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Nationalism is a greatly varied concept of human social and cultural identity that holds that nations (either ethnically or culturally defined) are the "fundamental units" for human social life, and as such take precedence over any concepts of universalism as well as any foreign concept of nationalism. Nationalism makes certain cultural and political claims based upon this belief; in particular, the claim that the nation is "the only legitimate basis for the state", and that "each nation is entitled to its own state." Nationalism also refers to the specific ideologies of various nationalist movements, which make cultural and political claims on behalf of specific nations.

Principles of Nationalism

Nationalists define individual nations on the basis of certain criteria, which distinguish one nation from another; and determine "who is a member of each nation". These criteria might include a shared language, culture, and/or shared values which are predominantly represented within a specific ethnic group. National identity refers both to these defining criteria, and to the shared heritage of each group. Membership in a nation is usually involuntary and determined by birth.

Nationalism sees most human activity as national in character. Nations have national symbols, a national culture, a national music and national literature; national folklore, a national mythology and - in some cases - even a national religion. Individuals share national values and a national identity, admire the national hero, eat the national dish and play the national sport.

Since the nation-state has become the dominant form of state organization, nationalism has had an enormous influence upon world history. Most of the world's population now lives in states which are, at least nominally, nation-states. The nation-state is intended to guarantee the existence of a nation, to preserve its distinct identity, and to provide a territory where the national culture and ethos are dominant. Most nation-states appeal to a cultural, and historical mythos to justify their existence, and to give them "legitimacy".

Nationalisms are never uniform or monolithic. Even within nations, the exact narratives on identity are contested and diverse. Often these contestations reflect differences in region, class, gender, dialects, and even disporics groupings.

Nationalists recognise that 'non-national' states exist and existed; indeed, the struggles of early nationalist movements were often directed against such states, including empires such as Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. Other, modern states such as Brazil and Switzerland share a mix of many different nationalities, while states like the Vatican serve as the official representative of the Catholic Church.

Background and problems

The definition of nationalism is broad, and has been controversial throughout history. Specific examples of nationalism are extremely diverse. Extreme emotions are aroused when discussing nationalism, making it difficult to describe and define the term. A recurring problem is that people define nationalism on the basis of their local experience. To a Breton nationalist, the central issue is state nationalism versus cultural nationalism; elsewhere that distinction may be irrelevant. Often supporters of nationalism fear that the negative consequences of conflicting nationalisms, ethnic tension, war, and political conflicts within states are taken for nationalism itself, leading some to view the concept of nationalism negatively. They argue that viewing nationalism through its most negative consequences distorts the meaning of the term. The emphasis upon specific conflicts has certainly diverted attention from general issues; for instance, the characteristics of nation-states.

Nationalist movements may or may not claim that their nation is better than others. They may simply claim that the population of a given nation is better off when it is permitted to govern itself, which is the principle of self-determination. However, conflicts often result in ideological attacks upon the identity and legitimacy of the 'enemy'. In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, both sides have claimed that the other is not a real nation and therefore has no right to a state. "Jingoism" and "chauvinism" make exaggerated claims about the superiority of one nation over another. National stereotypes are also common, and are usually insulting. These are nationalist phenomena, and are worthy of attention, but they are not a sufficient basis for a general theory of nationalism.

Issues in nationalism theory

The first studies of nationalism were generally historical accounts of nationalist movements. At the end of the 19th century, Marxists and other socialists produced political analyses that were critical of the nationalist movements then active in central and eastern Europe. Most sociological theories of nationalism date from after the Second World War.

Some nationalism theory is about issues which concern nationalists themselves, such as who belongs to the nation and who does not, as well as the precise meaning of 'belonging'. Recent general theory has looked at underlying issues, and above all the question of which came first, nations or nationalism. Nationalist activists see themselves as representing a pre-existing nation, and the primordialist theory of nationalism agrees. It sees nations, or at least ethnic groups, as a social reality dating back twenty thousand years.

The modernist theories imply that until around 1800, no-one had more than local loyalties. National identity and unity were imposed from above, by European states, because they were necessary to modernise economy and society. In this theory, nationalist conflicts are an unintended side-effect.

More recent theorists of nationalism emphasise that nations are a socially constructed phenomenon. Benedict Anderson, for example, described nations as "imagined communities". Ernest Gellner comments: "Nationalism is not the awakening of nations to self-consciousness: it invents nations where they do not exist." (Anderson and Gellner deploy terms such as 'imagined' and 'invent' in a neutral, descriptive manner. The use of these terms in this context is not intended to imply that nations are fictional or fantastic.) Modernisation theorists see such things as the printing press and capitalism as necessary conditions for nationalism.

Anthony D. Smith proposes a synthesis of traditional and modernisation views. According to Smith, the preconditions for the formation of a nation are as follows:

A fixed homeland (current or historical)
High autonomy
Hostile surroundings
Memories of battles
Sacred centres
Languages and scripts
Special customs
Historical records and thinking

Smith considers that nations are formed through the inclusion of the whole populace (not just elites), constitution of legal and political institutions, nationalist ideology, international recognition and drawing up of borders.

