Origins of Nationalism
Driving Question: How did notions of sovereignty lead to nationalism around the world?
Nationalism emerged alongside the revolutions of the late eighteenth century. People everywhere began demanding a nation of their own and imagining what it should look like. Who was included in these new nations differed from place to place.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the origin and effects of nationalism on human communities and political revolutions.
- Analyze how nationalism affected different societies and ethnic groups during this era.
- Assess the connections between political revolutions and nationalist wars of unification.
Vocab Terms:
Zoom in to a personal scale in this activity as you think about identity. This will set the stage for this unit, in which we’ll examine developments in identity that led to nationalism.
Check the Lesson Guide for sample answers (just in case you’re like us and sometimes mix up Taylor Swift and Patrick Henry).
Today, we live in a world of nation-states. Ideas of nationalism underpin our personal and community identities. The materials in this lesson will help you understand what nationalism is and how it emerged.
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Guiding Questions
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Guiding Questions
Students create questions: After reading a section of an article, students design a challenge question about the reading or how it relates to what they’re learning in class. Once students are done reading individually, they meet with a partner and ask each other the challenge questions. They’re not allowed to use the text to answer.
The revolutionary ideas of this period got their start around the Atlantic Ocean, but they didn’t stay there. Soon, a new sort of identity emerged in some of Europe’s old empires, one based on ethnic identification.
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Guiding Questions
You’ve considered how you think about your identity, and you’ve learned about the origins of nationalism. Now, think about where your loyalties lie.
The long nineteenth century was a revolutionary epoch. The collection below provides a global view of the enormous changes that were the result.
