NCERT Class 10 History Solutions Chapter 1 The Rise of Nationalism in Europe
NCERT Class 10 History Solutions Chapter 1 The Rise of Nationalism in Europe are given in this post in easy language so that you can learn it fast.
Writing in brief
Question 1. Write a note on:
(a) Guiseppe Mazzini
(b) Count Camillo de Cavour
(c) The Greek war of independence
(d) Frankfurt Parliament
(e) The role of women in nationalist struggles
Answer: (a) Guiseppe Mazzini: He was an Italian revolutionary who played a significant role in promoting the idea of a unified Italian state. He believed that nations were the natural units of mankind, and so Italy (which was then divided into a number of small states and kingdoms) had to be forged into a single unified republic. During the 1830s, he strived to put together a coherent programme for such a unitary Italian Republic. He also set up two secret societies, namely Young Italy and Young Europe. These societies helped in the dissemination of his ideas.
(b) Count Camillo de Cavour:
- He was the chief minister of Sardinia-Piedmont state. He led the movement to unify the regions of Italy. He was neither a revolutionary nor a democrat.
- Like many other wealthy and educated members of the Italian elite, he spoke French much better than he did Italian.
- He engineered a careful diplomatic alliance with France with the help of which Sardinia-Piedmont succeeded in defeating the Austrian forces in 1859. This, consequently helped to free the northern part of Italy from the Austrian Habsburgs
(c) The Greek war of independence: This was a successful war of independence waged by Greek revolutionaries between 1821 and 1829 against the Ottoman Empire. The Greeks were supported by the West European countries, while poets and artists hailed Greece as the cradle of European civilisation. Finally, the Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognised Greece as an independent nation.
(d) Frankfurt parliament: It was an all-German National Assembly formed by the middle-class professionals, businessmen and prosperous artisans belonging to the different German regions. It was convened on 18 May, 1848 in the Church of St. Paul, in the city of Frankfurt. This assembly drafted a constitution for a German nation to be headed by a monarchy subject to a parliament. However, it faced opposition from the aristocracy and military. Also, as it was dominated by the middle classes, it lost its mass support base. In the end, it was forced to disband on 31 May, 1849.
(e) The role of women in nationalist struggles: Artistic representations of the French Revolution show men and women participating equally in the movement. Liberty is personified as a woman; also, liberal nationalism propounded the idea of universal suffrage, leading to women’s active participation in nationalist movements in Europe. Although women had actively participated in nationalist struggles, they were given little or no political rights; an example being the Frankfurt parliament where women were admitted only as observers to stand in the visitors’ gallery.
Question 2: What steps did the French revolutionaries take to create a sense of collective identity among the French people?
Answer: The French revolutionaries took many important steps to create a sense of collective identity among the French people. These were:
- The French revolutionaries introduced various measures and practices that could create a sense of collective identity amongst the French people. 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.
- A new French flag, the tricolour, was chosen to replace the former royal standard.
- The Estates General was elected by the body of active citizens and renamed the National Assembly.
- New hymns were composed, oaths taken and martyrs commemorated, all in the name of the nation.
- A centralised administrative system was put in place and it formulated uniform laws for all citizens within its territory.
- Internal customs duties and dues were abolished and a uniform system of weights and measures was adopted.
- Regional dialects were discouraged and French, as it was spoken and written in Paris, became the common language of the nation.
Question 3: Who were Marianne and Germania? What was the importance of the way in which they were portrayed?
Answer: Marianne and Germania were respective female allegories for the French and the German nation. They stood as personifications of ideals like ‘liberty’ and ‘the republic’. The importance of the way in which they were portrayed lay in the fact that the public could identify with their symbolic meaning, and this would instil a sense of national unity in them.
Question 4: Briefly trace the process of German unification.
Answer: In 1848, the middle class Germans tried to unite the different regions of the German confederation into a nation-state governed by an elected parliament. They were, however, repressed by the combined forces of the monarchy and the military, supported by the large landowners of Prussia. From then on, Prussia took on the leadership of the movement for national unification. Its chief minister Otto von Bismarck was the architect of this process with the help of the Prussian army and bureaucracy. Three wars over seven years – with Austria, Denmark and France – ended in Prussian victory and completed the process of unification. In January 1871, the Prussian king, William I, was proclaimed German Emperor in a ceremony held at Versailles.
