Imperialism and Nationalism, Essay Example

Imperialism and Nationalism among Nations in the 19^th Century

In the history of the world, building of empires is not a new thematic concern. Since time immemorial, strong societies have always thought of taking over the weaker neighbors. The idea behind these motives is to amass natural resources, acquire wealth, subdue enemies, and win glory and power among other benefits. Owing to the acquisition of centralized governments, sea power, and powerful economies, European countries decided to establish empires across the globe. The motivations behind this were to access materials for their industries, and access other valuables lacking in their countries. In its context, nationalism is the feeling of being attached to each other as portrayed by citizens of a given nation, and the level of pride depicted by a nation. In itself, nationalism is an ideology that people can use to defend and promote a certain way of life. Nationalism is deemed as a pillar, which strengthens the foundation of any society and mostly used by those in power to promote patriotism and national unity. The following discussion is based on arguments from J. G. von Herder, Charles Darwin, and J. Hobson in relation to the extent nationalism and imperialism reflect the assumption that nineteenth-century European societies were engaged in a struggle for existence among themselves.

As observed by Charles Darwin, nationalism is a selfish ideology meant to portray a certain group of people as bad or good. It its context, it is just an avenue used by other nations to advance their interests. While most people may argue that nationalism is more or less like patriotism, Darwin observes that the definitions of the two are controversial. Nationalism cannot be detached from the need and greediness for power and this makes it hard for societies to co-exist. This is evident in nationalist movements formed in Japan, Germany, and other nations. The afore-mentioned societies were drunk with the mentality of imperialism and nationalism; thus, the struggle for existence among them became unbearable.

Arguably, nationalism makes it difficult for societies to condone each other, because it triggered other ideologies such as communism, Zionism, Catholicism, pacifism, Trotskyism, and Anti-Semitism among other ideologies. These ideologies are avenues of seeking imperialism, and they are not anywhere near patriotism, as many would like others to believe. Nationalistic feelings can be blamed for the influx of Islam, Jewry, Proletariat, Christendom, and white race among other worldly ideologies. John Hobson (1858-1940) in his article on imperialism observes that, during the 19^th century, nationalism was very dominant and it served as the inner motive for the masses. He goes ahead to cite some societies namely Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, and Servia, who fought hard to detach themselves from the ottoman rule, just as north Italy found it difficult to continue being part of the Austrian empire. The afore-mentioned is a classic example of how societies sin the 19^th century found it difficult to co-exist because at one time, one was trying to short-change each other. Even so, Hobson notes that, not all societies felt that nationalism was breeding imperialism. A classic example is that of Italy, and the Russian Panslavist movement, where the latter deemed the former as a centralizing or unifying force.

Still in the 19^th century, imperialism and nationalism took centre stage and bred federal unions made of nationalities from diverse backgrounds. This was evident in unions such as that of Austria-Hungary, Swiss Federation and Norway and Sweden. Nonetheless, these unions did not hold for long as the provinces and states started to shift alliances and attachments leading to a breakup of the empires. According to John Hobson, the 19^th century witnessed some successes and failures as societies tried to join hands to achieve political freedom. The Poles, Irish, Czechs, Hungarians, and Finns had a rough time while seeking alliances to broker power deals. As seen, nations such as the United States, Belgium and England gained supremacy in the trading and manufacturing fields. Consequently, they deemed it fit to seek labor in the underdeveloped countries. They started annexing and seizing territories to improve their economic supremacy. On seeing this, other nations felt the need for the same and this opened up the scramble for Africa. The demands for foreign markets for the huge investments led to widespread accommodation of imperialism. Imperialism was top priority for these nations for use in seeking employment and settlement of their ever-growing populations.

According to Charles Darwin, living things are created in a manner that they have to depend on each other in order to survive. He likens the idea of countries depending on each other as a forest with different forms of plants and animals, which obviously, will have to rely on each other to survive. Darwin argues that, just as countries in Europe were seeking supremacy all in the name of nationalism, competing against each other, so are the animals in the jungle. Animals are created with diverse species and the males have to compete in order to possess females. The males will have to employ special means and charms in order to win females. Similarly, countries in Europe sought to employ diverse tactics such as forming alliances and adopting certain ideologies such as communism and Nazism, which in most cases collapsed after a certain period. Following the collapse, the nations would find it difficult to co-exist and would part ways.

In the same vein, Johann Gottfried von Herder agrees that nationalism and imperialism reflect the assumption that nineteenth-century European societies found it hard to co-exist. According to him, a nation feels short-changed in a situation where it has been robbed off its national character, language, and spirit peculiarity. He gives an example of Germany, where tribes have found it hard to co-exist since the 19^th century because they feel the need to remain unique and peculiar. While supporting the need for true nationalism, Johann argues that God deemed it fit to create diverse cultures with unique religions, history, and traditions. It is inappropriate for any nation to attempt to seek supremacy through discrediting the culture of another. The culture on any given community is not expressed well through a foreign language. A language helps people to express themselves, and any denial of the same would cause strife and war. This could be explained to mean that, the 19^th century European societies found it hard to tolerate each other owing to the tendency of trying to interfere with each other’s culture.

Conclusively, J. G. von Herder, Charles Darwin, and J. Hobson concur in unison that nineteenth-century European societies were engaged in a struggle for existence among themselves engineered by imperialism and nationalism. As seen in the discussion, nationalism was used as a scapegoat by diverse nations to champion their supremacy needs. Nations such as Germany, Britain, Italy, and the United States sought to form alliances, which eventually collapsed because the parties could not tolerate each other.