Final answer:
The Napoleonic Wars spread French Revolutionary ideals like legal equality and a secular government, undermining traditional nobility. These ideals, enforced through French occupation, stimulated nationalist sentiments among Italians, Germans, and Spaniards, who turned to nationalism as a form of resistance and identity. Napoleon's actions, despite initial reforms, also prompted a rise in national consciousness within occupied territories.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Napoleonic Wars introduced a number of radical French Revolutionary ideals to territories across Europe. Prominent among these were the concepts of legal equality, secular government, and the undermining of the traditional nobility. The Napoleonic code, which was based on the principle of rational legal norms rather than on traditional privilege, replaced older laws that favored the nobility and clergy.
The occupation by French troops stirred nationalist feelings in invaded regions as they turned the French principle of self-determination into a right to defend their own national identities. This reaction was pronounced in countries like Italy, Germany, and Spain where a renewed sense of nationalism emerged as a result of the French occupation. The struggles against French domination also led to what became a hallmark of nationalism: the formation of a community united by common goals and values, a shared sense of belonging, and a political allegiance to the nation instead of to dynasties or city-states.
Although Napoleon Bonaparte implemented reforms which were at first welcomed, his empire's clear French-centric character and his efforts to extract resources from occupied territories increasingly exposed its hypocritical nature. This contributed to a growing sense of national identity among his subjects, as they began to think of themselves in national terms, such as Germans, Italians, and Spaniards, instead of simply as subjects to a ruler.