Joseph Llobera - The God of Modernity

- Modernist conception projects an image of nation as if it were a reality created ex nihilo.

This is only acceptable if in the definition on the nation the main emphasis is placed on
the idea of popular sovereignty.

- Settlement of Germanic peoples in Hispania, Gallia, Italia was numerically small and
Germanic peoples in those areas were linguistically and culturally swamped by
Romanized local populations, while in Germania and Britannia, there was only tenuous
Roman influence. However, things changed in Germania with Charlemagne, while
Britannia had to wait until Norman invasions. The Roman Christian Church, no doubt
provided an indirect source of Romanization.

- The highest political integration of Germanic peoples was the tribe (Stamm), also
referred to as people (populus, civitas), nation (natio) etc. The initial impulse of stamm
formation was thirst for adventure, glory, booty or subsistence. As the leader became
successful, he elaborated and inculcated an identity myth. This myth rarely claimed
autochthonous status for the emerging identity group; instead, it ascribed a distant,
fabulous origin.

- Germanic tribes were commanded by war leaders who had limited and short-term goals
to achieve; the Germanic peoples certainly did not intend to conquer Rome, but to settle
somewhere in the empire. It was the pressure of nomad Huns that made the invasions
‘inevitable’.

- Germanic invaders converted to Arianism. Arian doctrine was a Hellenic heresy of the
4th century. They believed in hierarchical trinity şn which the divinity corresponded only
to the Father, while the Son was a perfect being but created by the Father and the Holy
Spirit was the third person and inferior to Son. For the Germanics Arianism meant
accepting certain tenets of Roman civilization they admired, while at the same time
rejecting the power structure of the Empire, both at the polito-economic and religious
levels. The Arian Church was completely subordinated to the temporal power of the
Gothic kings.

- Romans successfully created an empire based on patriotism rather than ethnic identity.
In 3rd century, ethnic consciousness was weak in the Western Empire, whereas in the
East, ethnic separatism, often disguised in religious terms, made its appearance in
Syria, Egypt and Judea.

- There is no doubt that Frankish rule was seen as alien and oppressive by a variety of
peoples (both non-Frankish Germanic peoples like Bavarians, Saxons, Lombards,
Burgundians, Goths etc and non Germanic peoples such as Bretons, Gascons etc.) who
had sense of different identity based in linguistic and cultural features.

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- an East Frankish state created after Treaty of Verdun (843). At least until the thirteenth
century the state created a common framework of institutions, historical experiences,
memories and destiny that helped to create the idea of German or Teutonic (Deutsche)
nation, even if later the principalities dominated German life until nineteenth century.

- In post-Norman England, there were no provincial dynasties that could challenge the
central power of the monarchy and local institutions and local officials tended to reflect
royal presence rather than the autonomous provincial power of earls and barons. The
Norman invasion wiped out those from the Anglo-Saxon period and Normans made
sure that except in the marches no aristocrat held compact territory. That is why
England became the first centralized, ‘modern’ state of Europe in a process that took
place between 1100 and 1300.

- England was one of the first European countries to exhibit a sense of unity and identity,
and it was achieved long before the conquest. By ninth century Alfred could be referred
to as king of the English. But even before that there was a sense in which people like
Bede and Alcuin were already seen as English and not as Northumbrians.

- The role of a unifying monarchy (Wessex-Mercia), assisted by the Church which

specialized kingship, created appropriate conditions for different Germanic invaders
(Jutes, Angles, Saxons) with diverse origins and customs to develop a common law and
lifestyle. Establishment of the shires by Edward the Elder in 10th century undermined
local autonomy by cutting across tribal settlements. Another feature of the English
monarchy was the importance of the ‘personal tie.’ The title to land was not based upon
any claim to independent ownership bu was the reward or symbol of service.

- Expressions used in the Middle ages to refer to a people, that is natio, gens and
populus, had two important underlying features: they assumed common biological
descent but also common culture (and often the same laws and language).

- Kenneth McAlpin created the new kingdom od Alba, which brought together Scots and
Picts. Union of these two peoples was made possible by an external threat: the
incursions of the Nordic peoples. It took the consolidation of a centralized state along
feudal lines, the unifying role of the Scottish Church, and the constant threat of an
Anglo-Norman invasion to generate Scottish ‘national spirit’.

- Anglo-Saxons never succeed in expelling Britons from their Welsh mountainous

refuges, thus, they preserved their Christianity and part of their Roman culture (part of
their Roman law), more importantly the developed a sense of separate identity.

