Nationalism

Jie Yang, Grace Hao, Rachel Liu, Andy Zhang, Sahibreet Sandher
Definition
• Nationalism is the belief that a
nation, which is often defined
by shared language, culture,
history, and sometimes
religion, should have its own
sovereign state. It places the
interests of the nation and its
people above those of other
nations or supranational
entities.
• The people holds strong
patriotic feelings towards their
own nation. And generally,
considers theirs to be superior
SIGNIFICANCE

• Nationalism causes countries to strengthen

and build up their military to declare their
independence as well as competing for
territory to prove how strong their country is.

• Many countries believed they should be able

to have the right to expand their territories,
creating tension between the countries.

• And when in war, nationalism makes

compromising and accepting defeat very
difficult. Dragging out the duration of wars.
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES OF
NATIONALISM
PROS:
The whole nation works under one
common goal.
Encourages development of the
country.
Pride amongst the people.
Unites groups that are diverse.
CONS:
Leading nations to isolate
themselves.
Prejudice and intolerance towards
others based on labels, such as
where they are from.
Lead towards wars.
Injustice based on majority and
minority.
 CAUSATION
• Serbian people held a strong sense
of nationalism towards Slavic people
and wanted to unite all Slavic people
under one. (Pan-Slavism)
• Germany also has high nationalistic
ideals; they have a high sense of
pride and the desire to make
Germany great again, by making
Germany a strong imperialistic
empire
• The people of these countries are so
patriotic that they are willing to fund
and participate a war to prove just
how much better they are compared
to neighboring nations.
The Bosnian Crisis
• One of the most significant examples of
nationalism in relation to WWI
• Serbia was against the annexation of Bosnia
• This significantly damaged relations
between Serbia and Austria
• Serbian citizens created groups such as The
Black Hand
• This led to the assassination of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand which started WWI

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Further Examples

• Germany was united after the Franco-Prussian War.

The same occurred to Italy after 1871 with the
establishment of the Kingdom of Italy.
• Nationalism is one cause of militarism. The bigger and
more powerful countries regarded their militaries as
superior.
• The British had a powerful navy while Germany
developed new military technology. They believe they
were superior in their own respective ways and those
were enhanced by the arms race. Both built nineteen
and thirteen dreadnoughts respectively to display their
superiority against each other.