Nationalism in modern Era

Nationalism in modern Era

Despite the many movements that persisted throughout the world in the past centuries, the ideology of nationalism came out as the most significantly important underlying factor in shaping the views, tastes and opinions of the public globally. Nationalism as an ideology has been a widely debated topic of modern times. For some, it is a harmless one that affords an identity to the people while strengthening the bonds of brotherhood, and leads to better and cordial relations between a group of people sharing the same culture, geography, or language etc. However, some view it cynically maintaining that nationalism contributes to conflicts, wars and is the cause of hatred among different peoples.

Nationalism is strengthened through cultural and political factors. It is also strengthened through the bonds that hold groups of people together such as religion, history, politics, language and traditions. Nationalism has never been an easy concept to define and scholars have argued over a concise definition that would also be comprehensive. However, nationalism can be better understood if it is viewed as an ideology, that is political nationalism, ethnic nationalism and cultural nationalism, all combined together which have come out in greatly influencing nations all around the globe as one of the most contemporary influences. There are other kinds of nationalism too, namely ethnic nationalism and cultural nationalism. Their influence has been wide and far reaching (Heywood, 1997).

Political nationalism has come out as the most important form of nationalism in exhibiting its influence. It has been the real factor behind wars and can be said to be the cause of the two World Wars. It is the concept that unites people of a same nation through their mutually shared one common identity; citizenship. Political nationalism came out to be the most significant tool used by capitalists, communist, fascists, and democrats etc to propagate their ideas. Cultural nationalism has also not been of any less importance as it integrated people sharing the same language history or tradition into one unit. Ethic nationalism served to provide yet another important sense of identity on the basis of ethnicity (Heywood, 1997).

In short the factors that render nationalism as the most important ideology of modern times are political, cultural, ethnic, religious and langue ones.

Nationalism can be stated to be the most important prevalent ideology of modern times. Why? The answer lies in the developments that took place during the 20th century. Rise and fall of nations fuelled by the concept of nationalism was witnessed throughout the world. The influence started much earlier. It started from the middle of the 19th century. The two World Wars were the result of a conflict fuelled by nationalism. The rise of Germany and many other European powers took place on the basis of nationalism. So was the case with regards to a united Germany later on, and with India and Yugoslavia. Accompanied with the rise of several nations was the fall of some other nations due to nationalism. The fall of the Soviet Union ...