How did female figures become an allegory of the nation during the nineteenth century in Europe?

Female figures become an allegory of the

nation during the nineteenth century in

Europe in the following ways:

(1) Artists, in the eighteenth and nineteenth

centuries, often made efforts to represent

a country as if it were a person. Female

figures were chosen to express an

abstract idea of a nation. These female

figures, thus, became an allegory of the

nation.

(2) In France, the female figure was christened

Marianne, which was characterised by

liberty and the republic through the red

cap, the tricolour and the cockade. Statues

of Marianne stood in public squares to

remind people of the national symbol of

unity.

(3) In Germany, the female figure -

Germania - became the allegory of the

German nation. In visual representations,

Germania wore the crown of oak leaves,

as the German oak stood for heroism.