Ardent and Militant Nationalism in Europe from 1890 to 1990

That principle was patriotism---dedication to and identification with the nation- soil (McKay 831).

As the 20th century progressed, however, and patriotism became increasingly significant and fasten in certain countries, it gained a power which proved awkward to control. Leaders were able to subvert the original function of nationalism (as an organizing force in the face of subverter, destabilizing forces) and create a state which was intent on dominating its own people, extending territory, and finally exit to war to accomplish its goals.

What occurred so, was that the force of nationalism which in the reservoir of the century served to hold states together in the face of revolutionary changes, became within decades a force which created fascist governments and brought about erosive military confrontations among nationalism-driven states.

McKay et al. seem to be arguing that there was something of an inevitableness to this evolution of nationalism through the century, using a scientific/biological reference: "The universal national faith [nationalism], which reduce social tensions within states, promoted a bitter, almost Darwinian aspiration between states and thus threatened the progress and unity it had helped to micturate" (McKay 860).

Russia is an example of a country undergoing massive upheaval at the turn of the century which led to an increasingly intense nationalism and governmental efforts to expand Russian territory. These

Gorbachev, Mikhail. "The world in which we live . . . Speech. N.P.: N.P., N.D. 476-480.

From the vantage point of the ordinal century, it is clear that nationalism wears many masks: it may be elected and al-Qaida . . . but it can also flourish in dictatorial states, which may be conservative, fascist or communistic (McKay 832).

In other words, the form of nationalism depends on which fix up of liberation the nationalist occupies. If the nationalist is subjugated by opposed powers and seeks only to bring about rightful national sovereignty, then he will be a liberal who calls for emancipation and individual rights.

If the nationalist is a man full of displeasure at past defeats, and bound to assume power in order to get revenge and subjugate others, then he will be a conservative, fascist, or undemocratic.

has shown that it is quite sensitive that one cannot impose upon France a political ideal conform to that of nations like independent Belgium and the Swiss Republic; that something else is needed for France; that she cannot only be a free country, that she must also be a great country, exercising all of her rightful bend over the destiny of Europe (Ferry 304).

Early nationalism was at least liberal and idealistic and often democratic and radical as well. The ideas of nationhood and popular sovereignty posed an awesome revolutionary threat to conservatives like Metternich (McKay 832).

Nationalism, as we have seen, can unvarnished in liberal or conservative form. Totalitarian nationalism appeared in Germany under Hitler because he was able to offer the German people a chance to regain their power at home and abroad: "Hitler's rabid nationalism, which had helped him gain power, continued to prayer to Germans after 1933" (McKay 987). The German people were willing to give Hitler fascistic, lenditarian power over their lives in return for his returning to them their felicitate in being Germans. Fascist Germany was marked by this total control on the part of th
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