- In 5th and 6th centuries, Christian monks converted Wales to Christianity. Distinctive
characteristic of the Britons vis-a-vis the Picts and Saxons war Christianity.

- By the 9th century, the inhabitants spoke a form of Welsh and referred to their country
as Cymru; nonetheless the still had wider sense of identity in so far as they identified
with the northern Britons. A crucial factor which gave impetus to this belief was a myth

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 of common descent: the Britons were thought to have descended from an eponymous
Trojan hero, Brutus. Royal genealogies with a more limited sense of local identity
attached to a smaller territory were also use in Wales at that time. The two concepts of
being affiliated to a people of ancient British, ultimately Trojan stock and of belonging
more concretely of a gwlad (region or locality) and its ruling house would long persist in
the minds of the free population.

- under the king Hywel Dda in the 10th century, Welsh law was codified and unified,
literature flourished both in Latin and in Welsh and a number of political institutions
emerged.

- The Irish managed to remain culturally and linguistically homogenous for a long time,
invasions had no any noticeable effects on them. Even Viking invaders accepted Irish
culture in the long run. One important development took place in 5th century: the
spreading of Christianity by Saint Patrick. The civilizing effect of Christianity was soon to
be seen in Ireland, with flourishing of the arts and literature; the monks also contributed,
to creating a sense of Irish identity. The Irish were profoundly conscious of themselves
as a larger community or natio, that their learned classes were preoccupied with this
very notion and that in the 11th and 12th centuries the greater kings attempted to turn
this consciousness to political advantage. By the 7th century there was a theory which
connected the Irish with the Biblical Adam via Mill of Spain; the basic idea was that the
Irish had a common origin and hence they constitute a community. The fact that both
the legal and ecclesiastical systems of Ireland were different from other parts of
Romanized Europe, were additional factors which contributed to make Irish identity
more obvious.

- In 14th century, English became the official language of the England and literature
began to produce in English. Educated elite had remarkable awareness of national
identity. The literature of shows how the Welsh, the Scots, the Irish and the French
perceived as different peoples. That they were often presented in terms of disparaging
stereotypes.

- At the Council of Constance, in the early 15th century, the English delegation asserted
their autonomy in following manner: Whether a nation be understood as a people
marked from others by blood relationship and habit of unity, or by peculiarities of
language (the most sure and positive sign and essence of a nation in divine human law)
… or whether a nation be understood, as it should be, a territory equal to that of the
French nation, England is a real nation.

- By the 14th century, with a clear delineation of lowlanders and highlanders, Scotland
was a ‘two-nation’ state. However, in the context of wars of independence in 1329 and
1371, Anglicized lowlanders developed a sense of Scottish national identity. The Scots
opposed the English myth of descent with stated that the inhabitants of the island were
descend from the Trojan Brutus. They proposed an alternative origin for the people of
Scotland: they were meant to have descended from the daughter of the pharaoh of

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 Egypt, Scotia, who came via Spain to Ireland and the to Scotland, and expelled the
descendants of Brutus south ot the border.

- In the Remonstrance of 1317, the Irish Kings asked the Pope to defend their right to
govern themselves alleging to that end that Irish kings were not descended from Brutus
but from Milesius of Spain, that they had been ruling in Ireland for 3500 years and that
the Irish people had enjoyed political freedom until the English had subjected them to
unjust rule.

- A Capetian king was bestowed with the titles of rex and Church’s representative through
a number of rituals, but he couldn’t enforce his feudal rights beyond the confines of the
core of his own duchy. Up until 13th century, Gallia was basically mosaic of autonomous
duchies or principalities.

- In 11th century, a major linguistic division started. Midi and Catalonia had developed
similar dialects of Latin referred to as langues d’oc, while north of the Loire the langues
d’oil had a unity their own. Occitan language was poetical language of whole Latin
Europe from 11th to 13th centuries.

- In the period between 11th and mid-13th centuries the principalities of southern Gallia
started to create strong territorial states.

- by the turn of the 13th century the royal demesne had increased its territories
substantially. No doubt the Carpetians starting with Philip Augustus were able to bank
on the prestige and sacred character attached to the person of the king as suzerain of
the different principalities of Gallia or even on the prestige of the kingdom itself.

