ABSTRACT
The European revolutions of 1848 opened the lid on national strife and made pan-nationalism the order of the day. This chapter argues that a changing and an increasingly unstable political climate after 1848 offered at least two windows of opportunity for Scandinavian unification. The First Schleswig War of 1848−51 very nearly turned into a war of Scandinavian unification, contingent on Swedish-Norwegian intervention. War, upheaval and prospects for dynastic union in 1848−51 contributed to the transformation of Scandinavianism into a more overtly political and ideologically flexible movement reaching the highest political echelons. The Crimean War (1853−56) provided yet another opportunity for a war of Scandinavian unification, but attempts to conclude an alliance to pave the way for Scandinavian union were frustrated. The failure of several such efforts between 1848 and 1858 was not merely accidental, but the integration of Scandinavianism into the high politics of the time helped create circumstances where individual decisions and actions mattered, and crossroads where Scandinavian unification was a viable outcome. As such, Scandinavian unification must be taken seriously as a future past and understood in pan-national terms not only on grounds of the cultural anatomy of Scandinavianist ideology but also on grounds of its practical political application.
