Nationalism: Relevance to Modern day Politcs
...tions began to see the opportunities for independence through increased social exchanges. They realized that the imperialist countries had more rights and were more independent; therefore movements to achieve these rights and independence arose. The global tone for the early nineteenth century was set; there existed a platform for nations’ world wide from which they could deploy their nationalist desires. As we can see, the ideology of nationalism is very complex and encompasses many different definitions. At its most basic form, nationalism is no more than racial preference or discrimination due to the fact that the most primitive of all distinctive characteristics are physical characteristics. It is possible to go deeper into the meaning and implications of nationalism as well. Simply defining nationalism as racial discrimination is easy and it denies its capability to include the immense power exerted by colonial nations. Nationalism distinguishes any group from another when they declare the uniqueness of their rights and the separation from another. Thus, nationalism can be manifested in several forms, such as racism, imperialism, colonialism, patriotism or separatism. Some of these forms will be discussed furtherer. 1.2 European Nationalism After the First World War, we saw a tendency throughout the entire world of colonized nations to seek independence. Also nationalist movements arose in light of these tendencies. However, in Europe the situation is more complicated. The victorious nations of World War I divided the continent through political influence and coercion. The Austrian, German, and Russian empires at this point began to fall apart. As these former great empires’ power began to decline, the numerous ethnic groups within these empires began to grow further and further apart. In Austria, Western influence was greater than in any other place. It was due to political and military interest. As far as Western interest was concerned, Germany was not to stay afloat as a great power and the lack of an ally in Austria would deter Germany from maintaining power and taking any form of military action. This influence was felt greatly in Nationalist movements within the region and it was beginning to cause rifts. As nationalist movements increased, so did the power of certain ethnic groups. Ultimately, states were created containing populations of many different ethnicities. In Serbia, the new state was comprised of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes; the Serbs being the supposed superior race. This was an obvious problem because of the intense conflicts these groups had experience in their recent past. The conflicts between Croats and Slovenes against Serbs are recorded as being some of the most intense battles. Indeed, this was a trend spreading throughout Europe. Superior races, such as the Czechs, became the rulers of their nations. The Czechs were superior to their Slovak neighbors due to their intellectual skills. Czechoslovakia, as it was now called, became a nation divided ethnically by Czechs and Slovaks who were generally less capable and occupied a lower status in society. This made them easier to control and consequently discriminated them. In fact, this happened all across Europe. Nationalism had once existed in the imperialistic form throughout the world and had been strongly opposed by the former colonies, which lead them ultimately to rise up against their imperialist master; now the former colonies and other peripheries had become what they had always fought against. The level of dominance by the superior east European nations was no less than that exerted by the more powerful, traditional imperialist nations in the past; it can be argued that discrimination and genocide existed with greater fervor during this period. 1.2 Nationalism worldwide As mentioned previously, nationalism began to grow intensely in Europe. We must also make note of the rise in nationalism all over the world, after all imperialist nations did expand past their European boundaries. When speaking of the Europe where nationalism was rising, we must also make the distinction that East Europe was facing a growth in the most extreme form of this ideology, while the rest of Europe and the world was experiencing great right-wing movements. This distinction must be made because the differences are not clear at first sight. National right-wing movements of the type found in Western Europe and other parts of the world were authoritarian in nature; in Spain, El Generalisimo Francisco Franco as he was known to be called had a vast and extraordinary military career. His hatred for the Republic spurred military actions and led to the demise of the Republic through a civil war. Civil war can described as the ultimate internal demonstration of nationalist movements. Two or more parties constantly battled for what they believe is the preeminent way to increase the countries relative position. In South America, both Chile and Argentina experienced the nationalist struggle, the latter having occurred in post war years. In Argentina, it was Juan Peron who ruled the nation from 1946-1955 and 1973-1974 . He had many social reforms and tried greatly to improve the working class people’s status. His right-wing tendencies, anti-American and anti-British tendencies during interwar and post war years soon gave him the label of fascist, though he insisted that his stance was not fascist; it was a combination between capitalism and communism which would later be called Peronism in Argentinean politics. He had been given the label fascist for his support and implementation of some fascist ideals such as, glorification of the state and anti-communism. In Chile, Augusto Pinochet, like Franco, had quite a vast military career, from which he was able to catapult his career as a dictator. As mentioned earlier, Chile and Pinochet`s dictatorship were part of a post-war era. Even so, his regime was often labeled as a fascist regime due to the fact that his rule was of the right-wing type. There existed many other and still today, many regimes which politicians, scholars and anti-right-wing promoters label fascist. Yet, this label may be given too hastily and at times. Once again, distinctions must be made when speaking of such a vastly embracing ideology. These distinctions will be defined in the following section. 2. Fascism 2.1 The Ideology of Fascism It is evident that the fascist ideology emerged in light of the increased nationalist sentiment and the societal desire to increase aesthetic values relative to others. We can identify eight key characteristics of fascism: 1) Irrationalism 2) Social Darwinism 3) Nationalism 4) Glorification of the state 5) Leadership principle 6) Racism 7) Anti- communism 8) Mass mobilization. The irrational characteristic of fascism was exposed in the non-scientific theory of racial superiority. Proponents of fascism, Hitler for example, glorified the Aryan individual as the ultimate expression of human perfection, but had no solid scientific basis for this hypothesis. Irrationality was also evident in the desire to return in time to the period of the empires. Mussolini for instance had his party members dress up as the Romans of ancient times for official gatherings. As far as social Darwinism, imperialist domination brought out nationalist fervor in the empire. A way imperialism created nationalism was by making the citizens of the empire feel superior to other nations because of their ability to dominate them. Fascism went further and defined specific races as having the proper genes for this social, economic and political domination. Nationalism is a characteristic of fascism because it fuels the desire to dominate and differentiates the group relative to others. If nationalism promoted the nation as a key aspect of life, fascism went further. It accomplished this by emphasizing the role the citizens played in the glorification of the nation. This characteristic can be said to be complimentary to the anti-communist sentiment. It is complimentary due the fact that when citizens partake in the glorification of the nation, it is done by bringing all profit, both economic and social back into the nation. Fascism was a local, national/global ideology while communism is a global ideology. Both Hitler and Mussolini were great leaders of their time. Not only did they have the ability to move massive amounts of people, but their periods of governance are characterized by being, economically stable. 2.2 Italian and German Fascism Fascism as an ideology emerged with great speed and acceptance. Sweeping through the Italian society, fascism ignited a sense of nationalism not experienced before. The “volk” or nation as described in fascism cannot be seen, only felt. Thus, in the absence of such a tangible element, a concrete element is introduced in the form of an omnipotent leader. Nationalism now can be enhanced through the charismatic words of such a leader. This was the case in Italy with Mussolini and Germany with Hitler. Both leaders can be regarded as some of the most ...