- Philip Augustus defeated coalition of English, Flemish and Holly Roman Empire troops
at Bouvines in 1214. This Battle taught 3 fundamental things. 1- Because Philip
defeated great Barons like counts of Flanders and Boulogne, he was the supreme
feudal lord over the kingdom. 2- because he vanquished a Roman emperor, the French
remained independent of the Empire in fulfillment of their Trojan origins. 3- because
Philip successfully defended the Church against excommunicated enemies, the
Capetians vindicated their title regis chrisitanissimi and Philip personally became a
candidate for sainthood. French histography has tended to see in Bouvines the first
national event in French history. The political kudos derived from victories, particularly
Bouvines, greatly enchanted the prestige of the monarchy and these victories became a
key marker in the creation of a royal mythology in the following period. The symbolic use
of such events is visible in the literature produced by royal panegyrists for nearly a
century.

- one year before the Bouvines, Simon de Montfort, loyal to Philip, defeated count of
Toulouse and King of the Catalano-Aragonese Confederation at Muret, hence putting
end to the idea of an Occitan Catalan confederation and preparing the way for the
integration of the Midi into the Capetian monarchy.

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- Territorial integrity of the kingdom was preserved in the mid-15th century, when the
king’s domains ceased to be considered his personal property.

- in France, state preceded and created the nation, although once the latter was in
existence a kind of feedback would operate. It was during the 13th century that the
expression regnum Francie came into use and that the idea of France as the common
country of the French people emerged; by the time, a distinction was clearly made
between those born in the country (naturates) and those born outside of it (extraneus).
By the 14th century, the borders of France acquired a political, economic, fiscal and
especially military reality. It would be inaccurate, however, to assume that national
awareness was all state-derived. In fact, it was an early elaboration of earlier traditions
in particular Carolingian themes of Frankish cultural and moral superiority, as well as
religious messianism; there was a genuine love of country and language.

- Medieval chronicles used the past of France to justify the present. This past conceived
though two myths of origins: one pagan (Trojan or Gaul), one Christian (St. Clovis). The
first national histories appeared in 12th century. The pagan myth of origin followed by
the model of the foundation of Rome by Aenas of Troy and his companions. This myth
of descent was created as early as 7th century and lasted until well into 15th century.
The myth referred to a mythical ancestors of Franks - Francion- who left Troy to settle
eventually in Germania and whose descendants later moved into Gallia. Having Trojan
ancestors has a number of advantages; it guaranteed the ancient character and
prestige of the national solidarity on the basis of common blood. In addition, it justified
the stop rank of the kingdom in the concert of nations and vis-a-vis the Church and
Empire. All national histories from the 12th to 15th centuries dedicated to the first
chapter to the tale of the migration of the Trojan princely heroes. By the end of 15th
century, the idea of Trojan origins of the Franks had been undermined by a variety of
critics (mostly Italian humanists) and a Gaul myth of origin was inaugurated in which the
Gauls were seen as the direct ancestors and as the founders of Troy. However, what
justify most the character of France was Christian myths. If the Trojan/gaul origins
represented biological birth of France, St. Clovis represented the spiritual birth of the
nation. The myth of Trojan/Gaul descent was essential part of of the definitions of the
Frenchness from the very beginning, bur the idea of a national territory took shape,
albeit in the later period.

- In 14th century prayers were not only said for the king and the kingdom, but also for the
nation.

- For a culture which was essentially non-literary, signs and symbols were the best
source of access to the idea of nation. Most important representation of the France in
medieval period was heraldic lilies.

- Language and culture were not decisive elements of national sentiment in France at the
time. In the kingdom there were other languages besides French (Occitan, Breton,
Basque, Flemish etc) and Latin was still very prestigious.

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- Robert Gaguin (1443-1501) was excelled in his defence of his country and he
approached ferocious nationalism. İn his Compendium de Francorum Origine et Gestis ,
which is a series of biographies of kings, legends and supernaturals are avoided and
the monarchs appear both as religious and powerful. He stated that what moved him to
write was the love, glory and honor of his country.

- the patria that is referred to in the 14th and 15th centuries, is no longer, or not only the
local patria, but the whole France.

- As for Bretons, by the 14th century they had clear sense of identity which expressed
itself through terms such as anti and pais, although these terms often menant little else
than a reference to a common origin. Growth of regional identity of in Brittany was slow
and uncertain.

- Idea of France had found expression in a single state (although not a unitary one) and in
sense of national identity (limited to a small group of people). This was a remarkable
success if we consider the political, linguistic and cultural variety of Gallia. By 1500, the
French identity was weaker than the English equivalent.

- The memory of Charlemagne as the paladin of the universal, Christian empire was a
powerful symbolic tool which justified the continued existence of the Holy Roman
Empire.

