Nationalism does not have one meaning because it emerges in distinct ways. Scholars of nationalism widely agree in that defining it is a complex issue. Nationalism is a phenomenon that obtains its power from the unity of a group of people under a nation. The people are allegedly ready to defend and even die for their nation.
What is a nation? The reality is that the meaning of the nation has changed over time and varies according to the group of people that appropriated it and the historical time in which it is used. As a result, the problem when defining the nation is that it will depend upon the interpretation that a community of people gives to it.
Ernest Renan
In view of France’s loss of Alsace and Lorraine in the Franco Prussian, Ernest Renan, a distinguished French theologian, gave a renowned lecture at the Sorbonne University, titled What is the Nation? (1882). Ernest Renan argued that “a nation is a spiritual principle resulting from the profound complications of history, a spiritual family, and not a group determined by the configuration of land.” Renan regarded a common past essential for the foundation of a nation. His concept of the nation as a spiritual principle involved the past and present. The past perceived as a common “legacy of memories” and the present conceived as “the will to continue to value heritage that has been received in common.”
Note that Renan placed the will of a group of people to preserve the past and continue making memories together above everything that could form a nation. Race and ethnicity were of no value because he did not believe in the existence of pure races. Language was not a necessary component since many languages can be spoken. For example, Switzerland is a nation where people spoke three of four languages. Additionally, there were different nations in which the same language was spoken, such as the United States and England. Religion was also not essential because many religions could be practiced in a nation. A French, English or German, could be Protestant, Catholic, Jewish or non religious. Although geography played a significant part in the historical foundation of nations, there is not a natural rule that says where a nation must have its frontiers. For Renan, the will of a group of people to live united was what truly mattered in the formation of a nation.
Freidrich Meinecke
Friedrich Meinecke, a professional historian and archivist in the Prussian State, published in 1907 his most influential work, Weltbürgertum und Nationalstaat. Studien zur Genesis des deutschen Nationalstaats. In this work, Meinecke focuses on the characteristics that distinguish nations from others. He claims that two types of nations exist. First, members of a political nation have in common a political history and constitution. Second, a cultural nation was established upon the fact of ‘pre-determination’, meaning that its members just belonged to it or not.
With this argument, Meinecke justified the unification of Germany under the conservative and authoritarian, Otto Bismarck. He also believed that the state ought to promote cultural national homogeneity and that Germany had a historical mission. Meinecke’s conception of the nation thought origin and culture fundamental in the development of a national character, rather than the will of the people to live together and assent to follow a set of laws.
Ernest Gellner
Ernest Gellner argues that the phenomenon of nationalism provoked the emergence of nations, rather than nations causing nationalism. According to his theory, mankind has passed through three stages of civilization: pre-agrarian, agrarian and industrial. Nationalism originated during the industrial stage. People in an industrial society receive a standardized education that specialize them in a job, which causes the emergence of a political community with a high culture. The nation becomes exceedingly valuable, and education is essential for the preservation of its culture.
Benedict Anderson
Benedict Anderson proposes that print-capitalism played a key role on the development of national consciousness. He argues that print-capitalism permitted the exchange of communication between people that spoke the same language. In consequence, people became aware of the fact that millions more communicated in the same language; therefore, creating the sense of belonging to a “nationally imagined community”.
Montserrat Guibernau
Montserrat Guibernau points out the fact that scholars typically forget the power that nationalism has in the creation of identities. Individuals feel that they belong to a community that shares a culture and a territory. This collective feeling is reinforced with symbols, such as the flag, and with rituals. Guibernau compares nationalism with religion: both imply a common faith in an idea, perform rites to reinforce the doctrine put the community above the individual, and both incite powerful emotions in individuals.
What is the meaning of nationalism?
The correct answer is that people give many different meanings to the nation. According to John Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith, nationalism can be religious, liberal, cultural, conservative, political, and communist among many other denominations. Scholars, however, agree that the nation is the foundation of nationalism; therefore, there is not a single venue of nationalism.
Sources:
· Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflection on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. London: New Left Books, 1983.
· Gellner, Ernest. Nations and Nationalism.Ithaca, NJ: Cornell University Press, 1983.
· Guibernau, Montserrat. Nationalism: The Nation-State and Nationalism in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.
· Hutchinson, John and Anthony D. Smith., eds, Nationalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
· Lawrence, Paul. Nationalism: History and Theory. Harlow, England: Pearson Education, 2005.
· Renan, Ernest. “What is a Nation?,” in Nationalism in Europe 1815 to the present: A Reader, ed. Stuart Woolf. London and New York: Rutledge, 1996.
· Renan, Ernest. What is the Nation? Is from ‘Qu’ est-ce qu'une nation? (1882), in Discours etconferénces, Oeuvres complétes, vol. 1, Paris, 1947.
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