Question 5: What changes did Napoleon introduce to make the administrative system more efficient in the territories ruled by him?
Answer: Napoleon introduced the following changes to make the administrative system more efficient in the areas ruled by him:
- He established civil code in 1804 also known as the Napoleonic Code. It did away with all privileges based on birth. It established equality before the law and secured the right to property.
- He simplified administrative divisions, abolished feudal system, and freed peasants from serfdom and manorial dues. In towns too, guild systems were removed. Transport and communication systems were improved.
- Guild restrictions were removed in the towns. Transport and communication systems were improved.
- Peasants, artisans, businessmen and workers enjoyed the new found freedom.
DISCUSS
Question 1: Explain what is meant by the 1848 revolution of the liberals. What were the political, social and economic ideas supported by the liberals?
Answer: The 1848 revolution of the liberals refers to the various national movements pioneered by educated middle classes alongside the revolts of the poor, unemployed and starving peasants and workers in Europe. While in countries like France, food shortages and widespread unemployment during 1848 led to popular uprisings, in other parts of Europe (such as Germany, Italy, Poland and the Austro-Hungarian Empire), men and women of the liberal middle classes came together to voice their demands for the creation of nation-states based on parliamentary principles.
In Germany, for example, various political associations comprising middle-class professionals, businessmen and prosperous artisans came together in Frankfurt to form an all-German National Assembly. This Frankfurt parliament drafted a constitution for a German nation to be headed by a monarchy subject to a parliament. Though such liberal movements were ultimately suppressed by conservative forces, the old order could never be restored. The monarchs realised that the cycles of revolution and repression could only be ended by granting concessions to the liberal-nationalist revolutionaries.
The political, social and economic ideas supported by the liberals were clearly based on democratic ideals. Politically, they demanded constitutionalism with national unification—a nation-state with a written constitution and parliamentary administration. They wanted to rid society of its class-based partialities and birth rights. Serfdom and bonded labour had to be abolished, and economic equality had to be pursued as a national goal. The right to property was also significant in the liberals’ concept of a nation based on political, social and economic freedom.
Question 2: Choose three examples to show the contribution of culture to the growth of nationalism in Europe.
Answer: Apart from wars and territorial expansion, culture also played a crucial role in the development of nationalism. Romanticism was a European cultural movement aimed at developing national unity by creating a sense of shared heritage and common history. The Romantic artists’ emphasis on emotions, intuition and mystical feelings gave shape and expression to nationalist sentiments. The strength of art in promoting nationalism is well exemplified in the role played by European poets and artists in mobilising public opinion to support the Greeks in their struggle to establish their national identity.
Folk songs, dances and poetry contributed to popularising the spirit of nationalism and patriotic fervour in Europe. Collecting and recording the different forms of folk culture was important for building a national consciousness.
Language also played a very important role. After the Russian occupation, the Polish language was forced out of schools, and the Russian language was imposed everywhere. The Clergy in Poland began using language as a weapon of national resistance. Polish was used for Church gatherings and all religious instructions. The use of Polish came to be seen as a symbol of struggle against Russian dominance.
Question 3: Through a focus on any two countries, explain how nations developed over the nineteenth century.
Answer: The development of the German and Italian nation states in the nineteenth century Political fragmentation: Till the middle of the nineteenth century, the present-day nations of Germany and Italy were fragmented into separate regions and kingdoms ruled by different princely houses.
Revolutionary uprisings: Nineteenth-century Europe was characterised by both popular uprisings of the masses and revolutions led by the educated, liberal middle classes. The middle classes belonging to the different German regions came together to form an all-German National Assembly in 1848. However, on facing opposition from the aristocracy and military, and on losing its mass support base, it was forced to disband.
In the Italian region, during the 1830s, revolutionaries like Giuseppe Mazzini sought to establish a unitary Italian Republic. However, the revolutionary uprisings of 1831 and 1848 failed to unite Italy.