- The expressions of italianita that appeared at different moments in time had no political
impact.

- City-states in Italy provided the physical, social and political patriotism. Citizens gave an
oath of loyalty to the commune which involved a variety of duties (fiscal, military, civic.

- The city-states were patriae, Abroad, however, Venetians, Pisans and Genovese were
perceived as Italians and this helped to create a certain sense of linguistic and cultural
identity.

- Cola di Rienzo was the first Italian to have in mind the concept of the national and
political unity of Italy, separated from the universality of the Empire. He influence
Petrarca. Political objectives of Petrarca (to unify Italy, to restore the Papacy from
Avignon to Rome and to recreate a Rome-centered Empire) largely coincided with those
of Cola di Rienzo. Rienzo rejected supranational interests, both papal and imperial
domination were anathema to his project.

- There were a number of attempts to unite the Italian state during the sixteenth century,
but to no avail because particularist interest prevailed. At the intellectual level there was
a gradual awareness of belonging to a common historical and cultural group. Italianita
was essentially a phenomenon restricted to well-educated people. In addition, not all
intellectuals were in favor of a unified Italy alone the French model. Machiavelli was
perhaps a prophet of Italian unity, but his contemporary Guicciardini, although well

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 conscious of the cultural unity, wanted peace, but not necessarily political union
between Italian states.

- An important feature of the Austrian Kingdom was the absence of feudalism. The
Reconquista favored the existence of strong monarchy and a larger class of freemen.
Those who repopulated the newly conquered lands were for the most part small, free
proprietors, hardy frontiersmen, who gave allegiance to no lord save the king.

- From the beginning of 10th century the monarchs no longer resided in Austrias, but
further south in Leon, hence the change of name to Kingdom of Leon or Austrias-Leon.
By this time Castille had started to develop as a region with a strong and independent
personality, A frontier area, Castille was more autonomous than any other regions of the
kingdom. In the second half of the 10th century, Castille became practically
independent.

- By the close of 13th century the distinct personality of each of the Christian kingdoms of
the Iberian peninsula that had survived (Aragon, Navarre, Castile, Portugal) was well-
established and so was the territorial extension of each of them.

- The region eliminated by the rivers Minho and Dourro, known as Portugal, had had a
cultural and political identity at least since the ninth century. As a geographically isolated
frontier territory, it soon develop a distinct personality. In the long run, the aristocracy of
Portugal felt alienated from the rule of Castile-Leon and sought autonomy. Portuguese
identity originated as a result of the distinctiveness of a territory and the specific
historical experience of a group.

- Unlike Portugal, Galicia was more turned towards Leon and later Castile, and thus open
to western European influences.

- Three factor account for Castilian quasi-absolutism. 1. Castilian monarchy rested on

sacralization of power. It mirrored Capetian Monarchy. 2. Crusading tradition of Castile.
Its ethos of war and conquest had no rival. 3. The most important one is the absence of
proper feudalism.

- There were no Spanish nation ot even state at the end of the medical period. There was
certainly an accidental dynastic union of the crowns of Cattle and Aragon. The marriage
was only meant to be short-term agreement but the lack of descendants and weakness
of crown of Aragon maintained the union. There were no Spanish Monarchy in 16th and
17th centuries. Victory of Bourbons in the war of succession in 18th century ended the
autonomy of crown of Aragon. So, proper Spanish centralized and unified state and a
Spanish nation began to take a shape.

- Sphere of applicability of national consciousness is limited; national sentiments were

restricted to a small population. With all this provisions, it is still meaningful to speak of
medieval nations.

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- The medieval use of terms such as anti and patria indicate presence of developing
political and cultural realities.

- According to Thomas Aquinas, language determined the essence of the nation.

- An early focus for the nation was the notion of blood ties. This was a Germanic
conception that persisted during medieval period.

- Administrative divisions had an impact in formation of Italia and Hispania.

- Having a proper name of a country is also important. It implies crystallization of a sense
of collective identity, signifies the existence of a state and/or nation.

- An interesting use of the word “nation” occurred in medieval universities. Students

tended to grouped under “nations”. There was no unanimous use of the term; in some
cases it referred to country go birth, in others to the common language and in still others
to the principle of residence.

- Towards the late medieval period the sentiment of foreign domination became more
explicit. National self-consciousness was closely related to this sentiment. For example,
The Hundred Years War greatly contributed to French national identity.

