What is Nationalism? Europe 1815

What is Nationalism? Europe 1914

What is Nationalism? Europe 1919

What is Nationalism? What is a nation? A nation is a grouping of people who share common stories about their past but also their culture, language and ethnic origin. They are a people often possessing or seeking its own government. It is usually but not always associated with an attachment to a particular geographical area and natural landscape. The development of a nation is closely related to the development of modern industrial states and nationalist movements in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

What is Nationalism? What is a nation? The first requirement for the definition is that the characteristics should be shared—a group of people with nothing in common cannot be a nation. Because they are shared, the national population also has a degree of uniformity and homogeneity. And finally, at least some of the characteristics must be exclusive—to distinguish the nation from neighbouring nations.

What is Nationalism? What is a nation? A nation is constructed around common stories about its past i.e. chronologically recorded events in the past their ancestors have lived through. The fact that the ancestry is shared among the members of the nation unites them, and sets them apart from other nations, which do not share that ancestry. A nation tells stories about its past which are partial and exclusive and expects its youth to learn them and remember them.

What is Nationalism? What is a nation? Many nations are constructed around the idea of a shared culture, the national culture. The national culture can be assumed to be shared with previous generations, even if previous generations were unaware of their common national identity. A national culture can include literature, art, architecture and religion.

What is Nationalism? What is a nation? A language is the primary ingredient in the making of a nation. Without a common language a nation cannot evolve. It is not necessary for a nation to have a unique language but common culture and history is dependent on shared language. Language is inherently exclusive in so far as it excludes those who cannot speak it.

What is Nationalism? What is a nation? The most contentious aspect of nationhood is ethnic origin. People living in particular place over many generations may share certain physical characteristics which distinguishes them from their neighbours. For example, this might include hair colour, height or skin tone.

What is Nationalism? What is a nation? Benedict Anderson argued that nations are "imagined communities" because "the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion“. He traced their origins back to the development of national media and national capitalism.

What is Nationalism? What is a nation? Eric Hobsbawm argued that nations depend on “invented traditions" because nationalists consciously preserve and celebrate the nation by creating stories, rituals, ceremonies and monuments that have a national character. The nation is created and then sustained through repetitive reinforcement though the media, education, the built environment and symbolism.

What is Nationalism? What is a nation? A successful nation is a nation in which individuals do not doubt, question or think about their nationality. The nation is natural and inevitable. It just is. ‘A nation is a society that nourishes a common delusion about its ancestry and shares a common hatred for its neighbours.’ William Ralph Inge