoman Empire]].{{cn|date=August 2018}}

The conservative forces held sway until the [[Revolutions of 1848]] swept across Europe and threatened the old order.  Numerous movements developed around various cultural groups, who began to develop a sense of national identity.  While initially, all of these revolutions failed, and [[reactionary]] forces would re-establish political control, the revolutions marked the start of the steady progress towards the end of the Concert of Europe under the dominance of a few multi-national empires and led to the establishment of the modern [[nation state]] in Europe; a process that would not be complete for over a century and a half. [[Central and Eastern Europe]]'s political situation was partly shaped by the two [[World Wars]], while many national identities in these two regions formed modern nation states when the collapse of the [[Soviet Union]] and the multinational states [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] and [[Czechoslovakia]] led to numerous new states forming during the last decade of the 20th century.{{cn|date=August 2018}}

[[File:American Progress (John Gast painting).jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.35|[[John Gast (painter)|John Gast]], ''American Progress,'' (circa 1872) celebrates [[United States|U.S.]] romantic nationalism in the form of westward expansion&nbsp;– an idea known as "[[Manifest Destiny]]".]]

===Folk culture===
Romantic nationalism inspired the collection of [[folklore]] by such people as the [[Brothers Grimm]].  The view that fairy tales, unless contaminated from outside literary sources, were preserved in the same form over thousands of years, was not exclusive to Romantic Nationalists, but it fit in well with their views that such tales expressed the primordial nature of a people.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mason.gmu.edu/~svu5/pages/introduction.html |title=The Brothers Grimm - National Acclaim }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.scienceabc.com/humans/why-did-the-grimms-fairy-tales-get-linked-to-nationalism.html |title=Why Did the Grimm's Fairy Tales Get Linked to Nationalism? |date=17 September 2023 }}</ref>

The [[Brothers Grimm]] were criticized because their first edition was insufficiently German, and they followed the advice.  They rejected many tales they collected because of their similarity to tales by [[Charles Perrault]], which they thought proved they were not truly German tales; ''[[Sleeping Beauty]]'' survived in their collection because the tale of [[Brynhildr]] convinced them that the figure of the sleeping princess was authentically German. They also altered the language used, changing each "Fee" (fairy) to an enchantress or wise woman, every "prince" to a "king's son", every "princess" to a "king's daughter".<ref>[[Maria Tatar]], ''The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales'', p31, {{ISBN|0-691-06722-8}}</ref>   Discussing these views in their third editions, they particularly singled out [[Giambattista Basile]]'s ''[[Pentamerone]]'' as the first ''national'' collection of fairy tales, and as capturing the [[Naples|Neapolitan]] voice.<ref>Benedetto Croce, "The Fantastic Accomplishment of Giambattista Basile and His ''Tale of Tales''", Jack Zipes, ed., ''The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Strap Arola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm'', p 888-9, {{ISBN|0-393-97636-X}}</ref>

The work of the Brothers Grimm influenced other collectors, both inspiring them to collect tales and leading them to similarly believe that the fairy tales of a country were particularly representative of it, to the neglect of cross-cultural influence.  Among those influenced were the Russian [[Alexander Afanasyev]], the Norwegians [[Peter Christen Asbjørnsen]] and [[Jørgen Moe]], and the Australian [[Joseph Jacobs]].<ref>Jack Zipes, ''The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm'', p 846, {{ISBN|0-393-97636-X}}</ref>

===National epics===
[[Image:BattleofRoncevauxWvBibra.jpg|thumb|300px|A painting of an episode from the [[Song of Roland]], a French national epic]]
{{Main|National epic}}
The concept of a "[[national epic]]", an extensively mythologized legendary work of poetry of defining importance to a certain nation, is another product of Romantic nationalism. The "discovery" of ''[[Beowulf]]'' in a single manuscript, first transcribed in 1818, came under the impetus of Romantic nationalism, after the manuscript had lain as an ignored curiosity in scholars' collections for two centuries. ''Beowulf'' was felt to provide people self-identified as "[[Anglo-Saxon]]" with their missing "national epic",<ref>The section "III.Early National Poetry" of ''The Cambridge History of English and American Literature'' (1907–21) begins "By far the most important product of the national epos is ''Beowulf''...</ref> just when the need for it was first being felt: the fact that Beowulf himself was a [[Geat]] was easily overlooked. The pseudo-Gaelic literary forgeries of "[[Ossian]]" had failed, finally, to fill the need for the first Romantic generation.{{cn|date=August 2018}}

The first publication of ''[[The Tale of Igor's Campaign]]'' coincided with the rise in Russian national spirit in the wake of the [[Napoleonic wars]] and [[Suvorov]]'s campaigns in Central Europe. The unseen and unheard ''[[Song of Roland]]'' had become a dim memory, until the antiquary [[Francisque Michel]] transcribed a worn copy in the [[Bodleian Library]] and put it into print in 1837; it was timely: French interest in the national epic revived among the Romantic generation. In Greece, the ''[[Iliad]]'' and ''[[Odyssey]]'' took on new urgency during the [[Greek War of Independence]]. Amongst the world's Jewish community, the early [[Zionism|Zionists]] considered the [[Bible]] a more suitable national epic than the [[Talmud]].<ref>[[Moshe Halbertal]] (1997), [https://books.google.com/books?id=7ewY9764Wv8C&pg=PA132 People of the Book: Canon, Meaning, and Authority], p.132: "With the rise of Jewish nationalism, the relation of many Jews to the Bible and the Talmud took another turn. The Zionists preferred the Bible to the Talmud as the national literature, for the Bible tells a heroic story of the national drama whose focus is the Land of Israel. While they objected to the Haskalah politics of emancipation, Zionist thinkers also stressed the role of the Bible, but they thought of it as an element in building a particular national consciousness rather than as the basis of a shared Judeo-Christian heritage enabling the integration of Jews in Europe. Unlike the Talmud, they held, the Bible had the potential to become a national epic. Its drama unfolded in the hills of Judea, and it connected the national claim to the land with a historical past. Nothing in the Talmud, in contrast, appealed to the romanticism vital to national movements. It does not tell the glorious story of a nation, it has no warriors and heroes, no geography which arouses longing in the reader or a sense of connection to an ancient home."</ref>

Many other "national epics", [[epic poetry]] considered to reflect the national spirit, were produced or revived under the influence of Romantic nationalism: particularly in the [[Russian Empire]], national minorities seeking to assert their own identities in the face of [[Russification]] produced new national poetry&nbsp;– either out of whole cloth, or from cobbling together folk poetry, or by resurrecting older narrative poetry. Examples include the [[Estonia]]n ''[[Kalevipoeg]]'', [[Finland|Finnish]] ''[[Kalevala]]'', [[Poland|Polish]] ''[[Pan Tadeusz]]'', [[Latvia]]n ''[[Lāčplēsis]]'', [[Armenia]]n ''Sasuntzi Davit'' by [[Hovhannes Tumanyan]], [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]n ''[[The Knight in the Panther's Skin]]'' and [[Greater Iran]], ''[[Shahnameh]].''