- By the end of the Middle ages, and long before Luther and Henry VIII had come on to
the scene, gallicanism was triumphant.

- The modern nation differs from the medieval one in that the former exhibits an
incomparable much wider sphere of consciousness, incorporating practically the whole
population.

- State and nation reinforced each other.

- Modern nationalisms are recreations of medieval realities; in fact, they can only be
successful if they are rooted in the medieval past, even if the links with it mat often be
torturous and twisted.

- Industrialism may accelerate the nationalist process, bu it does not create it.
- Contemporary states inexorably call themselves nations independently of whether within
their territories other nations different from the dominant one may exist. In modern times
the nationality principle is so pervasive as a way of legitimation that no state can survive
without it.

- Modern state did not appear in a political vacuum, but rather in the context of a number
of other emerging, sovereign states; in other words, what characterized Western Europe
from the late medieval period onwards was the existence of a system of states within
the same civilizational ecumene. Neither imperium nor ecclesia succeeded in imposing
their domination: the consequence was a constellation of autonomous states.

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- The appeal of the idea of a European (Universal Christian) empire was there all the
time, but by the end of the Middle Ages a number of sovereign states, that is,
independent from Pope and Emperor, had appeared.

- “National state” is not necessarily a strictly defined nation-state, but rather a modern
state which is neither a city-state nor an empire, and which exhibits the following
features: 1. it controlled a well-defined, continuous territory. 2. relatively centralized. 3. it
was differentiated from other organizations. 4. and it reinforced claims through a
tendency to acquire a monopoly over the concentrated means of physical coercion
within its territory.

- In the early modern period, the ethno-national element was not central for the emergent
state; in fact, as I have already said, during the absolutist era the ethno-national element
receded into the background, because the power of territorial expansion was paramount
and such a policy was not particularly congenial to ethno-national considerations.

- From medieval period to 18th century the principle of nationality was one among other
bonds of state legitimation; it was only after the French Revolution that it became the
strongest pillar of the state.

- Ethno-national identities forged in the medieval period die hard.

- France manipulated the nationality principle by claiming Roussillon was geographically
French, Savoy was linguistically French and Alsace was historically French.

- Marxist believe that nationalism is the ideology of an ascendant industrial bourgeoisie

which tries to secure a market for its commodities. They understand nationalism as
economic nationalism i.e as the idea that nascent industries need protection from
foreign competition if the objective is to achieve the economic development of the
country.

- Civil society is the sum of social relations and institutions that develop spontaneously
out of a situation in which people interact in a variety of spheres, the state may be and
often is imposed from outside. In the medieval period, civil society had to fight against
the states on two different fronts. first, to have its autonomy recognized against feudal
regulations, and second, to avoid impingement or domination from neighboring states.
In the city-states of this period, civil society and state tended to a great extent to
overlap. The patriotic feelings developed in midst of the Italian city-states. However, that
is not today that concept of nation was limited to city-states.

- Both Dutch and Swiss states emerged as federations of city-states aimed at defending
their autonomy; in the case of the United Provinces the existence of a thriving and
patriotic civil society was a key factor assuring their success against the centralizing
aims od the Habsburg Monarchy.

- Conditions of Italy was different. It was not only the question of spreading italianta by a
minority group of intellectuals but also challenging reactionary and oppressive regimes
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 of the different Italian states. Secret societies were formed (Carbonari, Young Italy, etc),
insurrectional movements were fostered and terrorist acts performed. It is a case of civil
society taking the lead and sponsoring the creation of Italian nation-state. Even tough
actual formation of Italian State in 1861 was the result of force.

- Why should civil society be fostering nationalism? Nationalism against the state present
an even better case for exploring the link between civil society and nationalism. In such
context, nationalism has not only to be “created” or “awakened”, but in its diffusion it has
to compete against existing state nationalism. The comparative study of Western
European cases seems to suggest that even where there is a strong ethno-national
identity, the presence or advance of a thriving civil society is a determinant factor in the
appearance and consolidation of nationalism, both ideologically and politically.

- We might conclude that the failure of the Occitan idea, the fact that it had no impact
beyond very reduced circle of people, can be attributed first of all to a weak ethno-
national potential but also the absence of civil society. Scotland and Catalonia both had
strong ethno-national potential, and yet only Catalonia managed to articulate a
nationalist movement. Scottish civil society looked more towards London than towards
Edinburgh, while in Catalonia the civil society had been promoting Catalan Language
and literature, music, arts etc.

