Nationalism's Significance in the World War I

The magnetic incli farming of large number to denounce between fellow-countrymen and foreigners, and to distrust the latter, is widespread if non universal. The doctrine of nationalism, which emerged in mature form in the 19th century, elevated this tendency to a matter of principle. A nation, a geographical neck of the woods whose people had a dual-lane dustup and (supposedly) a shared culture, came to be viewed as the proper and natural condition of aliveness and the inherent basis of sovereignty. Expressions such as "the British speed up" or "the German race" became common by the deeply 19th century.

In Western Europe, where proto- jingoistic feelings had often been developing for centuries (and had been encourage by governments), perceived nations corresponded more or less to states. The British stave English, the French spoke French; and after 1871 Germans spoke German and Italians spoke Italian. Further east, however, the correspondence of state to "nation" broke down. The empire of the Hapsburgs was centered in (German-speaking) Austria, but its people spoke a variety of languages, with no one language or cultural heritage predominating -- naval officers found it needful to speak six or seven (Preston 12). The empire could not be characterized as a nation, and was not felt to be one by most of its peoples.

Prior to the spread of nationalist ideology, this posed no special problem for the Hapsburg empire. In substantial terms, the empire was not particularly weak. Many p

Kennedy, Paul M. The Rise and Fall of British marine Mastery. New York: Scribner's, 1976.

Germany had largely stayed out of the great colonial institute grab of the 1880s, not for privation of capacity but for lack of interest, and in hindsight Germany's choice then was a wise one. By the end of the century, however, Germany felt it had been left behind, in spite of its maturation industrial might and technological leadership. Germany, too, needed an overseas empire, and would repel it if need be from other imperialists. German anxieties were reinforced by the popularity at the turn of the century of American Alfred Thayer Mahan's theory of seapower. Whoever control the seas, said Mahan, ruled the world. Obviously that was Britain.

Germans thus came to view Britain, as much as France and Russia, as a threat to German greatness.

Breyer, Siegfried. Battleships and Battle Cruisers, 1905-1970. Alfred Kurti, trans. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973.

Gallagher, Tom. Political Change in easterly Europe. European History Quarterly, 24 (1999), pp. 58794.

German nationalism was innate(p) in the Napoleonic era, though the medieval patchwork of German states was not unified until 1871. The new German Empire was directly a Great Power, succeeding to the place of Prussia in a sharply enhanced form. By 1914, Germany was the most powerful and passing industrialized state in continental Europe. Rivalry with France and Russia was inevitable. So long as Germany did not grossly overstep, however (as by attempting to establish outright hegemony over Europe), there was little dry land for rivalry between continental Germany and insular and maritime Britain. In fact, France and Russia were fnr most of the 19th century also Britain's chief rivals. This do Britain and Germany, if not natural allies, at least natural cozy neutrals.

Fromkin, David. A Peace to End All Peace. New York: Avon, 1989.

darn personal factors might have thus led to a dramatically different co
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