Today we will follow up on our earlier discussion about the state as a concept. Historicity has states, as defined by Hobbes, exist as long as humans have lived in any form of organized tribe.
Today we will focus on defining the “modern nation state”. With this term I refer in this text, specifically to the unified nations that formed as a result of, and with the explicit help of the rise of European nationalism.
This nationalism can in part be attributed to the rise of unified nation states in the west. Germany, the UK, France and many more nations went from decentralized governance to a more centralized form. With this centralization came the need for a notion of a complete and uniform national identity. This identity would unify the nation’s citizens under one banner. This national identity would also legitimize the state’s rule. This act also helped legitimize the state’s interaction with other states. These interactions include everything from trade negotiations, to war and colonization.
This nation state is as much defined as what it is, as what it is not. What I mean by this statement is the following. When defining who are the citizens of a state (us), one must simultaneously define why is not (them). At the rise of European nationalism this often meant exaggerating some perceived virtue of the nation’s citizens while exaggerating negative traits of the “others”.
It is true that nationalism has similar themes, discussions and problems etc has evolved in several areas and time frames around the world. The somewhat unfortunate Eurocentric standpoint of the environment this blog is created in, makes me think that Europe is where our discussion starts. With this said, I believe there are some simulates that can be found in most if not all of these events.
The common element that we are going to focus on here is the following: all national identities are by their design, fabricated. What I mean by this is the following:
All national identities are created by its parent nation, state and most importantly, the people that embody it. Next time we will look closer at what makes up a national identity.
This blog post was spell checked and edited for readability at 2021-06-07
An Unused Frequency 