- During the long medieval period there developed a close, organic connection between
church and state which has given rise to the term “national” church (even if it was first a
state church and later national). The proto-reformes Wyclif and Huss were basically
heralding a call for a curtailment of Roman intervention and correspondingly for an
assertion, to a certain extentt, of “national” values (including the use of the vernacular
for religions purposes).

- Protestant national churches played a key role in the establishment and consolidation,
or at least defence of nations and states. From Martin Luther’s apology of the German
nation, and attack against the pope and Italian cultural domination to the powerful
patriotic feelings generated by Calvinism in Geneva Scotland and the United Provinces.
State and Churched legitimized each other in the context of Reformation.

- The French Revolution created another major chasm between state and church.
Revolutionaries attempted to create a state religion and a state church that conflicted
with interest of Catholic Church. Even after the Napoleonic Concordat. At the ideological
level there was a clash between secular and republican ideology and Catholic doctrine.
The only solution was the separation of the state and church.

- The case of Catalonia is a good example of that type of ‘national church. ’In 18th
century many Catalan priest executed because they remain faithful to Catalan
language. In spire of the appointment of non-Catalan bishops, the ordinary parish priest
continued to preach in Catalan. The Catalan Church was in the vanguard of the
“Renaxiença” (Catalan Renaissance) with grammarians, poets and intellectuals. By the
end of the 19th century, Bishop Josep Torres i Bages had produced an ideological
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 blueprint in which Catholicism was indispensable component, or precondition of Catalan
national identity; hereafter the Catalan Church embraced the dictum: ‘Catalonia will be
Christian, or she will not be at all’.

- Modern Basque national Catholicism was predicated in opposition to the Spanish state
which was seen as secular.

- Institutionalize religion (the church) then played an important role in legitimation of the
state and in fostering nationalist values. Nationalism tapped into the same reservoir of
ideas, symbols and emotions as religion; in other words, that religion was
metamorphosed into nationalism.

- Patrie and freedom were closely connected. Both La Brytere and Montesquieu had
stated that there was no patria under despotism. A number of texts contributed to the
idea that la patria was the land where people were free and happy.

- Montesquieu had also recorded this meaning of Patrie, and he clearly differentiated it
from the state, as when he said that in a monarchic government ‘the state survives
independently of the love of country’ because the law takes the place of this virtue.

- Prior to 1750 the term nation was mostly used in a neutral sense to designate, as the
Dictionnaire de l’Academie (1694) suggested, a group of people who lived under the
same laws and used the same language.

- For Rousseau, the love of country makes people virtuous and happy; but if the patria
has institutions which impair the happiness and freedom of people then they have to be
changed; with Rousseau the word patrie increases its revolutionary charge.

- Voltaire was certain that the idea of nation, as well as that patrie would be erased from
repertoire of the ‘men of reason’, or those who believed in cosmopolitanism. Against
what he believed was a process of uniformization, which was obliterating the distinctive
national characters of the different European people, Rousseau was a fervent partisan
of maintaining what is typical of each nation: its passions, its mores and its tates
(predilections)

- The concept of general spirit of the nation (esprit général de la nation) is no doubt one
of the central tenets of Montesquieu’s De l’esprit des lois (1748), even if the treatment
that Montesquieu gave it may appear to be somewhat cursory. In Book XIX, chapter
five, we are told that the spirit of the nation is formed by a variety of factors: climate,
religion, laws, maxims of government, precedents, morals and customs: and that the
relative importance of each factor will vary with the prominence of the others. Among
primitive peoples, nature and climate seem to rule alone, while morals, characterize the
Spartans and law tyrannizes the Japanese.

- In his short essay Of National Characters (1748), David Hume assumed each nation
had a peculiar set of manners and that these can often be explained by reference to
physical (climate) and moral (government, wealth etc.) causes.
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- Rousseau distinguished between northern climates and southern climates; in the
former, harsher climate, the language of the nation geared towards reason (mutual aid);
in the latter, softer climate, towards emotion (love and pity). These developments, one
should insist, took place prior to the development of civil government. For Rousseau this
was probably the happiest state of man.

- According to Rousseau, The first rule to follow is the national character. Every people
should has or should have one, and if the national character is lacking one must begin
by giving it to the people. In the latter case, as we shall see, it is up to the legislator to
give a people its distinctive national character.

- According to Rousseau, there was not the slightest chance, that a political nation could
be created independently of its nature, culture, history. Nation-building, in other words,
is not simply a matter of national purpose and political will. To be a nation requirers
continuity as well as identity, a tradition of culture as well as the creation of a political
structure.

