The first clear expression of nationalism came with the French Revolution in 1789.
The political and constitutional changes that came in the wake of the French Revolution led to the transfer of sovereignty from the monarchy to a body of French citizens.
The ideas of la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen) emphasized the notion of a united community enjoying equal rights under a constitution.
The Estates General was elected by the body of the active citizens and renamed the National Assembly.
Internal customs duties and dues were abolished and a uniform system of weights and measures was adopted.
The revolutionaries further declared that it was the mission and the destiny of the French nation to liberate the peoples of Europe from despotism.
Students and other members of educated middle classes began setting up Jacobin club.
Their activities and campaigns prepared the way for the French armies which moved into Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and much of Italy in the 1790’s.
The French armies began to carry the idea of nationalism abroad.
Through a return to monarchy Napoleon had, no doubt, destroyed democracy in France, but in the administrative field he had incorporated revolutionary principles in order to make the whole system more rational and efficient.
The Civil Code of 1804 – usually known as the Napoleonic Code - did away with all privileges based on birth, established equality before the Law and secured the right to property.
Napoleon simplified administrative divisions, abolished the feudal system and freed peasants from serfdom and manorial dues.
Transport and communication systems were improved.
Businessmen and small-scale producers of goods, in particular, began to realize that uniform laws, standardised weights and measures, and a common national currency would facilitate the movement and exchange of goods and capital from one region to another.
In many places such as Holland and Switzerland, Brussels, Mainz, Milan, Warsaw, the French armies were welcomed as harbingers of Liberty.
It became clear that the new administrative arrangements did not go hand in hand with political freedom.
Increased taxation, censorship, forced conscription into the French armies required to conquer the rest of the Europe, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of the administrative changes.