Historical evolution of nationalism

Prior to 1900

Most theories of nationalism assume a European origin of the nation-state. The modern state is often seen as emerging with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, though this view is disputed. This treaty created the Westphalian system of states, which recognised each other's sovereignty and territory. Some of the signatories, such as the Dutch Republic, could easily, and usually is seen as a nation-state. However in 1648 most states in Europe were still non-national. Many others see Napoleon Bonaparte as having jump-started nationalism, causing the movement to rise to unprecedented levels.

Many, but not all, see the major transition to nation-states as originating in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Beginning with romantic nationalism, nationalist movements arose throughout Europe. Some of them were separatist, directed against large empires; others sought to unify a divided or fragmented territory, most notably in Germany and Italy. These movements promoted a national identity and culture, and they were often successful. By the end of the 19th century most people accepted that Europe was divided into nations, and personally identified with one of these nations. The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire after the First World War accelerated the formation of nation-states.

According to the standard view, before the 19th century people had local, regional, or religious loyalties, but no idea of nationhood. The typical state in Europe was a dynastic state, ruled by a royal house: if there were any loyalties above regional level, they were owed to the king and the ruling house. Dynastic states could acquire territory by royal marriage, and lose it by division of inheritance - which is now seen as absurd. Going further back, the ancient Greeks called everyone who was not Greek a barbarian, but the Greek city states often fought amongst themselves for dominance. Nationalism introduced the idea that each nation has a specific territory, and that beyond this point the claims of other nations apply. Nation-states, in principle, do not seek to conquer territory. However, nationalist movements rarely agreed on where the border should be. As the nationalist movements grew, they introduced new territorial disputes in Europe.

Nationalism also determined the political life of 19th century Europe. Where the nation was part of an empire, the national liberation struggle was also a struggle against older autocratic regimes, and nationalism was allied with liberal anti-monarchical movements -- as in Ireland. Where the nation-state was a consolidation of an older monarchy, as in Spain, nationalism was itself conservative and monarchical. Most nationalist movements began in opposition to the existing order, but by the 20th century, there were regimes which primarily identified themselves as nationalist.

The standard theory of the 19th-century origin of nation-states is disputed. One problem with it is that the South American independence struggles and the American Revolution (American War of Independence) predate most European nationalist movements. Some countries, such as the Netherlands and England, seem to have had a clear national identity well before the 19th century. Italian unification, however, is a good example of a 19th-century nationalist movement based upon ethnicity and/or language.

20th Century nationalism

By the end of the 19th century, nationalist ideas had begun to spread to Asia. In India, nationalism began to encourage calls for the end of British rule. The 20th century nationalist movement in India is generally associated with Mahatma Gandhi, although many other leaders were involved as well. In China, nationalism created a justification for the Chinese state that was at odds with the earlier idea of the universal empire. In Japan, nationalism combined with Japanese "exceptionalism" to form Japanese imperialism, as extreme nationalism often leads to imperialism.

World War I led to new nation-states in Europe being encouraged by the United States, who were opposed to the old Imperial Empires, and by France, who wished to isolate Germany and Austria by a series of client states. The result of this pressure was that several multi-nation empires (Ottoman Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire) disintegrated. The Russian Empire collapsed on its own as a result of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Versailles Treaty, based upon US President Wilson's Fourteen Points, was an attempt to recognize the principle of nationalism, as most of Europe was divided into nation-states in what was euphemistically called an "attempt to keep the peace". However, multi-nation and multi-ethnic states survived; and two new ones emerged, Czechoslovakia (where Czechs took control even though they only made up 43% of the population), and Yugoslavia, (which became dominated by the Serbs). In the interwar period, the extreme nationalist movements of fascism and Nazism came to power in Italy and Germany respectively, and similar groups took over several other European countries during the late 1930s. This new wave of nationalism had powerful racist undertones, and it culminated in World War II and the Holocaust.

The horrors of World War II dealt a heavy and permanent blow to European nationalism. Nationalist ideas were associated with the War in the popular imagination, which led to them being rejected en masse by vast sections of the population. At the same time, the War initiated a new wave of nation-state formation elsewhere in the world, through the independence of African and Asian nations from European colonial empires, which declined after the War. The most dramatic decolonisation was in Africa, which was transformed from a collection of European colonies into a continent of nation-states. Few of them corresponded to the European ideal of "a single people, with one language" and a clear territory. Ironically, the one that best met those criteria, Somalia, disintegrated.

The collapse of the Soviet Union led to an unexpected revival of national movements in Europe around 1990. Its constituent states became independent, for the second time (in modern history) in the case of the Baltic states.

In the second half of the 20th century, some trends emerged which might indicate a weakening of the nation-state and nationalism. The European Union is widely seen transferring power from the national level to both sub-national and supra-national levels. Critics of globalization often appeal to feelings of national identity, culture, and sovereignty. Free trade agreements, such as NAFTA and the GATT, and the increasing internationalisation of trade markets, are seen as damaging to the national economy, and have led to a revival of economic nationalism. Protest movements vehemently oppose these negative aspects of globalization, (see Anti-globalisation).

Not all anti-globalists are nationalists, but nationalism continues to assert itself in response to those trends. Nationalist parties continue to do well in elections, and most people continue to have a strong sense of attachment to their nationality. Moreover, globalism and European federalism are not always opposed to nationalism. For example, theorists of Chinese nationalism within the People's Republic of China have articulated the idea that China's national power is substantially enhanced, rather than being reduced, by engaging in international trade and multinational organizations. For a time sub-national groups such as Catalonian autonomists and Welsh nationalists supported a stronger European Union in the hope that a Europe of the regions would limit the power of the present nation-states. However, with Euroscepticism now widespread in the EU, this transformation is no longer on its political agenda.