Unification with the help of the army: After the failure of the revolutions, the process of German and Italian unification was continued by the aristocracy and the army. Germany was united by the Prussian chief minister Otto von Bismarck with the help of the Prussian army and bureaucracy. The German empire was proclaimed in 1871.
The Italian state of Sardinia-Piedmont played a role similar to that played by Prussia. Count Camillo de Cavour (the Chief Minister) led the movement to unite the separate states of nineteenth-century Italy with the help of the army and an alliance with France. The regions annexed by Giuseppe Garibaldi and his Red Shirts joined with the northern regions to form a united Italy. The Italian nation was proclaimed in 1861. The Papal States joined in 1870.
Question 4: How was the history of nationalism in Britain unlike the rest of Europe?
Answer: The history of nationalism in Britain unlike the rest of Europe because:
- In Britain the formation of the nation-state was not the result of a sudden upheaval or revolution. It was the result of a long-drawn-out process. There was no British nation prior to the eighteenth century.
- The primary identities of the people who inhabited the British Isles were ethnic ones – such as English, Welsh, Scot or Irish.
- The Act of Union (1707) between England and Scotland that resulted in the formation of the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain’ meant, in effect, that England was able to impose its influence on Scotland. The British parliament was henceforth dominated by its English members. The growth of a British identity meant that Scotland’s distinctive culture and political institutions were systematically suppressed.
- The Catholic clans that inhabited the Scottish Highlands suffered terrible repression whenever they attempted to assert their independence. The Scottish Highlanders were forbidden to speak their Gaelic language or wear their national dress, and large numbers were forcibly driven out of their homeland
Question 5: Why did nationalist tensions emerge in the Balkans?
Answer: Nationalist tensions emerged in the Balkans because of the spread of ideas of romantic nationalism as also the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire that had previously ruled over this area. The different Slavic communities in the Balkans began to strive for independent rule. They were jealous of each other and every state wanted more territory, even at the expense of others. Also, the hold of imperial power over the Balkans made the situation worse. Russia, Germany, England, Austro-Hungary all wanted more control over this area. These conflicts ultimately led to the First World War in 1914.
NCERT Class 10 History Solutions Chapter 1 Chapter Overview
In this chapter you learn about the following topics:
- The French Revolution and the Idea of the Nation
- The Making of Nationalism in Europe
- The Age of Revolutions: 1830-1848
- The Making of Germany and Italy
- Visualising the Nation
- Nationalism and Imperialism
NCERT Class 10 History Solutions Chapter 1 The Rise of Nationalism in Europe Extra Questions
Question-1
According to Ernst Renan what are the attributes of a nation
Solution:
In a lecture delivered at the University of Sorbonne in 1882, the French philosopher Ernst Renan (1823-92) outlined his understanding of what makes a nation. The lecture was subsequently published as a famous essay entitled ‘Qu’est-ce qu’une nation?’ (‘What is a Nation?’).
In this essay Renan criticises the notion suggested by others that a nation is formed by a common language, race, religion, or territory: ‘A nation is the culmination of a long past of endeavours, sacrifice and devotion. A heroic past, great men, glory, that is the social capital upon which one bases a national idea. To have common glories in the past, to have a common will in the present, to have performed great deeds together, to wish to perform still more, these are the essential conditions of being a people. A nation is therefore a large-scale solidarity … Its existence is a daily plebiscite … A province is its inhabitants; if anyone has the right to be consulted, it is the inhabitant. A nation never has any real interest in annexing or holding on to a country against its will. The existence of nations is a good thing, a necessity even. Their existence is a guarantee of liberty, which would be lost if the world had only one law and only one master.’
Question-2
Describe the French Revolution.
Solution:
The first clear expression of nationalism came with the French Revolution in 1789. France, as you would remember, was a full-fledged territorial state in 1789 under the rule of an absolute monarch. 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 revolution proclaimed that it was the people who would henceforth constitute the nation and shape its destiny. From the very beginning, the French revolutionaries introduced various measures and practices that could create a sense of collective identity amongst the French people. The ideas of la patrie (the
fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen) emphasised the notion of a united community enjoying equal rights under a constitution.
