CHAPTER 7 - Elements of the Nation-state

Abstract

The 19th century was a time of nationalism—of the unifying and creation of nations as independent political forces riding on the revolutionary waves emerging particularly from France and inspiring indigenous national leaders. Nevertheless, nation-states pre-dated this great European and American movement, for example, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, China, and Japan. By a kind of extension of 19th-century ideology, the later achievement of independence by colonial peoples is interpreted as a part of the push of nationalism. Despite its apparent central place in history, the idea of nation is misleading and ambiguous and the unifying of peoples of the same cultural heritage in a common political territory does not stand up to examination. It was not cultural unity that forged the nation-state—it was the other way round. National unity is strictly political, symbolized by a central independent government, almost always bringing together peoples of different cultural heritages. The modern nation-state is by no means conceptually necessary for the self-centeredness and independence of the “we” of a tribal nation and the “they” of the external world. There are many people now enclosed within nation-states who retain their independence in this sense, who are left alone to varying degrees, and who seem to be quite happy to be ignored. However, conditions arise in which the isolation is not so happy.