Recently, we have seen the rise of Third World nationalisms, which are fundamentally at odds with the first world nationalisms seen in nations such as the United States, Britain, Germany, and other former colonial powers. First World nationalism, by its definition, assumes privilege and entitlement, and often is imperialist. Third world nationalisms, by contrast, occur in those nations that have been colonized and exploited. The nationalisms of these nations were forged in a furnace that required resistance to (neo)colonial domination in order to survive. When seen in this way, Third World Nationalism is not simply an "extension" or spreading of the form of nationalism experienced in First World nations. Instead, it is a conscious break from such nationalism since part and parcel of First World nationalism was a need to construct identities for many non-europeans that labeled them as backward, primitive, or inferior. Third World nationalism attempts to ensure that the identities of Third World peoples are authored primarily by themselves, not colonial powers.

Language and Nationalism

A common language has been a defining characteristic of the nation, and an ideal for nationalists. For example, in France before the French Revolution, regional languages such as Breton and Occitan were spoken, which were mutually incomprehensible. Standard French was also spoken in large parts of the country and had always been the language of administration, but after the Revolution it was imposed as the national language in non-French-speaking regions. For instance, in Brittany, Celtic names were forbidden. The formation of nation-states, and their consolidation after independence, is generally accompanied by policies to restrict, replace, or abandon minority languages. This accelerates the tendency noted in sociolinguistic research that high-status languages displace low-status languages. See also: Language policy in France.

Some theorists believe that nationalism became pronounced in the 19th century simply because language became a more important unifier due to increased literacy. With more people reading newspapers, books, pamphlets and so on, which were increasingly widely available to read since the spread of the printing press, it became possible for the first time to develop a broader cultural attachment beyond the local community. At the same time, differences in language solidified, breaking down old dialects, and excluding those from completely different language groups.

Nationalist movements from Ireland to India promote the teaching, revival preservation, and use of traditional languages, such as Celtic languages, Hebrew, and Hindi. (See also: Language revival.)

The United States, a country which historically welcomed immigrants of varying nationality, has what can be seen as a pattern of discrimination against languages other than English. Prominent examples are the German language, which was nearly eradicated during World War I, and French and Italian, which have nearly disappeared from everyday life. Today Spanish is a second language across large portion of the country. Some politicians, such as Pat Buchanan have consciously opposed the rise of Spanish as a second American language, for fear that it would undermine unity in the American national character.

In the Arab World during the colonial period, the Turkish language, French language, Spanish language and English language were often imposed, although the intensity of imposition varied widely. When the colonial period ended (mostly after World War Two), a process of "Arabisation" began; reviving Arabic to unify their states and to facilitate a broader Arab identity, motivated by Pan-Arabism. Countries such as Algeria and Western Sahara underwent large scale Arabisations, changing from French and Spanish to Arabic respectively.

However within the Arab World, some nationalistic attempts were made to emancipate a domestic vernacular and treat classical Arabic as a formal foreign language, which was often incomprehensible to the non-literate population of nominally Arab countries, which were politically - but not necessarily linguistically, culturally or ethnically, Arabized. These policies were first promoted in Egypt in the early 20th century by the Egyptian scholar and nationalist Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid, who called for the formalization of the Egyptian Vernacular as the native language of the Egyptian people. More recently Bayoumi Andil, an Egyptian writer, researched what he defines as the "Modern Egyptian Language", which led him to declare it "irrelevant" to Arabic. He claims that it was the fourth phase of the ancient Egyptian language descended from Coptic, with which it is intimately related, syntactically, morphologically, and phonologically.

Similar attempts to emphasise minority languages completely independent of Arabic were made by the Nubians, speakers of Nobiinm who are split between Egypt and Sudan, and relatively more successfully by the Imazighen (commonly known as Berber) in Morocco.

Prominent figures

Types of nationalism

Nationalism may manifest itself as part of official state ideology or as a popular (non-state) movement and may be expressed along civic, ethnic, cultural, religious or ideological lines. These self-definitions of the nation are used to classify types of nationalism. However such categories are not mutually exclusive and many nationalist movements combine some or all of these elements to varying degrees. Nationalist movements can also be classified by other criteria, such as scale and location.

Some political theorists make the case that any distinction between forms of nationalism is false. In all forms of nationalism, the populations believe that they share some kind of common culture, and culture can never be wholly separated from ethnicity. The United States, for example, has "God" on its coinage and in its Pledge of Allegiance, and designates official holidays which are seen by some to promote cultural biases. The United States has an ethnic theory of being American (nativism), and had a committee to investigate Un-American Activities.

Civic nationalism (also civil nationalism) is the form of nationalism in which the state derives political legitimacy from the active participation of its citizenry, from the degree to which it represents the "will of the people". It is often seen as originating with Jean-Jacques Rousseau and especially the social contract theories which take their name from his 1762 book The Social Contract. Civic nationalism lies within the traditions of rationalism and liberalism, but as a form of nationalism it is contrasted with ethnic nationalism. Membership of the civic nation is considered voluntary. Civic-national ideals influenced the development of representative democracy in countries such as the United States and France.

