Question: what was the most important effect of european nationalism in the 1800s

title: Rise of nationalism in Europe
text: The invention of a symbolic national identity became the concern of racial , ethnic or linguistic groups throughout Europe as they struggled to come to terms with the rise of mass politics , the decline of the traditional social elites , popular discrimination and xenophobia . Within the Habsburg empire the different peoples developed a more mass - based , violent and exclusive form of nationalism . This developed even among the Germans and Magyars , who actually benefited from the power - structure of the empire . On the European periphery , especially in Ireland and Norway , campaigns for national independence became more strident . In 1905 , Norway won independence from Sweden , but attempts to grant Ireland the kind of autonomy enjoyed by Hungary foundered on the national divisions on the island between the Catholic and Protestant populations . The Polish attempts to win independence from Russia had previously proved to be unsuccessful , with Poland being the only country in Europe whose autonomy was gradually limited rather than expanded throughout the 19th century , as a punishment for the failed uprisings ; in 1831 Poland lost its status as a formally independent state and was merged into Russia as a real union country and in 1867 she became nothing more than just another Russian province . Faced with internal and external resistance to assimilation , as well as increased xenophobic anti-Semitism , radical demands began to develop among the stateless Jewish population of eastern and central Europe for their own national home and refuge . In 1897 , inspired by the Hungarian - born Jewish nationalist Theodor Herzl , the First Zionist Congress was held in Basle , and declared their national ' home ' should be in Palestine . By the end of the period , the ideals of European nationalism had been exported worldwide and were now beginning to develop , and both compete and threaten the empires ruled by colonial European nation - states .