The rise of nationalism in Europe was spurred by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.[1][2] American political science professor Leon Baradat has argued that “nationalism calls on people to identify with the interests of their national group and to support the creation of a state – a nation-state – to support those interests.” Nationalism was the ideological impetus that, in a few decades, transformed Europe. Rule by monarchies and foreign control of territory was replaced by self-determination and newly formed national governments.[3] Some countries, such as Germany and Italy were formed by uniting various regional states with a common "national identity". Others, such as Greece, Serbia, Poland and Bulgaria, were formed by uprisings against the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire.[4] Romania is a special case, formed by the unification of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia on 1859 and later gaining independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1878.