Ethnic nationalism defines the nation in terms of ethnicity, which always includes some element of descent from previous generations. It also includes ideas of a culture shared between members of the group and with their ancestors, and usually a shared language. Membership in the nation is hereditary. The state derives political legitimacy from its status as homeland of the ethnic group, and from its function to protect the national group and facilitate its cultural and social life, as a group. Ideas of ethnicity are very old, but modern ethnic nationalism was heavily influenced by Johann Gottfried von Herder, who promoted the concept of the Volk, and Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Ethnic nationalism is now the dominant form, and is often simply referred to as "nationalism". Note that the theorist Anthony Smith uses the term 'ethnic nationalism' for non-Western concepts of nationalism, as opposed to Western views of a nation defined by its geographical territory.

Romantic nationalism (also organic nationalism, identity nationalism) is the form of ethnic nationalism in which the state derives political legitimacy as a natural ("organic") consequence and expression of the nation, or race. It reflected the ideals of Romanticism and was opposed to Enlightenment rationalism. Romantic nationalism emphasised a historical ethnic culture which meets the Romantic Ideal; folklore developed as a Romantic nationalist concept. The Brothers Grimm were inspired by Herder's writings to create an idealised collection of tales which they labeled as ethnically German. Historian Jules Michelet exemplifies French romantic-nationalist history.

Cultural nationalism defines the nation by shared culture. Membership in the nation is neither entirely voluntary (you cannot instantly acquire a culture), nor hereditary (children of members may be considered foreigners if they grew up in another culture). Chinese nationalism is one example of cultural nationalism, partly because of the many national minorities in China. (The 'Chinese nationalists' include those on Taiwan who reject the mainland Chinese government but claim the mainland Chinese state).

Liberal nationalism is a kind of nationalism defended recently by political philosophers who believe that there can be a non-xenophobic form of nationalism compatible with liberal values of freedom, tolerance, equality, and individual rights (Tamir 1993; Kymlicka 1995; Miller 1995). Ernest Renan (1882) and John Stuart Mill (1861) are often thought to be early liberal nationalists. Liberal nationalists often defend the value of national identity by saying that individuals need a national identity in order to lead meaningful, autonomous lives (Kymlicka 1995; for criticism see Patten 1999) and that liberal democratic polities need national identity in order to function properly (Miller 1995; for criticism see Abizadeh 2002, 2004).

State nationalism is a variant on civic nationalism, very often combined with ethnic nationalism. It implies that the nation is a community of those who contribute to the maintenance and strength of the state, and that the individual exists to contribute to this goal. Italian fascism is the best example, epitomised in this slogan of Mussolini: "Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato." ("Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State"). It is no surprise that this conflicts with liberal ideals of individual liberty, and with liberal-democratic principles. The Jacobin creation of a unitary and centralist French state is often seen as the original version of state nationalism. Franquist Spain, and contemporary Turkish nationalism are later examples of state nationalism.

However, the term "state nationalism" is often used in conflicts between nationalisms, and especially where a secessionist movement confronts an established nation state. The secessionists speak of state nationalism to discredit the legitimacy of the larger state, since state nationalism is perceived as less authentic and less democratic. Flemish separatists speak of Belgian nationalism as a state nationalism. Basque separatists and Corsican separatists refer to Spain and France, respectively, in this way. There are no undisputed external criteria to assess which side is right, and the result is usually that the population is divided by conflicting appeals to its loyalty and patriotism.

Religious nationalism defines the nation in terms of shared religion. If the state derives political legitimacy from adherence to religious doctrines, then it is may be more of a theocracy than a nation-state. In practice, many ethnic and cultural nationalisms are in some ways religious in character. The religion is a marker of group identity, rather than the motivation for nationalist claims. Irish nationalism is associated with Catholicism, and most Irish nationalist leaders of the last 100 years were Catholic, but many of the early (18th century) nationalists were Protestant. Irish nationalism never centred on theological distinctions like transubstantiation, the status of the Virgin Mary, or the primacy of the Pope, but for some Protestants in Northern Ireland, these pre-Reformation doctrines are indeed part of Irish culture. Similarly, although Religious Zionism exists, the mainstream of Zionism is more secular in nature, and based on culture and ethnicity. Since the partition of British India, Indian nationalism is associated with Hinduism. In modern India, a contemporary form of Hindu nationalism, or Hindutva has been prominent among many followers of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Diaspora nationalism (or, as Benedict Anderson terms it, "long-distance nationalism") generally refers to nationalist feeling among a diaspora such as the Irish in the United States, or the Lebanese in the Americas and Africa and the Armenians in the world.[1]. Anderson states that this sort of nationalism acts as a "phantom bedrock" for people who want to experience a national connection, but who do not actually want to leave their diaspora community.

Nationalism within a nation

With the establishment of a nation-state, the primary goal of any nationalist movement has been achieved. However, nationalism does not disappear but remains a political force within the nation, and inspires political parties and movements. The terms nationalist and 'nationalist politician’ are often used to describe these movements; nationalistic would be more accurate. Nationalists in this sense typically campaign for:

strengthening national unity, including campaigns for national salvation in times of crisis.
emphasising the national identity and rejecting foreign influences, influenced by cultural conservatism and in extreme cases, xenophobia.
limiting non-national populations on the national territory, especially by limiting immigration and, in extreme cases, by ethnic cleansing.
annexing territory which is considered part of the national homeland. This is called irredentism, from the Italian movement Italia irredenta.
economic nationalism, which is the promotion of the national interest in economic policy, especially through protectionism and in opposition to free trade policies.

