Nationalist Key Thinkers

Question 1

Johan Gottfried von Herder

Answer 1

1744-1803

Question 2

Von Herder: Nationality and type of nationalist

Answer 2

German, Romantic Nationalist, Conservative Nationalist

Question 3

What was the world naturally divided into according to Von Herder?

Answer 3

nations, each one defined by its own distinctive culture.

Question 4

Von herders description of natural culture: how is it developed and word used?

Answer 4

developed through historical experience and kits main characteristic is a common language. Herders use of the German word “Volk”, meaning folk expressed this idea, “folk have common experience that bond them together.”

Question 5

Von Herder quote in the importance of language:

Answer 5

“has a people anything dearer than the speech of its fathers? In its speech resides its whole thought domain, its tradition, history religion and basis of life, all heart and soul ……. The best culture of a people cannot be expressed through a foreign language, it thrives on the soil of a nation most beautiful”.

Question 6

as an opponent to the enlightenment, what did Von Herder think of liberal ideas?

Answer 6

that the fixed ideas of liberalism should not be applied to nationalist movements. This was because every national grouping of Volk was distinctive and developed its own values. This was direct opposition to French philosophy.

Question 7

Von Herder Book:

Answer 7

Treaties on the Origin of Language 1772

Question 8

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Answer 8

1712-78

Question 9

What type of nationalist was Rousseau?

Answer 9

• Liberal nationalist

Question 10

Rousseau book:

Answer 10

Considerations on the Government of Poland in 1771-1772, - The Social Contract, published in 1762.

Question 11

What concern established Rousseau as a nationalist thinker?

Answer 11

Was concerned with how political communities are created - how people might form themselves into units which would be capable of self-government, and which would be stable and capable of remaining united.

Question 12

Rousseau’s views on states controlled by absolute monarchs?

Answer 12

Held together only by the power of that monarch and by his armies and enforcement of law, but this could not be a justification for the existence of the modern state.

Question 13

What kind of freedoms was Rousseau interested in?

Answer 13

He was concerned not only with freedom of the individual but also with the collective freedom of the nation. To this end he wrote Considerations on the Government of Poland in 1771-1772.

Question 14

The third clause of the French post-revolutionary constitution of 1791 was influenced by Rousseau’s ideas:

Answer 14

‘The source of all sovereignty is essentially in the nation; no body, no individual can exercise authority that does not proceed from it in plain terms.’

Question 15

Rousseau’s concept of general will:

Answer 15

Has been interpreted in many different ways: could be interpreted to mean the collective will or spirit of the nation. As such it could not be expressed through conventional democracy but would have to be embodied in the mind of a single, all-powerful individual.

Question 16

Issues with Rousseau’s concept of general will:

Answer 16

It was similar to the philosophy of a number of totalitarian rulers who used it to subjugate their people. Inspiration behind some of the radical nationalist leaders of the twentieth century, including Mussolini in Italy and German National Socialists (Nazis).

Question 17

Giuseppe Mazzini

Answer 17

1805-72

Question 18

What kind of nationalist is Mazzini?

Answer 18

Liberal, republican nationalist

Question 19

Mazzini’s idea of republicanism

Answer 19

This is a synthesis between nationalism — the desire to see a nation united and free from external domination— and popular democracy. For Mazzini and his followers, the two aspirations were indivisible.

Question 20

Mazzini’s philosophy in practise:

Answer 20

combined philosophy with heroic political and military action - in the 1830s he formed a movement known as ‘Young Italy’

Question 21

Mazzini Book:

Answer 21

The Duties of Man (1860)

Question 22

Extract from the duties of man that show he saw the forces that bind people together as being spiritual nature:

Answer 22

A country is not a mere territory, the particular territory is only its foundation; it is the sentiment of love, the sense of fellowship which binds together the sons of that territory.’ Thus he saw nationalism in terms of both territory and nationalist spirit. And religious faith.

Question 23

Charles Maurras

Answer 23

1868-1952

Question 24

What Type of nationalist was Charles Maurras?

Answer 24

Right wing nationalist

Question 25

What was the journal Maurras found called and what was it like?

Answer 25

In 1899 he founded a journal called Action Française, which was pro-monarchy, antisemitic and anti-democratic. It supported the pro-fascist regime that governed France in WW2

Question 26

How did Maurras think France had lost its greatness?

Answer 26

Maurras believed that France lost greatness because of its abandonment of hereditary monarchy, its separation of church and state and its excessive attachment to democracy. Supported the restoration of French nationalism and stressed patriotism. He also believed that the French state and the Catholic Church should be united, and jews were responsible for the downfall of France.

Question 27

what did the type of ultra-conservative nationalism favoured by Maurras feature?

Answer 27

Featured a nostalgic yearning for a bygone age of glory, an acute xenophobia, the establishment of a strong authoritarian state and the restoration of traditional values, including patriotic attachment to the nation.

Question 28

Maurras views on the french revolution?

Answer 28

opposed all three principles of the French Revolution of 1789.Excessive freedom led to a lack of respect for the state; equality had given too much power to the ignorant masses; fraternity had led French people to become too close to inferior peoples

Question 29

Marcus Garvey

Answer 29

1887-1940

Question 30

What type of nationalist was Marcus Garvey?

Answer 30

Pan African/black nationalist

Question 31

Garvey’s view on African people and unification:

Answer 31

African people were one single race who had been scattered by slavery and divided within Africa itself by colonial rule. By uniting, the black peoples would be capable of throwing off colonial rule and creating a new, free and united Africa.

Question 32

his Message to the People (1937):

Answer 32

‘This propaganda of dis-associating Western Negroes from Africa is not a new one. For many years white propagandists have been printing tons of literature to impress scattered Ethiopia [i.e. Africa], especially that portion within their civilization, with the idea that Africa is a despised place, inhabited by savages, and cannibals, where no civilized human being should go, especially black civilized human beings. This propaganda is promulgated for the cause that is being realized today. That cause is colonial expansion for the white nations of the world.’

Question 33

What did being a pan-africanist mean?

Answer 33

One of the first people to propose the unification of the continent. Founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association. He also published a journal, Negro World, to encourage black education.

Question 34

Failure of Garvey’s ideas in Africa:

Answer 34

Liberia had been set up in North Africa by anti-slavery campaigners in the USA as a new home for freed slaves, Garvey became intrested Howevr, by the 1920s his dream of a new African nation was nearly over before it had scarcely begun. He turned his attention largely to black people in the USA