A new French flag, the tricolour, was chosen to replace the former royal standard. The Estates General was elected by the body of active citizens and renamed the National Assembly. New hymns were composed, oaths taken and martyrs commemorated, all in the name of the nation. A centralised administrative system was put in place and it formulated uniform laws for all citizens within its territory. Internal customs duties and dues were abolished and a uniform system of weights and measures was adopted. Regional dialects were discouraged and French, as it was spoken and written in Paris, became the common language of the nation.
The revolutionaries further declared that it was the mission and the destiny of the French nation to liberate the peoples of Europe from despotism, in other words to help other peoples of Europe to become nations. When the news of the events in France reached the different cities of Europe, students and other members of educated middle classes began setting up Jacobin clubs. Their activities and campaigns prepared the way for the French armies which moved into Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and much of Italy in the 1790s. With the outbreak of the revolutionary wars, the French armies began to carry the idea of nationalism abroad.
Question-3
How did nationalism and the idea of the nation-state emerge?
Solution:
Socially and politically, a landed aristocracy was the dominant class on the continent. The members of this class were united by a common way of life that cut across regional divisions. They owned estates in the countryside and also town-houses. They spoke French for purposes of diplomacy and in high society. Their families were often connected by ties of marriage. This powerful aristocracy was, however, numerically a small group. The majority of the population was made up of the peasantry. To the west, the bulk of the land was farmed by tenants and small owners, while in Eastern and Central Europe the pattern of landholding was characterised by vast estates which were cultivated by serfs.
Question-4
What did Liberal Nationalism Stand for?
Solution:
Ideas of national unity in early-nineteenth-century Europe were closely allied to the ideology of liberalism. The term ‘liberalism’ derives from the Latin root liber, meaning free. For the new middle classes liberalism stood for freedom for the individual and equality of all before the law. Politically, it emphasised the concept of government by consent. Since the French Revolution, liberalism had stood for the end of autocracy and clerical privileges, a constitution and representative government through parliament. Nineteenth-century liberals also stressed the inviolability of private property. Yet, equality before the law did not necessarily stand for universal suffrage.
Men without property and all women were excluded from political rights. Only for a brief period under the Jacobins did all adult males enjoy suffrage. However, the Napoleonic Code went back to limited suffrage and reduced women to the status of a minor, subject to the authority of fathers and husbands. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries women and non-propertied men organised opposition movements demanding equal political rights.
Question-5
Give a brief note on the Napoleonic code.
Solution:
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. This Code was exported to the regions under French control.
Question-6
Give two examples to show that in the 18th century Europe there were no nation states.
Solution:
In the mid-eighteenth-century Europe there were no ‘nation-states’ as we know them today. The countries such as Germany, Italy and Switzerland, which we know today were divided into kingdoms, duchies and cantons whose rulers had their autonomous territories. Eastern and Central Europe were under autocratic monarchies within the territories of which lived diverse peoples. They did not see themselves as sharing a collective identity or a common culture. Often, they even spoke different languages and belonged to different ethnic groups.
The Habsburg Empire that ruled over Austria-Hungary, for example, was a patchwork of many different regions and peoples. It included the Alpine regions – the Tyrol, Austria and the Sudetenland – as well as Bohemia, where the aristocracy was predominantly German-speaking. It also included the Italian-speaking provinces of Lombardy and Venetia.
In Hungary, half of the population spoke Magyar while the other half spoke a variety of dialects. In Galicia, the aristocracy spoke Polish. Besides these three dominant groups, there also lived within the boundaries of the empire, a mass of subject peasant peoples Bohemians and Slovaks to the north, Slovenes in Carniola, Croats to the south, and Roumans to the east in Transylvania. Such differences did not easily promote a sense of political unity. The only tie binding these diverse groups together was a common allegiance to the emperor.
Question-7
What were the reforms made by Napoleon?
Solution:
Within the wide swathe of territory that came under his control, Napoleon set about introducing many of the reforms that he had already introduced in France. 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. This Code was exported to the regions under French control. In the Dutch Republic, in Switzerland, in Italy and Germany, Napoleon simplified administrative divisions, abolished the feudal system and freed peasants from serfdom and manorial dues. In the towns too, guild restrictions were removed. Transport and communication systems were improved.