- For Rousseau, more was required to create a national consciousness and and an esprit
de corps than the work of the languages. The will of all did not necessarily coincide with
the general will. To that end, Rousseau put great weight on what we could call national
or public education. The model chosen by Rousseau for education is the Spartan one,
in which what matters most is not so much knowledge but the forging of patriotic
citizens; it is an education under the rigid control of the state which aims at creating a
strong national character.

- Herder was the founder of the cultural nationalism, that is, of a doctrine which defines a
nation in terms of ethnic features, but Herder was also concerned with the political
society and its legitimation.

- The centrality of language in Herder’s definition of the Volk cannot be overemphasized.

At times it would appear as if a national community is defined mainly, if not exclusively,
by its language, and the genius of a nation would seem to find its expression in the
language of the community. Even when he considers other factors affecting the nation,
they are always reflected through language.

- Herder’s political model is one that follows from Mosaic Law. 1) it emphasizes a
somewhat inflexible and legalistic republican type of constitution. 2) it conceives of the
nation without central focus of power, but rather self-government for the different
sectional groups. 3) The legislative power is in the hands of the elders, who are seen as
the representative body. 4) the individual is part of the whole which is the nation.

- A number of thematic ideas emerged during the last quarter of the 18th century which
constituted the core of romanticism and what they directly or indirectly contributed to the
spread of nationalist world vision.

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- Pluralism is the belief not merely in multiplicity, but in the incommensurability of values
of different cultures and values.

- The diversity of nations was natural and necessary and also supremely desirable and
right. It is arguable what kind of nationalism follows from this concern with
Eigentümlichkeit (peculiarity), whether the humanitarian one a la Herder or the
exclusivist and chauvinist one. Lovejoy believed that the idea of national superiority had
roots in the romantic intimation or pursuit and praise of difference, which easily led to
the development of prejudice against other nations.

- Romanticism was intrested in the past for its own sake; the past was not only
knowledge, in fact it embedded the loftiest and most worthy ideas.

- The holistic conception of the nation was very much one of Herder’s presuppositions.
The Idea that the social whole was more than the sum of tis parts - the individuals - was
a new idea in the century where individual was at the centre of attention and where
society was conceived as finding its resolution in the analysis of the parts that made it.
Metaphors of the nation as an organism (plant of animal) where rife with Romanticism.
The idea of the birth, growth, maturity and decadence of the nation will be echoed in
many writers following Herder’s exhortations.

- For the Romantics emotions and imagination were most important than anything else.
Patriotism, as an emotional affair, ranked high in the hierarchy of values of the Romantic
man; love of country was natural, nearly instinctive, except that cosmopolitism had killed
those feelings and had to be reinstated so that the natural course of things would follow.
For this a certain amount of voluntarism was needed.

- There are 2 dimensions which should be carefully distinguished: nationalism as an

ideology vesiculated by the internal developments of the French Revolution and hence
open to imitation by other countries, and nationalism as a reaction against imperialist
policies of Napoleon. We could say at this stage, perhaps somewhat simplistically, that
the contradiction between the national ideas of the French Revolution and the practice
of national oppression by Napoleon created a wide nationalist reaction in Europe
against French domination.

- In the 18th century the controversy on racial origin of French people had polarized
around the figures of Boulainvilliers and Dubos. Boulainvilliers, who was a count,
maintained that the Frankish aristocracy were the only legitimate power in France, and
that they had acquired this right thorough conquest, that is, by subjecting the existing
Gallo-Roman population. He insisted that the only the aristocracy had the right to attend
the Estates General. Dubos challenges his thesis. He was an adamant that the
settlement of the Franks was peaceful and had prolonged Roman domination. In
addition, Franks had intermarried with the Gallo-Romans and France was result of this
blending. Against Dubos, many sustained the conquest theory of the Gauls by Franks,
but rejected Boulainvilliers’ idea that the Gallo-Romans were enslaved. Penetration of

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 the Franks was more in the forms of raid than full-scale invasion, hence the original
population was left largely undistributed , with their political and civil rights intact.

- Sieyés proposed a political definition of the nation in which ethnic or linguistic features
played no part. He stated that the Third Estate was the nation, and was racially
composed of the descendant of the Gallo-Roman population. He offered that, the Third
Estate should repatriate to the Franconian forests of all these families who preserve the
crazy retentions of descending from the race of the conquerors .

