Question

what were the major empires in europe prior to world war 1 and why did nationalism threaten the stability of europe

Answer 1

1. The major empires in Europe before the World War I are the following:
Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Austria-Hungaria, and Russia.  These countries aimed to colonize a big portion of the world. They conquer cities and countries and put them under their power.

2. Nationalism had threatened the stability in Europe because it gave the citizens a sense of belongingness to their country. Nationalism had led people to rebel against their colonizers and stage wars to acquire independence from these imperial states.

Answer 2

The major Empires in Europe were:

The Russian Empire, which was controlled by Emperor Nicholas II. This country had no colonies or territories but was huge and extended from the Baltic and Black Sea all the way to the Pacific Sea. It was a very poor nation.

The British Empire, which was controlled by King George V. This Empire extended over the world, and governed territories such as Canada, New Zealand and Australia. It also governed the Island of Ireland and a huge African territory, including the states of Sudan and Egypt.

The German Empire, which was the newborn empire in Europe, and was established in 1871 when Prussia won the war against France, in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), and announced the German Empire with a Kaiser as its monarch, fusing all German states.

France was also a empire between 1852 and 1870, but afterwards it became a republic controlled by a President; it governed an immense colonial empire extending over most of North Africa, it had a colony in South America, and some island colonies in southeast Asia.

The unification between Austria nd Hungary led into the Austria- Hungary Empire. This empire had a lot of ethnic groups who wanted more self- government or independence. Emperor Franz Joseph II, which rule this empire, was uncertain on giving them the independence they were claiming as it may have cost him the unity of his country.

There were some other Colonial Empires in Europe, but they did not have  significant power and did not controlled as much land or colonies; some of these Colonial Empires were the Belgian, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Danish, and Portuguese.

Nationalism threatened the stability of Europe because the rising nationalism in Europe was a vital, unrevealed cause of World War I. European countries at the end of the 19th century, frequently incorporated diverse nations in many countries; with this, one powerful national group controlled the smaller minority nations. For example Russia included many different minority nations such as Lithuanians, Estonians, Ukrainians, among others. Nationalism grew as a result of the current knowledge about equality, democracy ad freedom.

People began to relate with their nation, rather than their country, or their king. The concept was born to recognize that each nationality should form its own state, and that a nation may be described as a community that shares common traditions, common culture and a common native land. European nationalism was born out of the wish of some communities to declare their independence from Europe's imperial states.