What exactly is nationalism?

It feels like we’ve always had countries. But in fact, nations are only a little more than 200 years old. Many kinds of government existed before the first nation was formed. There were countless kingdoms and empires before there were any countries. Nations are actually quite young!

We often think our nation is an important part of who we are. We say we are “American,” “Indian,” “Italian,” “Chinese,” and so on. But what does that really mean? How are we part of our nation? Indeed, what is a nation? Simply put, a nation is a group of people speaking the same language and sharing the same culture and history.

Nations and nationalism are linked together. What is nationalism? It actually means several things. First, it is the idea that every person should be loyal to their nation. Every person is a part of the nation. That idea creates a bond that holds people together within a nation.

Nationalism is also the idea that each nation has a right to self-determination. In other words, it should be able to decide its own future. It should be able to govern itself.

Finally, nationalism can have a bad side. It can be the belief that one’s own nation is better than other nations. This can lead to discrimination and even war.

Nationalism binds people together. It is a form of community. In some ways, nations are imagined communities. It is not enough to just have a common government. To create and build the community of a nation, we also must have shared cultural symbols like flags and national anthems. We must believe in these symbols and have a shared idea of our national history.

Origins

Before the late 1700s, nationalism did not exist. People thought of themselves as being from a village or town, not a nation. How did nationalism develop? To find the answer we need to look at some of the revolutions of the late 1700s and early 1800s, especially in Europe. We need to look at what people were fighting for, and against.

The French Revolution began in 1789. The period that followed had great importance for the spread of nationalism. After French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power in 1799, he set out to conquer many of the peoples of Europe. Napoleon swept through the continent. He brought the central government of France into all the countries he conquered. Traditional local powers were pushed aside.

France’s great military victories gave the French people a shared sense of unity against their many enemies. They began to define themselves as French—not English, German, Italian, and so on. As a result, nationalism was at first strongest in France. But here’s the funny thing: As Napoleon’s armies took over many other European countries, those other countries changed. They all began to develop a belief in the importance of national self-determination. Uniting against their French rulers created a sense of common purpose. In other words, it created a sense of nationalism.

There were other reasons nationalism took hold. One was the growth in literacy. With more people able to read and write, many ideas and beliefs were more widely shared. And as cities grew larger, people lived closer together and shared many ideas. This helped bind people together. 

Other reasons…

Some historians have argued that nationalism became important because other ties became less important. That brings us to religion. For hundreds of years, people defined themselves by their faith. In Europe, they were usually Catholic or Protestant. But the Enlightenment weakened the hold of religion over many parts of the population. It did so in two ways. Enlightenment thinkers focused on reason. They also pointed out the failings of the church. Many people soon lost trust in the church’s leaders.

Europe’s kings and queens also began to lose popular support. Both the Enlightenment and the French Revolution were attacks on the right of kings and queens to rule. Over time, they affected how people thought. Many people stopped feeling any loyalty to their traditional royal rulers. They began to think new forms of government might be possible. This also happened in the American colonies where people began feeling closer ties to the colonized land than to the European powers that controlled them. This loyalty would lead to national movements and revolutions.

Obstacles

In the eighteenth century, France already had a central government. It also had a system of local government that helped bring the center and outer areas together. This form of government helped to build ideas of “the Nation.” But that wasn’t the case in many other countries. Sure, the people of Germany and Italy each shared a common language. But neither place had a central government. They were both split up into a whole bunch of little states. Each state had its own ruler. The people of these states didn’t think of themselves as German or Italian citizens. It wasn’t until 1871 that these two regions each became unified into nations.

Conclusions and Future Differences

The rise and spread of nationalism gave people a new sense of unity within their own state. It also led to fighting among nation-states. By the end of the 1800s, several nation-states were locked in a struggle for colonies in Africa and Asia. In 1914, nationalism helped lead to an all-out war. Today, we know that bloody war between nations as World War I.