Nationalist parties and nationalist politicians, in this sense, usually place great emphasis on national symbols, such as the national flag.

The term 'nationalism' is also used by extension, or as a metaphor, to describe movements which promote a group identity of some kind. This use is especially common in the United States, and includes black nationalism and white nationalism in a cultural sense. They may overlap with nationalism in the classic sense, including black secessionist movements and pan-Africanism.

Nationalists obviously have a positive attitude toward their own nation, although this is not a definition of nationalism. The emotional appeal of nationalism is visible even in established and stable nation-states. The social psychology of nations includes national identity (the individual’s sense of belonging to a group), and national pride (self-association with the success of the group). National pride is related to the cultural influence of the nation, and its economic and political strength - although they may be exaggerated. However the most important factor is that the emotions are shared: nationalism in sport includes the shared disappointment if the national team loses.

The emotions can be purely negative: a shared sense of threat can unify the nation. However, dramatic events, such as defeat in war, can qualitatively affect national identity and attitudes to non-national groups. The defeat of Germany in World War I, and the perceived humiliation by the Treaty of Versailles, economic crisis and hyperinflation, created a climate for xenophobia, revanchism, and the rise of Nazism. The solid bourgeois patriotism of the pre-1914 years, with the Kaiser as national father-figure, was no longer relevant.

Nationalism and extremism

File:Bookcover The ABC of a Russian Nationalist.jpg

Bookcover of The ABC of a Russian Nationalist by A.P. Barkashov

Although nationalism influences many aspects of life in stable nation-states, its presence is often invisible, since the nation-state is taken for granted. Michael Billig speaks of banal nationalism, the everyday, less visible forms of nationalism, which shape the minds of a nation's inhabitants on a day-to-day basis. Attention concentrates on extreme aspects, and on nationalism in unstable regions. Nationalism may be used as a derogatory label for groups which may be no more nationalist than the rest of the population. In Western democracies, xenophobic and anti-immigrant groups often refer to themselves as nationalist, to avoid the even more pejorative term racist. These parties may have a large electorate, and be represented in parliament. Smaller but highly visible groups, such as nationalist skinheads, also self-identify in this way, although it may be a euphemism for neo-Nazis or white supremacists. Activists in other countries are often referred to as ultra-nationalists, with a clearly pejorative meaning. See also chauvinism and jingoism.

File:Kovnopogrom.jpg

Killing of 5,000 Jews in Kaunas by Lithuanian nationalists in June 1941. The SS urged anti-communist partisan leader Klimaitis to attack the Jews to show that "the liberated population had resorted to the most severe measures against the ... Jewish enemy."

Nationalism is a component of other political ideologies, and in its extreme form, fascism. However it is not accurate to simply describe fascism as a more extreme form of nationalism, although non-extreme nationalism can be seen as a lesser form of fascism. Fascism in the general sense, and the Italian original, were marked by a strong combination of ethnic nationalism and state nationalism. That was certainly evident in Nazism. However the geopolitical aspirations of Adolf Hitler are probably better described as imperialist, and Nazi Germany ultimately ruled over vast areas where there was no historic German presence. The Nazi state was so different from the typical European nation-state, that it was sui generis (requires a category of its own).

Racism

Nationalism does not necessarily imply a belief in the superiority of one nation over others, but in practice some (but not all) nationalists do think that way about their own nation. Occasionally they believe another nation can serve as an example for their own nation, see Anglophilia. There is a specific racial nationalism which can be considered an ethnic nationalism, but some form of racism can be found within almost all nationalist movements. It is usually directed at neighbouring nations and ethnic groups.

Racism was also a feature of colonialist ideologies, which were especially strong at the end of the 19th century. Strictly speaking, overseas colonies conflict with the principles of the nation-state, since they are not part of the historic homeland of the nation, and their inhabitants clearly do not belong to the same ethnic group, speak its language, or share its culture. In practice, nationalists sometimes combined a belief in self-determination in Europe, with colonisation in Africa or Asia.

Explicit biological race theory was influential from the end of the 19th century. Nationalist and fascist movements in the first half of the 20th century often appealed to these theories. The Nazi ideology was probably the most comprehensively racial ideology in history, and race influenced all aspects of policy in Nazi Germany. The defeat of Nazi Germany, and above all the Holocaust, discredited race theories and racial nationalism after 1945.

Nevertheless racism continues to be an influence on nationalism. Ethnic cleansing is often seen as both a nationalist and racist phenomenon. It is part of nationalist logic that the state is reserved for one nation, but not all nation-states expel their minorities. The best known recent examples of ethnic cleansing are those during the Yugoslav secession war in the 1990s. Other examples seen as related to racism include the removal of Germans from the Volga Republic during the 1950s, and the removal of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

Opposition and critique

Nationalism is an extremely assertive ideology, which makes far-reaching demands, including the disappearance of entire states. It is not surprising that it has attracted vehement opposition. Much of the early opposition to nationalism was related to its geopolitical ideal of a separate state for every nation. The classic nationalist movements of the 19th century rejected the very existence of the multi-ethnic empires in Europe. This resulted in severe repression by the (generally autocratic) governments of those empires. That tradition of secessionism, repression, and violence continues, although by now a large nation typically confronts a smaller nation. (Japan is currently the only state to describe itself as an empire). Even in that early stage, however, there was an ideological critique of nationalism. That has developed into several forms of anti-nationalism in the western world. The Islamic revival of the 20th century also produced an Islamic critique of the nation-state.

