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Summary The modern nature of nationalism
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- Langara College ( )
History classnotes summary,HIST 2225-A Social History to the late 19th Century Lecture Topic -The modern nature of nationalism
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THE MODERN NATURE OF NATIONALISMNationalism is a modern movement. Throughout history, people have been linked
to their native land, to the traditions of their parents and to established local
authorities, but it was not until the end of the 18th century that nationalism began
to become a universally accepted feeling, shaping public and private life, one of
the great, if not the greatest determining factor in modern history. Because of its
dynamic vitality and pervasiveness, nationalism is often considered ancient; it is
sometimes mistakenly considered as a permanent factor in political behavior. In
fact, the American and French revolutions can be considered their first powerful
manifestations. After penetrating the new lands of Latin America, it spread to
Central Europe at the beginning of the 19th century and from there to Eastern and
Southeastern Europe around the middle of the century. At the beginning of the
20th century, nationalism flourished in Asia and Africa. Therefore, the 19th
century in Europe was called the era of nationalism, while the 20th century
witnessed the rise and struggle of powerful national movements in Asia and Africa.
Identification of state and people
Nationalism, translated into world politics, implies the identification of the state or
nation with the people - or at least the opportunity to determine the size of the state
according to ethnographic principles. In the era of nationalism, but only in the era
,of nationalism, it was generally recognized that each nationality must constitute a
state - its state - and that the state must include all members of that nationality.
Previously, states or territories under a government were not delimited by
nationality. People lent their allegiance not to the nation-state, but to other different
forms of political organization: the city-state, the feudal fiefdom and its lord, the
dynastic state, the religious group or the sect. The nation-state has not existed for
much of history and has not even been considered ideal for a long time. In the first
15 centuries of the Common Era, the ideal was the universal world state, not
loyalty to a separate political entity. The Roman Empire had set the great example,
surviving not only in the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages, but also in the
concept of res publica christiana ("Christian Republic" or community) and its
subsequent secularized form of a united world.
Civilization.
Just as political allegiance, prior to the era of nationalism, was not determined by
nationality, so civilization was not seen as nationally determined. During the
Middle Ages, civilization was considered religiously determined; for all the
different nationalities of Christianity, as well as of Islam, there was only one
civilization - Christian or Muslim - and only one cultural language - Latin (or
Greek) or Arabic (or Persian). Subsequently, in the period of the Renaissance and
Classicism, it was the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations that became a
, universal norm, valid for all peoples and for all times. Later still, the French
civilization was accepted throughout Europe as a valid civilization for educated
people of all nationalities. It wasn't until the late 18th century that civilization was
first seen as defined by nationality. Hence the principle has been advanced that
people can only be educated in their mother tongue, not in languages of other
civilizations and other times, be they classical languages or literary creations of
other peoples who have a high degree of civilization. cultural nationalism
From the end of the 18th century, the nationalization of education and public life
went hand in hand with the nationalization of states and political allegiances. Poets
and scholars first began to emphasize cultural nationalism. They reform the mother
tongue, raise it to the rank of literary language and draw deeply on the national
past. In doing so, they laid the groundwork for the political demands for a nation
state that were soon to be raised by the people whose minds they had kindled. Prior
to the 18th century, there were signs of nationalism among certain groups at times,
especially times of tension and conflict. The rise from national sentiment to great
political importance was encouraged by a number of complex developments: the
establishment of large centralized states ruled by absolute monarchs that destroyed
old feudal loyalties; the secularization of life and education, which promoted the
vulgar and weakened the bonds between church and sect; the growth of trade,
which required larger territorial units to accommodate the dynamic spirit of the
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