- It would be naive to expect that the French Revolution vehiculated a single conception
of the nation. At let 3 ideas were present. 1) Jacobin conception of the nation. In
conception of Robespierre, its best known representative, embraced idea of nation of
patriots. Patriotism is conceived as a struggle for freedom and human rapprochement.
The patrie doesn’t exist ideally with independence of people’s behavior. It is through
patriotic acts that the patrie is created. 2) Populism. It refers to sovereignty of sans-
culottes. They saw the nation as an externalization of the patriotic sentiment, the
essence of which was the affirmation of unity by abolishing all that separated the social
body. They didn’t use the word nation because to them it basically meant system of
representation which excluded them from the National Assembly. Their motto was
popular sovereignty, not national representation. 3) Centrist. It emphasized the territorial
union of the nation. Danton and Girondins are representatives. Danton stated that the
limits of French Republic were marked by the existence of natural boundaries: The
Rhine, the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Atlantic.

- Cultural nationhood is a value - one of the highest values of modernity in so far as it

evokes the secularized religious sense of community - which different social groups,
including states, will try to appropriate for themselves.

- The state appropriated the capacity of nationalism to provide psychic and emotional
sustenances in an age marked by a decline of religion and by the dehumanizations of
industrialism. Nationalism thrived because it tapped the potent emotions of history and
locality to give individual lives meaning in an increasingly meaningless universe.

- The international balance of power determines each historical moment what is possible
and what is not. Hence, the timing of the unification, as well as the territorial limits of the
state spend on the international balance of power. The German national star was
created by Bismarck’s military machine. In the Italian case, the nationalist doctrines of
Mazzini may have galvanized the Italian people, the strategic genius of Garibaldi may
have brought military victories, the political cunning of Cavour may have prepared the
union and no doubt the northern bourgeoisie put pressure for creation of large national
market; but all these factors might have been insufficient had not France been
interested in creating a strong, independent country which could be a counter-balance
to the Austro-Hungarian empire. In addition, France obtained territorial concessions
from Italy, (Savoy, Nice).

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- The ideologists of the Third Republic in general and Jules Ferry in particular never had
any doubts that the process of francization was but a blessing for the country. The
sense that ethnic or linguistic peculiarities had value never occurred in the; losers in
history had no other place but in the dustbins of history.

- 3 phases in the development of minority nationalism against the state in 19th century.
Phase A) Presence of active intelligentsia involved in the discovery of the history,
culture and language of a forgotten nation. The social impact of such activities limited to
cultural circles. Phase B) awakening of national consciousness; it involves a wider
group of people (important sector of the educated bourgeoisie, petty-bourgeoisie and
other) being won to the national cause and emergence of a small group of patriots
engaged in political agitation. Phase C) Formulation of well-articulated political projects
which manages to capture significant layers of the population. The nationalist movement
becomes a mass movement with a clear consciousness.

- Nation is the paramount value of modernity that states have tried, with varying results,
to transform themselves into communities, into nations. The kind of loyalty that the
modern state requires for its functioning is best achieved if the citizens participate not
only in a rational-instrumental way, but also if the integrative aspects of the nation - the
mythohlogicoritual - are preserved and even enhanced.

- The idea of multiculturalism was floated as a possible alternative to the failed

assimilationist policies of an earlier period. In the past few years the situation seems to
have reached a stalemate, with no obvious solution in sight.

- In modern era national identities re-created.

- Why did the idea of political and cultural nationalism flourish in the second half of 18th
century? And why did it take off so rapidly and become an essential part of the
repertoire of modernity? Nation can only be understood as product of long dureé; what
we see in 18th century is the culmination of an uneven process which had lasted for
centuries (including absolutist period in which the idea of nation was eclipsed by the
might of the expanding state) and which built on the classical notion of patria and the
medieval idea of nation as an imaginaire.

- In one respect nationalist ideology can be pictured as a reaction against the

cosmopolitanism of the Enlightenment.

- American Revolution of 1776 was the combination of French Revolution and the
reactions against the Napoleonic invasions that shaped the future of nationalism.

- The absolutist state was on the whole inimical to the development of national identity.
As a result, there was a regression of national identity in the early modern period.

- It is not so much industrialization but modernization that had a positive effect on the
development of nationalism.

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- The success of nationalism in modernity has to be attributed largely to the sacred
character that the nation has inherited from religion. In its essence the nation is
secularized god of our times.

- What determines the survival of a given nation is the will of its people of preserve their
identity, albeit in a somewhat changed form.

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