British Imperialism Research Paper

The British promoted nationalism as patriotic. British imperialism was seen as an export of Britishness to the colonies while, for other European nations, it was self affirmation and a way to compensate their weakness and failures. But, for the British, its civilization was superior to all other nations.

France

In France nationalism was a motivating force in comparison to Britain after being defeated in the 1870-71 war against Prussia. They started colonizing to project France as a great power. Jules Ferry was responsible for the introduction of free, compulsory and lay education. In 1885 in his speech in the chambers of Deputies, he said a colonial empire was necessary for France due to the French rivalry with other nations.

It was done to discourage war and to create fear of collective retaliation after being attacked. Through this plan war could be deterred. But the objective of the League of Nations failed. The United States of America refused to join the league because the American Senate refused to ratify the treaty. As United States was not a member of the league and other nations were weak, they were not taken

He regarded force as an important part and to convert force of spirit into real force was necessary. He stressed on the theme of force, grandeur and greatness of the spirit. He identified himself and Italy with the glory of imperial power. In 1936, Spain was under the rule of General Franco. He succeeded as ruler of Spain after the civil war. Spain was a Republic since 1930. There was tension between a republican left and a clerical right. Coup was approached by both sides, but Franco was a fascist ruler and was supported by Italy and Germany, while the Soviet Union opposed Franco and Britain remained neutral. The Fascist ruler won the civil war. Germany was struggling with social and economic problems during the 1920s, experiencing a complete monetary collapse and finding a way to recover from it. Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 with the promise of nation building and making Germany a super power and reclaiming what was lost in the war of 1918. Hitler’s Lieutenant, Joseph Goebbels, called for a revolution from below to make the German nation “into a single people”. This led to the racial purification of the German population during the Second World War. The cultural dimensions were added to the national identity to convince people that their culture was superior. The idea