Peasants, artisans, workers and new businessmen enjoyed a new-found freedom. Businessmen and small-scale producers of goods, in particular, began to realise 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. However, in the areas conquered, the reactions of the local populations to French rule were mixed. Initially, in many places such as Holland and Switzerland, as well as in certain cities like Brussels, Mainz, Milan and Warsaw, the French armies were welcomed as harbingers of liberty. But the initial enthusiasm soon turned to hostility, as 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 Europe, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of the administrative changes.
Question-8
Why were the Middle class so named?
Solution:
Socially and politically, a landed aristocracy was the dominant class on the continent. The members of this class were united by a common way of life that cut across regional divisions. They owned estates in the countryside and also town-houses. They spoke French for purposes of diplomacy and in high society. Their families were often connected by ties of marriage. This powerful aristocracy was, however, numerically a small group. The majority of the population was made up of the peasantry. To the west, the bulk of the land was farmed by tenants and small owners, while in Eastern and Central Europe the pattern of landholding was characterised by vast estates which were cultivated by serfs.
In Western and parts of Central Europe the growth of industrial production and trade meant the growth of towns and the emergence of commercial classes whose existence was based on production for the market. Industrialisation began in England in the second half of the eighteenth century, but in France and parts of the German states it occurred only during the nineteenth century. In its wake, new social groups came into being: a working-class population, and middle classes made up of industrialists, businessmen, professionals. In Central and Eastern Europe these groups were smaller in number till late nineteenth century. It was among the educated, liberal middle classes that ideas of national unity following the abolition of aristocratic privileges gained popularity.
Question-9
What led to the spread of conservatism in Europe and what were its impacts?
Solution:
Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, European governments were driven by a spirit of conservatism. Conservatives believed that established, traditional institutions of state and society – like the monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family – should be preserved. Most conservatives, however, did not propose a return to the society of pre-revolutionary days. Rather, they realised, from the changes initiated by Napoleon, that modernisation could in fact strengthen traditional institutions like the monarchy. It could make state power more effective and strong. A modern army, an efficient bureaucracy, a dynamic economy, the abolition of feudalism and serfdom could strengthen the autocratic monarchies of Europe.
Question-10
What were the highlights of the Treaty of Vienna 1815?
Solution:
In 1815, representatives of the European powers – Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria – who had collectively defeated Napoleon, met at Vienna to draw up a settlement for Europe. The main highlights were to how the nation could develop and what economic measures could help forge this nation together.
Question-11
What was the Romantic Imagination about a nation?
Solution:
Romanticism, a cultural movement which sought to develop a particular form of nationalist sentiment. Romantic artists and poets generally criticised the glorification of reason and science and focused instead on emotions, intuition and mystical feelings. Their effort was to create a sense of a shared collective heritage, a common cultural past, as the basis of a nation.
The emphasis on vernacular language and the collection of local folklore was not just to recover an ancient national spirit, but also to carry the modern nationalist message to large audiences who were mostly illiterate.
Question-12
What was the cause of Silesian weavers uprising? Comment on the viewpoint of the
journalist.
Solution:
In 1845, weavers in Silesia had led a revolt against contractors who supplied them raw material and gave them orders for finished textiles but drastically reduced their payments.
The journalist Wilhelm Wolff described the events in a Silesian village as follows: In these villages (with 18,000 inhabitants) cotton weaving is the most widespread occupation … The misery of the workers is extreme. The desperate need for jobs has been taken advantage of by the contractors to reduce the prices of the goods they
order …
On 4 June at 2 p.m. a large crowd of weavers emerged from their homes and marched in pairs up to the mansion of their contractor demanding higher wages. They were treated with scorn and threats alternately. Following this, a group of them forced their way into the house, smashed its elegant windowpanes, furniture, porcelain … another group broke into the storehouse and plundered it of supplies of cloth which they tore to shreds … The contractor fled with his family to a neighbouring village which, however, refused to shelter such a person. He returned 24 hours later having requisitioned the army. In the exchange that followed, eleven weavers were shot.
