Nineteenth century Europe, exploding with Nationalism, shows us how powerful a nation can be when united for a common cause. Nationalism is the love and devotion to ones country, where devotion stands for the spirit to protect the needs and ideals of the nation. Nationalism acted as a unifying force in Europe for much of the nineteenth century when unification movements were frequent. The unification of Italy and Germany, are prime examples of nationalism at work. By the end of the French revolution and Napoleanic wars, nationalism was growing rampant among the neighboring countries of France leading to an increasing amount of unification motions. The extraordinary unification of these two divided areas proves how a strong sense of nationalism truly is a unifying force.The early eighteen hundreds was a time of separation for the "Geographic Expression" which we call Italy is today. All that held back Italy from its unification (1859-1919) was the power complex's of a few greedy officials such as the Pope and Local rulers who feared losing land and power; Most of all however was the Austrian power overhead who wished to maintain a weaker neighbor to the south. Fed up with disunity, an Italian nationalist named Guisseppe Messini founded a secret society called "Young Italy". It was the duty of this society to overthrow foreign tyrants such as Austria and establish an Italian republic for which the leader is voted upon. Messini, also known as the "Soul", was the true benefactor who excited the people of Italy to unite. As made evident in Document 1, the people united and prepared to defend there needs as a uniting country. This excerpt from the French Leve en Masse dating back as far as 1793, during the French revolution. Though thousands of miles away and more than thirty years before any of Italy's own reformation acts, the idea behind this excerpt is the same. The only way to defeat a common enemy, whether it be foreign t...
