Search results
- DictionaryNa·tion·al·ism/ˈnaSH(ə)nəˌliz(ə)m/
noun
- 1. identification with one's own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations: "their nationalism is tempered by a desire to join the European Union"
People also ask
What is nationalism based on?
What is economic nationalism?
Is nationalism a modern state?
What is the relationship between nationalism and nations?
Nationalism is loyalty and devotion to a nation, especially exalting one nation above others and promoting its culture and interests. Learn more about the word history, synonyms, examples, and related phrases of nationalism.
- What is the difference between 'nationalism' and 'patriotism'?Nationalism and patriotism are similar insofar as both words emphasize strong feelings for one’s country. However, the two words are not synonymous...
- Is 'nationalism' a proper noun?Proper noun is defined as "a noun that designates a particular being or thing, does not take a limiting modifier, and is usually capitalized in Eng...
- What is difference between 'nationalism' and 'jingoism'?Nationalism and jingoism are closely related, as both words refer to an exaltation of one’s own nation and feelings of cultural superiority. Howeve...
- Overview
- The modern nature of nationalism
- Identification of state and people
- Cultural nationalism
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
Nationalism is an ideology that emphasizes loyalty, devotion, or allegiance to a nation or nation-state and holds that such obligations outweigh other individual or group interests.
What is the difference between a nation and a state?
A nation is a group of people with a common language, history, culture, and (usually) geographic territory. A state is an association of people characterized by formal institutions of government, including laws; permanent territorial boundaries; and sovereignty (political independence). A state may comprise one or more nations (as did the Roman Empire and Austria-Hungary), and a nation may be represented in (or ruled by) one or more (usually contiguous) states, as in the early modern principalities of Germany. A state comprising or dominated by a single nation is often called a nation-state.
state
Read more about what a state is.
What is a nationalist movement?
Nationalism is a modern movement. Throughout history people have been attached to their native soil, to the traditions of their parents, and to established territorial authorities, but it was not until the end of the 18th century that nationalism began to be a generally recognized sentiment molding public and private life and one of the great, if n...
Nationalism, translated into world politics, implies the identification of the state or nation with the people—or at least the desirability of determining the extent of the state according to ethnographic principles. In the age of nationalism, but only in the age of nationalism, the principle was generally recognized that each nationality should form a state—its state—and that the state should include all members of that nationality. Formerly states, or territories under one administration, were not delineated by nationality. People did not give their loyalty to the nation-state but to other, different forms of political organization: the city-state, the feudal fief and its lord, the dynastic state, the religious group, or the sect. The nation-state was nonexistent during the greater part of history, and for a very long time it was not even regarded as an ideal. In the first 15 centuries of the Common Era, the ideal was the universal world-state, not loyalty to any separate political entity. The Roman Empire had set the great example, which survived not only in the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages but also in the concept of the res publica christiana (“Christian republic” or community) and in its later secularized form of a united world civilization.
As political allegiance, before the age of nationalism, was not determined by nationality, so civilization was not thought of as nationally determined. During the Middle Ages, civilization was looked upon as determined religiously; for all the different nationalities of Christendom as well as for those of Islam, there was but one civilization—Christian or Muslim—and but one language of culture—Latin (or Greek) or Arabic (or Persian). Later, in the periods of the Renaissance and of Classicism, it was the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations that became a universal norm, valid for all peoples and all times. Still later, French civilization was accepted throughout Europe as the valid civilization for educated people of all nationalities. It was only at the end of the 18th century that, for the first time, civilization was considered to be determined by nationality. It was then that the principle was put forward that people could be educated only in their own mother tongue, not in languages of other civilizations and other times, whether they were classical languages or the literary creations of other peoples who had reached a high degree of civilization.
From the end of the 18th century on, the nationalization of education and public life went hand in hand with the nationalization of states and political loyalties. Poets and scholars began to emphasize cultural nationalism first. They reformed the mother tongue, elevated it to the rank of a literary language, and delved deep into the national past. Thus, they prepared the foundations for the political claims for national statehood soon to be raised by the people in whom they had kindled the spirit.
Students save 67%! Learn more about our special academic rate today.
Learn More
Before the 18th century there had been evidences of national feeling among certain groups at certain periods, especially in times of stress and conflict. The rise of national feeling to major political importance was encouraged by a number of complex developments: the creation of large centralized states ruled by absolute monarchs who destroyed the old feudal allegiances; the secularization of life and of education, which fostered the vernacular languages and weakened the ties of church and sect; the growth of commerce, which demanded larger territorial units to allow scope for the dynamic spirit of the rising middle classes and their capitalistic enterprise. This large unified territorial state, with its political and economic centralization, became imbued in the 18th century with a new spirit—an emotional fervour similar to that of religious movements in earlier periods. Under the influence of the new theories of the sovereignty of the people and of individual rights, the people replaced the king as the centre of the nation. No longer was the king the nation or the state; the state had become the people’s state, a national state, a fatherland, or a motherland. State became identified with nation, as civilization became identified with national civilization.
Nationalism is an ideology that emphasizes the loyalty and devotion of individuals to the nation-state over other interests. Learn about the origins, history, and examples of nationalism from Britannica, a trusted source of knowledge and information.
- Hans Kohn
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. [1] [2] As a movement, it presupposes the existence [3] and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, [4] especially with the aim of gaining and maintaining its sovereignty ( self-governance) over its perceived homeland to create a ...
Nov 29, 2001 · Since nationalism is particularly prominent with groups that do not yet have a state, a definition of nation and nationalism purely in terms of belonging to a state is a non-starter. Indeed, purely “civic” loyalties are often categorized separately under the title “patriotism”, which we already mentioned, or “constitutional patriotism ...
Nationalism definition: spirit or aspirations common to the whole of a nation. See examples of NATIONALISM used in a sentence.
Nationalism is a set of beliefs about the nation: its origins, nature, and value. It is also a political ideology that elevates the nation to the object of supreme loyalty and claims to outrank other forms of partiality.
Nationalism is the feeling or desire for political independence or pride in one's country. Learn more about the different types, causes, and effects of nationalism with examples from the Cambridge Dictionary.
