The nation-state, completed in the 19th century, gave people a sense of belonging to a community and rights, but it also became a breeding ground for xenophobia and imperialism.
The Formation of National Consciousness
A nation-state is a modern state in which a “nation” sharing a common language, history, and culture holds sovereignty. In the 19th century, national education—the spread of a common language and compulsory education—, the national army (conscription), and the national economy (protection through tariffs) fostered national consciousness. In Germany, an awareness of the ethnic community developed, while in France, republicanism merged with patriotism. Nationalism originally emerged as a progressive ideal of resistance to the Concert of Europe, but it gradually changed into exclusionary nationalism, which asserted the superiority of one's own ethnic group.
Benefits: Expansion of national self-determination, constitutional government, and civil liberties; liberation movements among subject peoples
Drawbacks: Xenophobia, discrimination against ethnic minorities, and imperialism (the theory of “rule by superior peoples”)
Example: Discrimination against Jews in Germany (antisemitism) → ideological background to the later Holocaust
France: Dreyfus Affair (1894)—a false accusation against a Jewish officer and the social division surrounding it
Connection to Imperialism
Nation-states became linked with the Industrial Revolution and moved toward imperialism, or the conquest of colonies. Under the slogan of the “civilizing mission,” the Western powers justified their invasions of Asia and Africa with the logic that they were “civilizing inferior peoples.” This became linked to Social Darwinism, the idea of applying Darwin's theory of natural selection to competition among races and ethnic groups. By the end of the 19th century, military spending had expanded in various countries, alliance systems had become established, and this led directly to the First World War (1914-18). In multiethnic regions that did not fit within nation-states, such as the Balkans, the seeds of conflict known as the “powder keg of Europe” continued to accumulate.
Practice
- What is the name of the idea that applied Darwin's theory of evolution to competition among ethnic groups and races?
- What was the name of the 1894 false-accusation case against a Jewish officer in France?
- Give two reasons why 19th-century nationalism changed into imperialism.