Home / Peoples in Western Europe and America Strive for Freedom and National Unity

Peoples in Western Europe and America Strive for Freedom and National Unity

Western Europe. In the earlier category we described the struggles of rival European rulers and states for power and colonies. At the same time, the people in many countries of western Europe were striving for greater opportunities and more freedom. The yearning for freedom in western Europe, which is the theme of this category, brought about an age of revolutions. It also led to the spread of nationalism, that is, the desire of people who have the same background to be united and to govern themselves.

Liberty made its earliest gains in England, where two revolutions in the 1600’s clearly established Parliament as supreme over kings. By the late 1600’s also, the Dutch and the Swiss enjoyed more freedom than other peoples on the Continent.

Also described are the struggles of peoples in America to control their affairs. When Britain sought to impose stricter regulations, the thirteen British colonies fought for and won independence. Wars which swept Europe in the early 1800’s gave Latin American colonies a chance to break the ties which bound them to their mother countries. In Canada greater freedom was gained without going to war.

History relates how Frenchmen abolished special privileges and overthrew their monarchy. Although the desire for orderly government caused the French to accept another absolute ruler, Napoleon, he maintained and extended many reforms of the French Revolution. Through Napoleon’s conquests, French ideas of liberty spread to other European countries.

After the overthrow of Napoleon, European kings and statesmen tried to curb nationalism and people’s rights. These attempts to “turn back the clock” were met by widespread revolutionary outbreaks, especially in 1830 and 1848. History tells how both Italy and Germany, divided for centuries, became unified nations.

Italy and Germany Become Unified nations

Peoples in Western Europe and America Strive for Freedom and National Unity

On May 11, 1860 an almost incredible military campaign began with the landing of Guiseppe Garibaldi on the western tip of Sicily. Garibaldi was a handsome, dashing, reckless warrior patriot. With him were a thousand devoted followers, clad in red shirts. Maybe red shirts were easier to shoot at than green or gray, but for every bullet, they attracted a recruit from the ranks of the enemy. The island of Sicily was one of the two parts of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The other “Sicily” was the southern third of the peninsula of Italy. The capital of the …

Nationalism and Democracy Clash with the Forces of Reaction

Peoples in Western Europe and America Strive for Freedom and National Unity

The Austrian city of Vienna in 1814 would have dazzled even a Hollywood director. Emperors and empresses, kings and queens, dukes and duchesses — members of ruling families who hoped to recover thrones or to increase their lands — were there. So were leading statesmen from practically every country in Europe. For the so-called Congress of Vienna was meeting to make peace, now that Napoleon had finally been defeated. The Congress was going to set the world right again. The old city was overcrowded. Hotel rates soared and homeowners rented their houses at unheard of prices. Laundresses grew wealthy and …

The French Revolution and Napoleon

Peoples in Western Europe and America Strive for Freedom and National Unity

The year is 1789; the place, Versailles, France. Several hundred delegates representing the people of France sit sullenly in the palace hall. When an officer of the King orders them to leave the hall and return to their proper meeting place, one delegate rises to his full height and thunders, “Tell your master that we are here by the will of the people, and that only bayonets can drive us forth” A meeting of representatives of the French people? Defiance to the commands of the powerful king of France? In view of what you have read earlier about royal authority …

The Peoples of America Win Control over their Own Affairs

Peoples in Western Europe and America Strive for Freedom and National Unity

Even though you are familiar with the story of the American Revolution, perhaps you do not realize that only nine short days at Christmas time in 1776 changed the course of the English colonies’ fight for freedom. Within that short space of time, General Washington’s ragged, dwindling army captured the hired German troops at Trenton, New Jersey and routed a British force at nearby Princeton. To win such surprising victories and to keep the American Revolution from collapsing took the devoted leadership and military skill of General George Washington. It took patriot soldiers whose term of service had run out …

Basic Ideas of Freedom take Root in Early Modern Times

Peoples in Western Europe and America Strive for Freedom and National Unity

Freedom! Liberty! Here are words which most Americans have heard all their lives. Freedom is the subject of the Declaration of Independence and of the Bill of Rights in our Constitution. Our patriotic songs refer to America as “sweet land of liberty” and “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Just what do we mean by freedom or liberty? We mean several things, for there is more than one kind of freedom. First, there is personal freedom — the right of the individual to go where he wants, to choose his occupation, to say and write …