In the liberal political tradition there is widespread criticism of ‘nationalism’ as a dangerous force and a cause of conflict and war between nation-states. Liberals do not generally dispute the existence of the nation-states. The liberal critique also emphasises individual freedom as opposed to national identity, which is by definition collective (see collectivism).

The pacifist critique of nationalism also concentrates on the violence of nationalist movements, the associated militarism, and on conflicts between nations inspired by jingoism or chauvinism. National symbols and patriotic assertiveness are in some countries discredited by their historical link with past wars, especially in Germany.

The anti-racist critique of nationalism concentrates on the attitudes to other nations, and especially on the doctrine that the nation-state exists for one national group, to the exclusion of others. It emphasises the chauvinism and xenophobia of many nationalisms. Some authors — for example, Demetrius Klitou in his book The Friends and Foes of Human Rights — argue that nationalism is responsible for most human rights violations and, as a result, weakens the human rights movement. For Klitou, nationalism is a major foe of human rights, while its opposite, cosmopolitanism, is an important friend.

Political movements of the left have often been suspicious of nationalism, again without necessarily seeking the disappearance of the existing nation-states. Marxism has been ambiguous towards the nation-state, and in the late 19th century some Marxist theorists rejected it completely. For some Marxists the world revolution implied a global state (or global absence of state); for others it meant that each nation-state had its own revolution. A significant event in this context was the failure of the social-democratic and socialist movements in Europe to mobilise a cross-border workers' opposition to World War I. At present most, but certainly not all, left-wing groups accept the nation-state, and see it as the political arena for their activities.

In the Western world the most comprehensive current ideological alternative to nationalism is cosmopolitanism. Ethical cosmopolitanism rejects one of the basic ethical principles of nationalism: that humans owe more duties to a fellow member of the nation, than to a non-member. It rejects such important nationalist values as national identity and national loyalty. However there is also a political cosmopolitanism, which has a geopolitical programme to match that of nationalism: it seeks some form of world state, with a world government. Very few people openly and explicitly support the establishment of a global state, but political cosmopolitanism has influenced the development of international criminal law, and the erosion of the status of national sovereignty. In turn, nationalists are deeply suspicious of cosmopolitan attitudes, which they equate with treason and betrayal.

While internationalism in the cosmopolitanist context by definition implies cooperation among nations, and therefore the existence of nations, proletarian internationalism is different, in that it calls for the international working class to follow its bretheren in other countries irrespective of the activities or pressures of the national government of a particular sector of that class. Meanwhile, anarchism rejects nation-states on the basis of self-determination of the majority social class, and thus reject nationalism. Instead of nations, anarchists usually advocate the creation of cooperative societies based on free association and mutual aid without regard to ethnicity or race.

Islamism and Nationalism

One of the most far-reaching opposition theories to the nation-state comes from some radical Islamists, who reject the existence of any state on any basis other than the Islamic caliphate. For them, the unity of Islam means that there can be only one government on Earth, in the form usually titled caliphate (khilafa). It is not a state in the usual Western sense, but all existing states are incompatible with this ideal, including the Islamic nation-states with Islam as official religion. Only a minority of Islamists take this view, but insofar as Al-Qaeda has an ideology, it includes the goal of the caliphate.

As a universal religion, Islam is nominally opposed to any categorisation of people not based on one's beliefs. Islam promotes a strong feeling of community among all Muslims, who collectively constitute the Ummah. There is no doubt that many Muslims do strongly identify with the religious community, probably more so than Christians. Shared observances such as the holy month of Ramadan and the Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca), contribute to this identification. The word "Ummah" is often incorrectly translated into English as "Islamic nation" but it is not a nation in this sense. The Nation of Islam in the United States has been criticised by some Muslims, who find the comparison between Islam and an earthly nation offensive. 'Ummah' is not a synonym of 'caliphate', but the idea is associated with the historic caliphates.

The Baath Party and related groups have historically offered a secular Arab Nationalist opposition to Islamism in Arab countries.

Historical effect of nationalism

Historical events (not just wars) in which nationalism played an essential role included:

