What is Nationalism and How Did it Spread? | World History Project

Nationalism is the most impactful ideology in modern history. It is a cultural and political concept that argues that nations exist and have a right to govern themselves. That might not seem controversial, but it has been an incredibly disruptive force over the last 200 years. From the Atlantic Revolutions, the concept of nationalism spread around the world, sometimes liberating people from empires, and sometimes warping into new, destructive ideologies like fascism. Nationalists make historical claims that help them achieve their political goals. It’s time for you to test those claims. Is nationalism good or bad?

[paveltrips]

The fact is that no one knows how nationalism emerged. Therefore, everyone is too connected to their own “country”

[LABC]

Good job.Covered general definitions.Specific questions to be dissected and studied by the individual with the question.Thank you

[cinjhang]

Good video! Would be better with higher quality microphone.

Also, in the world map that you showed, Taiwan is the same color as China, but they are two different countries.

[kasberge]

this video helped making an abstract concept such as "nation" really clear to me. Thanks a lot!

[fulanntao]

Fascinating thoughts on Nationalism. Thanks for sharing. 😎 ❤

[johngeren]

It is important to make distinctions between historical contexts and motivations, and not to generalize too much. Nations differ and the goals of their nationalisms do so as well.

A very basic distinction is to be made between movements of national liberation from imperialism and colonialism versus the nationalism of those very empires and colonizers.

Bolivarianism, Arab nationalism and Vietnamese nationalism - just to cite the most obvious examples - all have motivations that may be considered morally good, whereas imperial nationalism is motivated by greed and power.

German and Italian nationalisms are interesting case studies. They are each examples of national unification movements that occurred simultaneously in the 19th century.

Italian nationalism had the worthy goal of unification by eliminating the domination of imperial Austria-Hungary, Spain and France and reducing the power of the papacy within Italy. It was led by idealists like Garibaldi, who was a socialist and republican, but who was pragmatic enough to put the goal of unification ahead of ideological purity. Thus he ended up cooperating with a pro-French noble family and compromising with the Vatican to achieve the main goal.

Unfortunately, once unification was achieved it took little time for Italy's leaders to resent the fact that history had short-changed them England, France, Spain, and even Portugal, Belgium and Netherlands had colonies all over the world while Italy had only small pockets of influence around the Mediterranean left over from the old Italian maritime republics and principalities.

That envy and greed caused Italy to pursue an imperial path that was too late historically (the age of colonialism was already declining) and beyond its economic and military capabilities. Italy's difficult imperial enterprises led to Mussolini's invention of fascism and his attempt to change the national character to suit his ambitions

Germany followed a very similar trajectory, although it had a more militaristic character from the start and a society that quickly adapted itself to the industrial revolution. Ultimately Germany's industrial strength precipitated much worse world crises than Italy had caused when it's nationalism fully embraced militarism and finally Nazism.

[jpmarques]

Interesting in general but we can’t forget that the national idea did not really start in modern times. It gave it a boost, for sure, but there are several countries who long preceded it. Like, for half a millennium and more

[junesilvermanb]

One World. One Community. ONE FAMILY.

Amen.

[gwenethmoir]

Thank you for offering this video. Succinct, and non-biased with thought-provoking questions for young learners.

[liyumarketshopping]

Please refer to Ethiopian history, zemene mesafint (the era of kings ) diff. Identities make a big nation with a governorn8ng code like a republic ... sort of ...☝️

[Nihilism]

I think I learned Something New And I never thought about it before Why is the world population so divided over their imagination and belief how strange is it although we all live on one planet on earth.

[owlnyc]

Nations are cultural. Countries are political. Moderate nationalism, extreme nationalism. Before nations-countries there were empires. Nationalism versus(?))Cosmopolitanism. Both have advantages and Disadvantages. Local state government or centralized federal government? Or both? Local city government or state government or both? I see a lot of similarities between nationalism as an ideology and religion as an ideology. God Bless American Nationalism? I do think nationalism seeks to unify different ethnicities, cultures and tribes within the borders of a country. It seeks to promote loyalty and security. Is it the "system" is corrupt, the problem or the administers, the politicians. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🦉

[georgesdelatour]

Benedict Anderson is an important Marxist historian whose views deserve to be considered. But he has been challenged. Azar Gat’s “Nations: The Long History and Deep Roots of Political Ethnicity and Nationalism” is a good text for the anti-Anderson point of view.

[yogeswaransk]

Non-Hindi People in India believe we deserve our own nation. If you have no idea about this, please take a language map of India and analyze.

[dzounds]

bluntly speaking about the dark history of the Europeans that went into repeat is shocking

[erikfischer]

For every single negative that is attributed to nationalism can those same negatives not be found in histories of places all over the world prior to nationalism taking hold? Territorial disputes existed prior to nations did they not? Conflicts between religious and ethnic groups existed prior to nations did they not? Organized warfare has a long and history tradition as soon as nation states took hold so we know that that was there and all the atrocity that goes along with it. The history of Judaism seems to be ripe with conflict historically with their neighbors, no matter where they’re at and to say that nationalism is the reason that they had the problems they did seems a bit disingenuous. I am not a history, major by any means, but from the understanding that I have, it seems like all of these behaviors were present prior to nationalism. If there’s some thing I’m missing here please fill in the gaps of understanding.

[johnarnehansen]

Someone should add Ukrainian subtitles to this video, just to be assured!..

[teamcanaloficial]

I am a simple man,
I see Mexican thumbnail, i enter

[TheRealMonnie]

Climate change isn't a challenge we need to worry about. That's laughable.