Varieties of American Nationalism

Varieties of American Nationalism

A universal way of defining the causes of nationalism, applicable to every time and place, does not exist. It is dependent on how certain nations or states classify themselves in terms of race, religion and language, and how their political and economical structure is comprised in comparison to other nations/states.

Nationalism stems from being proud of one's nation. Renan defines nationalism as an idealistic concept: "A nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things, which are really only one, go to make up this soul or spiritual principle. One of these things lies in the past, the other in the present. The one is the possession in common of a rich heritage of memories; and the other is actual agreement, the desire to live together, and the will to make the most of the jopint inheritance...the nation, like the individual, is the fruit of a long past spent in toil, sacrifice, and devotion...To share the glories of the past, and a common will in the present; to have done great deeds together, and to desire to do more-...these are things of greater value than identity of custom-houses and frontiers in accordance with strategic notions. These are things which are understood, in spite of differences in race and language"(Renan).

Adding to this, or simplifying it, Mastafa Rejai, in his book, Political Ideologies and Their Approach, mentions: "Nationalism refers to a feeling of membership in a nation together with collective desire and action to achieve and enhance the status, power, and well-being of a nation. Nation comes from the Latin, nation, reffering to a human group in a particular geographic area. Later on the meaning f nation was expanded to include common values, common ideals, common customs, common territory, common religion, common race, common past, common future and the like" (Rejai, 24).

In the process of glorifying one nation it is possible for that nation to infringe on the rights of another by conquering or annexing another nation, creating what is known as expansive nationalism, but in order to understand it's effects, it might be important to locate a source, or at least a valid example of nationalism as it relates to a specific country.

Nationalism may be a term that applies to the state of things after 1789, or, after the French Revolution. The intense feelings that one has for its own nation may be a result of globalization: with more countries infringing on the rights and customs of others, there is a stronger desire to identify oneself to a certain place, culture and definable identity. There has always been patriotism- pride for one's cultural and geographical place in the world- but globalization, as a result of imperialism, turns patriotism into a more defensive ideology, and forces nations to be defined. "Nationalism, in short, involves intense feelings concerning one's distinctiveness, feelings that become the subject of mass movements, and mass movements that set out to impose the presumed cultural superiority of one people upon another people" (Rejai 29). So while patriotism involves one's simple love for country, nationalism turns that love into a movement, and actions are taken in order to preserve the qualities apparent in that nation. During the late 18th century the working people of France had a philosophical awakening and desired a nation focused on the well being of the community. They no longer looked to the monarchy, but created a new power structure that would give their nation a new identity of Fraternity, Equality and Liberty. "Equally as important was the fact that the values of French nationalism and democracy were not seen as belonging to the French people alone; they were seen as belonging to all peoples and nations....French nationalism became messianic, they saw themselves as deliverers of supreme values and as trustees of a new civilization" (Rejai 32).

The Napoleonic Empire arose following the revolution, proving that new political ideologies of liberty, fraternity and equality could produce just the opposite of what they stood for: oppression, inequality and wars. Napoleon extended the geography of France to Egypt, Portugal, Spain and Russia mainly through force, and while he may have desired to be seen as a liberator of underprivileged people, that was not usually the case. "One of the great ironies of Napoleon's attempt to bring all of Europe under French rule that it did not create continental unity, but rather laid the foundations for nineteenth-century nationalist strife" (Worlds Together, Worlds Apart 208). With France attempting to spread their nationalist ideology, they increased the cultural pride of the colonized natives, strengthening their own national pride. In this way, the Napoleonic Imperialism of Western Europe and beyond caused nationalism to grow in order to oppose it.

To illustrate the French's nationalist turned Imperial motives, one can look at the situation in Haiti around the end of the 18th century: "The ideals of the French Revolution spread rapidly beyond France through the rest of Europe and even overseas. In few places did they produce a more radical effect than on Santo Domingue, renamed Haiti after it acquired independence. By the 1780's, Saint Dominique was France's richest colony and it's most valuable overseas trading possession. It's wealth came from sugar plantations that depended on a vast, highly coerced slave population" (Worlds Together, Worlds Apart 211). From this example and many others like it, it is hard to make an argument that France desired only to spread its knowledge to the unfortunate of the world. While that may have been the initial case, the colonized countries, such as Haiti and Africa, had vast resources (human and natural) that the imposing power felt entitled to control and benefit from. France felt as though their enlightened political system gave them the right to impose on other nation's natural resources. Ironically, the monarchial system that France had overthrown in its own country was now being playing out on a much larger, more global scale: it was their "burden" to look after and to govern those that are unable of governing themselves.

So France's newfound nationalism was very quickly extended beyond its own borders, and very quickly turned into an Imperialist agenda. In fact it is my opinion that the two always go hand in hand, one causing the other and vice versa. Webster's dictionary defines imperialism as "the policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries, or of acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies". So while nationalism is rooted in ideology, imperialism is how those ideals are acted out on a geographical scale.