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= What is Nationalism? The opinion of a professor from Australia =

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=**Nationalism 101** = Nationalism is pride, loyalty and devotion that an individual or a group has for their nation. Before understanding //nationalism//, you must first understand what is a //NATION//. Sounds simple, but the common misconception is that a nation is a country, much like the United States or Canada, etc. Well, that may only tell part of the story for these respective COUNTRIES. A nation is a group of people that share a common way of life, and that way of life is generally comprised of three primary identifiers: language, religion, and historical identity.

Let's look at an example, using the United States. Sure, we are a country made up of people all living under the same laws and governing body, but aren't there many different //nationalities//, or //national groups//, that make up our //country//? We have African Americans, Asian Americans, Latin Americans, German Americans, Italian Americans, Irish Americans etc. - many different nations of people within a given country.

That brings us then to //"What is a country?"// A country has very little to do with the people that exist within the country, except that a country NEEDS people in order to exist. By definition, a country is a politically organized body under a recognized government in a certain geographical region. Basically, a country needs PEOPLE, LAND with defined borders, and a recognized, sovereign political government. Ironically, another name for a country is a STATE (no, our fifty U.S. states are not countries). The United States of America is a recognized STATE, with people, land with defined borders, and a sovereign (superior) political body, called Congress. Let's get used to using the word STATE, when referring to a geographical region, with people all under the same sovereign or supreme political body (the word //country// is now banned!).

Now, let's really confuse things. What do you call a STATE (no longer called a //country// in our class) that is predominantly comprised of ONE ethnicity or national group? This is known as a NATION-STATE, or a country made up of one group of people. France, Spain, Germany, Italy, China, Japan, Egypt....these are all examples of NATION-STATES. One country, one nationality (for the most part).

Now, let's connect the dots. When a nation of people come together and demonstrate their pride, loyalty and devotion for their nationality, they are demonstrating NATIONALISM. In contrast, when people of all races and religions in the United States come together after a certain tragic attack in New York City, circa 2001, and demonstrate their pride for their country, this is known as PATRIOTISM rather than nationalism. Let's not split hairs though, being patriotic and nationalistic looks and sounds the same. Both use symbols and demonstrations that illustrate pride, loyalty, and devotion. These symbols of nationalism might include flags, banners, posters, rallies, battle cries, celebrations, and perhaps even propaganda, etc., as a demonstration of their passion.

Furthermore, Nationalism can end up in two different results: unification, or division. Nationalism that unifies, the more common of the two results, brings people together under the premise that they will become ONE. This may include coming together to become a NATION-STATE that otherwise is not recognized (much like you will see in Italy and Germany), or coming together to rid their NATION of an oppressive authority (i.e. the American Revolution, French Revolution, etc.). Nationalism that divides, is when two groups, sometimes within the same NATION of people, drift apart because of a political or ideological difference. For example, Civil War is the dreadful result of a divided nation. In the United States, the North and the South were divided on political differences of how the country, or STATE, should be governed. The North wanted a stronger federal body, while the South wanted states to govern themselves (slavery being a big issue that they wanted to be a state-by-state issue) and thus we have Civil War. Another more dreadful example is when a nation wants to eliminate another group of a different, or perhaps a similar, ethnicity, religion, race, etc. This is known as genocide. Such examples that we will look at include Rwanda, Sudan, Cambodia, Armenia, and the Holocaust, to name a few.

In this unit, you will first look at Nationalism as a unifying force, most notably, through the WIKI research project that you and your classmates will assemble (see the Nationalism Project link on the left margin for more details). Later, we will look at Nationalism as a dividing force, or Genocide. We look forward to jumping into this new unit, and hopefully attaining new knowledges and understandings of history.