Nationalism

Term Paper Title	Nationalism
# of Words	895
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.58

Nationalism

     Nationalism can be viewed as the single most important force in shaping history.  It has caused the
creation and disintegration of countless countries and unions, and has been the cause of nearly every major
war.  Its power over history is understandable.  Nationalism is the sense of unity present in a group of
people of similar ethnic or cultural background.  It carries with it a feeling of separation from, and often
superiority to, other nationalities.  At the end of the nineteenth century, nationalism was causing notable
changes in the boundaries of European countries.  France expanded and contracted as it shifted from
republic to empire and back again.  Germany and Italy were beginning to become established as unified
countries rather than groups of small territories.  Austria and Hungary had joined together under a single
monarchy.  These changes set the stage for the conflicts that would in turn lead to the first World War, a
war fueled almost entirely by nationa!
lism.

     Germany is a prime example of a country strengthened by nationalism.  Before the nineteenth
century, Germany did not exist as a country.  It was comprised of numerous independent states that for the
most part did not identify themselves as having a single nation.  In the mid-1800s, however, Otto von
Bismarck maneuvered the German Confederacy away from Austrian rule and towards becoming its own
separate nation.  King William of Prussia was nominated Emperor of the newly formed Germany.  Otto von
Bismarck became Chancellor, a position directly below the king.  Bismarck then developed a constitution,
establishing the Emperor’s control over foreign and domestic policy and a bicameral legislature, part of
which represented the people and the other part the various German states.  In the 1870s and 1880s,
Bismarck worked at developing a strong, centralized German state, primarily to protect the territories of
Alsace and Lorraine against repossession by France.  Thus, a common purpos!
e and a common enemy were established for the German people.  The unification of Germany allowed for
much greater industrial and military growth.  With a much greater area exploitable for raw materials, the
already industrially rich Germany quickly surpassed Britain as the most industrialized nation in Europe.
This increase in available territory also contributed to the development of the military, both in terms of
people and equipment.  The combination of strong military and strong industry was what enabled Germany
to become a major European power so soon after its establishment.

     Austria-Hungary was significantly weakened by nationalism.  The various ethnicities that
comprised it, seeing Germany, Italy, and other nations forming, wanted similar opportunities.  Since
Austria-Hungary was so large and encompassed so many different regions, it was impossibl...

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