Positive Effects Of Nationalism In The 19th Century

Since 1800, having a sense of nationalism has often been rendered as a positive characteristic that empowers citizens to support and protect their country. However, as seen during the 20th century, it is not uncommon for nationalism to negatively affect nation-states as often as it has positively benefited nation-states. To be a nationalist one must have great pride and feeling for his or her country and culture. Yet, even though nationalism allowed the immense growth of permanent nations, it came at a great cost. Nationalism often led citizen to create internal tensions amongst themselves, as they argued over superiority. Nationalism was also a tool abused by world leaders to nationalist citizens to follow their political interests. Most importantly,

Nationalism primarily brought together people of different backgrounds by “breaking the cultural barriers imposed by illiteracy” (Levark, 727). By creating mandatory school systems, many nationalist countries not only gave every child an equal opportunity to read and write, but it mandated a nationwide language. Nationalism also created a sense of unity throughout a nation by creating national holidays and festivities allowing people to celebrate their patriotism. Most importantly, nationalism in Europe allowed citizens to become invested in their own countries. Citizens having faith in a country’s success allowed these nations government to create basic infrastructure, such as “modernized sewers and other sanitary systems” (Hunt, 217). Although the positive effects of nationalism played major roles in the early development of European nation-states, it can be argued that the negative aspects of nationalism had an equally damaging

As a sense of nationalism versed Europe, extreme nationalists easily found their way to the top of popularity. These extremists all had a common goal of sharing the pride and spirit of their country by any means necessary. However, the nationalist’s tensions that arose early on in the 20th century still remained prevalent. As nationalism in countries became tied to specific cultures, racism and discrimination followed “civilized nations awoke to the inhumanity of exclusionary laws” (Herzl in Good). Countries like Great Britain “locked many disgruntled Scots, Irish, and Welsh into a United Kingdom” to differentiate themselves from the rest of the Brits (Pavlac, 311). France, on the other hand, remained united but segregated, with the Basques in the southwest, Bretons in the northwest, and Germans in the east. Each of these French groups had its unique idea and expression of nationalism. However, the most historic case of racism resulting from nationalism was antisemitism. By the 1920s, Adolf Hitler was considered to be a one of the world’s most influential nationalists. He believed that Germany’s pride and power was based upon being populated by an Aryan race. As a result, Hitler empowered over 20 million Germans to begin the genocide of any non-Aryans, all being justified as an act of nationalism. Not only did this movement result in the murder of over 11 million people, but it sparked WWII, resulting in over