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Nationalism And Nationalism

Decent Essays

Nations and nationality are often seen as important identifying markers, unlike Empires which claim authority over a vast demographic of peoples and beliefs. Nationalism sought to centralize power through uniformity of a homogenous populace. For decades, the idea of the nation and nationalism have been used as a focal point for the West. The shift from Agrarian communities in the West to an industrial society was mainly fueled by the advancement of literature and education. Religion served as a catalyst for this shift for it was able to link groups of people through the concept of God. Religion also gave these new authorities legitimacy and argument for their claim of power. The implications of saying that a nation is imagined basically questions the entire foundation of Western civilization. The West prides itself in particular in strong nationalistic ideologies such as American Exceptionalism and Irish nationalism. This can especially be observed in how the West likes to identify along National lines using markers such as: French, American, German or Irish. The issue in using such broad markers is that it fails to highlight the hidden interests behind today's modern nations. It begs us to reexamine some of humanity's deadliest conflicts and examine motives behind them. The concept of Nationalism and the nation must be viewed as a human invention at the hands of political dynasties who managed to link the ethnic and civic forms of nationalism through religion to establish

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