Nationalism created a lack of trust and often obstructed negotiations in Europe.
Nationalism became a dynamic factor of nineteenth-century political life, adding to liberalism. Its defenders proclaimed the right to establish states that identify with nationalities, that is, with those collectivities that had in common elements such as language, religion, customs, feelings and interests.
Nationalism had already taken shape during the Napoleonic domination and was strengthened after the Congress of Vienna, given the way in which the great powers had remade the European map.
Faced with the problem of nationalities, different situations appeared: fragmented nationalities in multiple states, such as Germany and Italy; multinational states, such as the Austrian Empire (which included Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Slovenes, Croats, Hungarians and Italians) and the Turkish Empire (formed by the Bulgarians, Serbs, Albanians and Romanians); and finally, subject nationalities, such as the cases of Ireland in the United Kingdom, of the Germans of Schleswig-Holstein in Denmark, of the Norwegians in Sweden, of the Finns and part of the Poles in Russia and of another part of Poland in Prussia.
These situations used to generate tensions between the different countries, since the nationalisms of the respective countries used to come into conflict. In this way, a large number of wars were originated in Europe, such as the Napoleonic Wars, the Franco Prussian War, the Balkan Wars, and even the World Wars.