Question-13
How was nation visualized by artists?
Solution:
Artists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries found a way out by personifying a nation. In other words they represented a country as if it were a person. Nations were then portrayed as female figures. The female form that was chosen to personify the nation did not stand for any particular woman in real life; rather it sought to give
the abstract idea of the nation a concrete form. That is, the female figure became an allegory of the nation.
Question-14
On what basis the female allegories were given names?
Solution:
Many female allegories were invented by artists in the nineteenth century to represent the nation. In France she was christened Marianne, a popular Christian name, which underlined the idea of a people’s nation. Her characteristics were drawn from those of Liberty and the Republic – the red cap, the tricolour, the cockade. Statues of Marianne were erected in public squares to remind the public of the national symbol of unity and to persuade them to identify with it. Marianne images were marked on coins and stamps.
Similarly, Germania became the allegory of the German nation. In visual representations, Germania wears a crown of oak leaves, as the German oak stands for heroism.
Question-15
Describe the rise of imperialism.
Solution:
Nationalism, aligned with imperialism, led Europe to disaster in 1914. But meanwhile, many countries in the world which had been colonised by the European powers in the nineteenth century began to oppose imperial domination. The anti-imperial movements that developed everywhere were nationalist, in the sense that they all struggled to form independent nation-states, and were inspired by a sense of collective national unity, forged in confrontation with imperialism. European ideas of nationalism were nowhere replicated, for people everywhere developed their own specific variety of nationalism. But the idea that societies should be organised into ‘nation-states’ came to be accepted as natural and universal.
Question-16
According to Ernst Renan what are the attributes of a nation?
Solution:
In a lecture delivered at the University of Sorbonne in 1882, the French philosopher Ernst Renan (1823-92) outlined his understanding of what makes a nation. The lecture was subsequently published as a famous essay entitled ‘Qu’est-ce qu’une nation?’ (‘What is a Nation?’).
In this essay Renan criticises the notion suggested by others that a nation is formed by a common language, race, religion, or territory: ‘A nation is the culmination of a long past of endeavours, sacrifice and devotion. A heroic past, great men, glory, that is the social capital upon which one bases a national idea. To have common glories in the past, to have a common will in the present, to have performed great deeds together, to wish to perform still more, these are the essential conditions of being a people. A nation is therefore a large-scale solidarity … Its existence is a daily plebiscite … A province is its inhabitants; if anyone has the right to be consulted, it is the inhabitant. A nation never has any real interest in annexing or holding on to a country against its will. The existence of nations is a good thing, a necessity even. Their existence is a guarantee of liberty, which would be lost if the world had only one law and only one master.’
Question-17
How did nationalism and the idea of the nation-state emerge?
Solution:
Socially and politically, a landed aristocracy was the dominant class on the continent. The members of this class were united by a common way of life that cut across regional divisions. They owned estates in the countryside and also town-houses. They spoke French for purposes of diplomacy and in high society. Their families were often connected by ties of marriage. This powerful aristocracy was, however, numerically a small group. The majority of the population was made up of the peasantry. To the west, the bulk of the land was farmed by tenants and small owners, while in Eastern and Central Europe the pattern of landholding was characterised by vast estates which were cultivated by serfs.
Question-18
What did Liberal Nationalism Stand for?
Solution:
Ideas of national unity in early-nineteenth-century Europe were closely allied to the ideology of liberalism. The term ‘liberalism’ derives from the Latin root liber, meaning free. For the new middle classes liberalism stood for freedom for the individual and equality of all before the law. Politically, it emphasised the concept of government by consent. Since the French Revolution, liberalism had stood for the end of autocracy and clerical privileges, a constitution and representative government through parliament. Nineteenth-century liberals also stressed the inviolability of private property. Yet, equality before the law did not necessarily stand for universal suffrage.
Men without property and all women were excluded from political rights. Only for a brief period under the Jacobins did all adult males enjoy suffrage. However, the Napoleonic Code went back to limited suffrage and reduced women to the status of a minor, subject to the authority of fathers and husbands. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries women and non-propertied men organised opposition movements demanding equal political rights.