Nationalism in Twentieth Century Europe

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Nationalism in Twentieth Century Europe

Introduction

Lowrie (1930) wrote “Nationalism” in the mid-nineties, calling it as “the most important issue in world politics today” (Lowrie, 1930).Lowrie (1930) wrote that it was Bismarck's unification of Germany, drawing on Cavour and Garibaldi's efforts, that nationalism first emerged in Germany, slowly meandering across Europe, from Italy to Russia, to Ireland and Czechoslovakia. Lowrie (1930) described how the mid-nineties world was divided into seventy distinct national state, out of which thirty-five are in Europe alone - the largest one being Russia. He argues that nationalism hinders not only travel and trade prospects but also the retrieval of scarce resources, adding that “the division of the world into nations seems necessary to impose” (Lowie, 1930).

The conception of nationalism is related closely to the French Revolution of 1789 in the event of the creation of the first “nation-state”. If we were to define nationalism, we would say that it is a social movement that attempts to maintain the status of specific nationalities in the world and enhance it -especially during times of opposition or conflict (Wirth, 1936). European nationalism emerged during these times of conflict and confusion, when people began to seriously address the issue of ethnicity and identity to assert themselves and validate their place in troubled times.

The creation of many independent nations played a major role in evolution of nationalism in the nineteenth century. However, most European nations were created in 20th century - clearly a physical manifestation of the ideas of the “Enlightened” 19th century and kingdoms began to disintegrate slowly (Shubert & Goldstein, 2012). In the nineteenth century, the unifications of Germany and Italyserve to explain the conception of nation-creation and the emergence of nationalism. This research paper conducted a meta-analysis of scholarly, peer-reviewed resources to draw on its analysis of nationalism in twentieth century Europe.

Discussion

The Conception of “Nationalism”

For a clearer understanding of the conception of nationalism, it is important to distinguish between 'nation' and 'state'. Lowrie explains that even though many consider nation and state to be perfectly interchangeable, the state is more secular than the nation. He believes that nation implies being united under an independent government, calling attention to ethnicity and ethnic unification, whereas the state simply refers to a secular sphere of law and politics. If there is a population of a particular ethnicity inhabiting any geographical territory, He argues that it should be distinguished as a nation and not a state (Lowrie, 1930).

Burgess argues that neither ethical nor geographical unity can exist in its most absolute or perfect sense. That being said, conflicts between the two become inevitable. Holcomb believes that it is difficult classifying human beings into strata based on social class. Even if we identify people with specific races, these conceptions of the world have little political significance. In fact, many states in Europe including France and Switzerland have had a traditionally well-grounded national consciousness but an amalgamation of races. In nations, peoples' sense of 'nationality' is ...