The French Revolution between 1789 and 1799.
The Greek Revolution between 1821-1829
The American war of Independence 1775-1783
The Rebellions of 1837 in Upper and Lower Canada.
The 1848 Revolutions in Europe.
The Italian unification under the rule of Piedmont-Sardinia.
The Grito de Lares in Puerto Rico
The rise of the British Empire after the unification of the British Isles
the flight of the Boers during the Great Trek away from British rule
The Arab-Israeli conflict, beginning in the early 20th century and ongoing
The Anglo-Irish War, leading to the renewed indepedence of Ireland as the Republic of Ireland, also the partition of Ireland into the sovereign Republic of Ireland and the British statelet of Northern Ireland.
The 1911 Revolution in China.
The Balkan Wars in 1912-1913.
The Arab Revolt of 1916-1918.
The Turkish War of Independence from 1919 to 1923
The Maltese revolt against the British in what was known as the Sette Giugno
The rise of Reza Shah in 1921.
The Indian independence movement of the 20th Century and the rise of Mahatma Gandhi.
The unification of Upper Canada and Lower Canada into the Confederation of Canada in 1867
The Ponce massacre in Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1937.
The establishment of the apartheid state in South Africa by the National Party of South Africa, the Afrikaner nationalists.
The unification of Syria and Egypt under the United Arab Republic and its demise.
The Indonesian Nationalism Movement 1905-1949.
The establishment of the People's Republic of China.
Nationalism and resistance in Algeria as a prelude to the Algerian War of Independence.
The decolonisation of Africa during the 1960s and 1970s.
The anti-colonial opposition to white rule in Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia during the 1960s and 1970s.
Black Nationalist opposition towards colonial and White Nationalist rule all across Africa. In the independent nations of Rhodesia and South Africa, the French colony of Algeria, the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola, the Belgian colonies of the Belgian Congo, Rwanda and Burundi; and South Africa, Rhodesia, Tanganyika, Zanzibar and Egypt during their time as British colonies.
The conflict between Canadian and Quebecois nationalism in Canada, and the violence of the FLQ.
The Fiji coups of 1987 and 2000.
The rise in white nationalism or anti-immigrant violence in western countries since the 1970s.
The break up of the Communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or the Soviet union into 15 independent nations: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgizstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.
The conflict between Palestinian militant groups, the Palestinian Authority and Israel; as well as the Arab-Israeli Conflict.
More than 60 years of violence and strife in Northern Ireland known as The Troubles between Irish Catholics supportive of the Irish Republican cause of leaving the United Kingdom and joining the Republic of Ireland and Irish Protestants of British heritage supportive of the Ulster Loyalist cause of staying with the United Kingdom.
The survival and strength of once endangeared small languages such as Quebecois French, Acadian French, the Irish language, Scots language, Scots Gaelic, Welsh language, Basque language, Afrikaans, Hawaiian, Inuktitut, Zulu, Breton, and many others.

Nationalist Movements

Some of these movements are left-wing, others are centrist, while others are far right and racist. Nationalism is the only thing they have in common.

Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya - Catalan Countries
Canadian Action Party - Canada
Sinn Féin - Ireland
The NDP Waffle Faction - Canada
The Phalanges Party - Lebanon
The Lebanese Forces - Lebanon
The Guardians of the Cedars - Lebanon
The Syrian Social Nationalist Party - Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Turkey, Iraq
The National Party of Canada - Canada
The David Orchard Campaign for Canada
The Council of Canadians - Canada
The Parti Québécois - Quebec, Canada
The Puerto Rican Independence Party - Puerto Rico
The Hostosian National Independence Movement - Puerto Rico
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation - Armenia
The African National Congress - South Africa
The National Party of South Africa
The Black Panther Party - U.S.A.
The British Union of Fascists - The United Kingdom
The Baath Party - Iraq
Bloque Nacionalista Galego - Galicia, Spain
British National Front - UK
Front National - France
Nation of Islam or Black Muslims - U.S.A.
Bloc Québécois - Quebec, Canada
Heritage Front - Canada
Canadian Heritage Alliance - Canada
British National Party - U.K.
Scottish National Party - Scotland
Ulster Unionist Party - Northern Ireland
Democratic Unionist Party- Northern Ireland
Irish Social Democratic and Labour Party - Northern Ireland
Irish Republican Army - Ireland
Irish National Liberation Army - Ireland
Ulster Loyalist Force - N. Ireland (U.K.)
Ulster Volunteer Force - N.Ireland (U.K.)
Ulster Defence Association - N.Ireland (U.K.)
Palestine Liberation Organization - Palestine, Israel
Plaid Cymru - Wales, United Kingdom
Mebyon Kernow - Cornwall, United Kingdom
Likud - Israel
Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front - Zimbabwe
One Nation - Australia
New Zealand First - New Zealand
Siraiki nationalist movement - Pakistan

Nationalism literature

There is a large amount of theoretical and empirical literature on nationalism. The following is a minimal selection, and a series of capsule summaries that do not do justice to the range of views expressed.

Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities. 2nd ed. London: Verso. Anderson argues that nations are imagined political communities, and are imagined to be limited and sovereign. Their development is due to the decline of other types of imagined community, especially in the face of capitalist production of print media.
Armstrong, John. 1982. Nations Before Nationalism. Armstrong traces the development of national identities from origins in antiquity and the medieval world.
Breuilly, John. 1992. Nationalism and the State. 2nd ed. Manchester: Manchester University Press. This approach focuses on the politics of nationalism, in particular on nationalism as a response to the imperatives of the modern state. It employs the mode of comparative history to study a large number of different cases of nationalism.
Gellner, Ernest. 1983. Nations and Nationalism. Oxford: Blackwell. This work links nationalism to the homogenising imperatives of industrial society and the reactions of minority cultures to those imperatives.
Greenfeld, Liah. 1992. Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Greenfeld argues that nationalism existed at an earlier age than previously thought: as early as the sixteenth century in the case of England.
Hechter, Michael. 1975. Internal Colonialism. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Hechter attributes nationalism in the "Celtic fringe" of Britain and Ireland to the reinforcing divisions of culture and the division of labour.
Hobsbawm, Eric, and Ranger, Terence, eds. 1983. The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. This collection of essays, especially Hobsbawm's introduction and chapter on turn-of-the-century Europe, argues that the nation is a prominent type of invented tradition.
Kedourie, Elie. 1960. Nationalism. London: Hutchinson. Kedourie focuses on the role of disaffected German intellectuals in developing the doctrine of nationalism at the beginning of the nineteenth century from Kant's idea of the autonomy of the will and Herder's belief in the primacy of linguistic communities in establishing modes of thought.
Kedourie, Elie, ed. 1971. Nationalism in Asia and Africa. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Kedourie's introduction to this volume of nationalist texts extends his analysis in his earlier work to the efforts of intellectuals in colonial states.
Nairn, Tom. 1977. The Break-up of Britain. London: New Left Books. Marxist historian Nairn traces nationalism to the confrontation of colonialism, which leaves indigenous elites without recourse to any resources but their own population.
Smith, Anthony D. 1986. The Ethnic Origins of Nations. Oxford: Blackwell. Smith traces modern nations and nationalism to pre-modern ethnic sources, arguing for the existence of an "ethnic core" in modern nations.

External links

National Socialism
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Nationalism — Resources
The Nationalism Project is the world's most comprehensive English-language website on nationalism.
Nation and Nationalism (2 parts)
Animated map of German Unification
What is a Nation? - Nadesan Satyendra,
Religious Nationalism and Human Rights, David Little, United States Institute of Peace, also briefly discusses history of nationalism
Alfred Verdross and Othmar Spann: German Romantic Nationalism, National Socialism and International Law, Anthony Carty, European Journal of International Law.
Johann Gottfried Herder (1784): Materials for the Philosophy of the History of Mankind
The Prohibition of Nationalism in Islam
Notes on Nationalism Essay by George Orwell
The Sabanci University: School of Languages Podcasts: Nationalism (Part 1) and Theories of Nationalism (Part 2)
Stirpes Discussion board and portal for Nationalism in Europe.

Freenet links: Note: You will need an access to Freenet node to visit these links.; localhost is assumed as the base for the freesite

Daybreak Nationalist news and views.

References

Abizadeh, Arash. 2002. "Does Liberal Democracy Presuppose a Cultural Nation? Four Arguments." American Political Science Review 96(3): 495-509.
Abizadeh, Arash. 2004. "Liberal Nationalist versus Postnational Social Integration." Nations and Nationalism 10(3): 231-250.
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities. ISBN 0860913295.
Anderson, Benedict. 1998. The Spectre of Comparison: Nationalism, Southeast Asia and the World. London: Verso. ISBN 1859841848.
Balakrishnan, Gopal, ed. 1996. Mapping the Nation. London: Verso.
Billig, Michael. Banal Nationalism. ISBN 0803975252.
Breuilly, John. 1994. Nationalism and the State. 2nd ed. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Brubaker, Rogers. 1996. Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe. Cambridge University Press.
Calhoun, Craig. 1993. "Nationalism and Ethnicity." Annual Review of Sociology 19: 211-239.
Canovan, Margaret. 1996. Nationhood and Political Theory. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Fitzgerald, Francis. 1972. Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam. Boston: Back Bay Books. ISBN 0316159190.
Freeden, Michael. 1998. "Is Nationalism a Distinct Ideology?" Political Studies 46: 748-765.
Geary, Patrick J. 2002. The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-11481-1
Gellner, Ernest. 1983. Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Greenfeld, Liah. 1992. Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674603192.
Hobsbawm, Eric J. 1992. Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press.
Juergensmeyer, Mark. 1993. The New Cold War: Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0520086511.
Kymlicka, Will. 1995. Multicultural Citizenship. Oxford University Press.
McKim, Robert, and Jeff McMahan. 1997. The Morality of Nationalism. Oxford University Press.
Mill, John Stuart. 1861. Considerations on Representative Government.
Miller, David. 1995. On Nationality. Oxford University Press.
Patten, Alan. 1999. "The Autonomy Argument for Liberal Nationalism." Nations and Nationalism. 5(1): 1-17.
Renan, Ernest. 1882. "Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?"
Smith, Anthony D. 1986. The Ethnic Origins of Nations London: Basil Blackwell. pp 6–18.
Tamir, Yael. 1993. Liberal Nationalism. Princeton University Press.

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 Nationalists define individual nations on the basis of certain criteria, which distinguish one nation from another; and determine "who is a member of each nation". These criteria might include a shared [[language]], [[culture]], and/or shared [[values]] which are predominantly represented within a specific [[ethnic group]]. National ''identity'' refers both to these defining criteria, and to the shared heritage of each group. Membership in a nation is usually involuntary and determined by birth.
-All natinalist think that their country is better than all of the other countrys and nations
 Nationalism sees most human activity as [[national]] in character. Nations have [[national symbols]], a [[culture|national culture]], a national [[music]] and national [[literature]]; national [[folklore]], a national [[Mythology|myth]]ology and - in some cases - even a national [[religion]].  Individuals share [[Value system|national values]] and a [[Cultural identity|national identity]], admire the [[culture hero|national hero]], eat the [[national dish]] and play the [[national sport]].