Romantic and Ethnic Nationalism -Homeland and History

(Jody Gray) Romantic, implies emotional response, it is enhanced by folktales (myths, legends), visual art and song… many of the world’s nations were created based on romantic nationalism- beginning with 1848, when a revolutionary wave spread across the continent, leading to the World Wars and resulting in decolonization and the creation of nation-states based on the legitimate claim of homeland (“heartland”), the birthplace of an ethnic group of peoples e.g. French, Italian, German…

(illustration, left) “The Bard” a romantic vision of a single Welsh bard escaping a massacre ordered by Edward I of England, intended to destroy Welsh culture.

*Romantic nationalism [https://en.wikipedia.] is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic (integrated) consequence of the unity of those it governs. This includes, depending on the particular manner of practice, the language, race, culture, religion, and customs of the “nation” in its primal sense of those who were born within its culture. This form of nationalism arose in reaction to dynastic or imperial hegemony (supremacy), which assessed the legitimacy of the state from the top down, emanating from a monarch or other authority, which justified its existence. Such downward-radiating power might ultimately derive from a god or gods (see the divine right of kings and the Mandate of Heaven).

  Among the key themes of Romanticism, and its most enduring legacy, the cultural assertions of romantic nationalism have also been central in post-Enlightenment art and philosophy. From its earliest stirrings, with their focus on the development of national languages and folklore, and the spiritual value of local customs and traditions, to the movements that would redraw the map of Europe and lead to calls for “self-determination” of nationalities, nationalism was one of the key issues in Romanticism, determining its roles, expressions and meanings.

  Historically in Europe, the watershed year for romantic nationalism was 1848, when a revolutionary wave spread across the continent; numerous nationalistic revolutions occurred in various fragmented regions (such as Italy) or multinational states (such as the Austrian Empire). While initially the revolutions fell to reactionary forces the old order was quickly reestablished, the many revolutions would mark the first step towards liberalization and the formation of modern nation states across much of Europe.   

Claims of primacy or superiority. At the same time, linguistic and cultural nationality, colored with pre-genetic concepts of race, bolstered two rhetorical claims consistently associated with romantic nationalism to this day: claims of primacy and claims of superiority. Primacy is the claimed inalienable right of a culturally and racially defined people to a geographical terrain, a “heartland” or homeland. The polemics (see) of racial superiority became inexorably intertwined with romantic nationalism. Richard Wagner notoriously argued that those who were ethnically different could not comprehend the artistic and cultural meaning inherent in national culture. Identifying “Jewishness” even in musical style, he specifically attacked the Jews as being unwilling to assimilate into German culture, and thus unable to truly comprehend the mysteries of its music and language…

Twentieth-century political developments. In the first two decades of the 20th century, Romantic Nationalism as an idea was to have crucial influence on political events. Following the Panic of 1873 that gave rise to a new wave of anti-Semitism and racism in the German Empire politically ruled by an authoritarian, militaristic conservatism under Otto von Bismarck and in parallel with a wide revival of irrational emotionalism known as Fin de siècle (also reflected to a degree in the contemporary art movements of symbolism…), the racist, so-called völkisch movement grew out of Romantic nationalism during the last third of the 19th century, to some extent modelling itself on British Imperialism and "the White Man's Burden". The idea was that Germans should "naturally" rule over lesser peoples. Romantic nationalism, which had begun as a revolt against "foreign" kings and overlords, had come full circle, and was being used to make the case for a "Greater Germanic Empire" which would rule over Europe… eventually erupted in the First World War.

  Outside of Germany, the belief among European powers was that nation-states forming around unities of language, culture and ethnicity were “natural” in some sense. For this reason President Woodrow Wilson would argue for the creation of self-determining states in the wake of the Great War… the League of Nations’ mandates were often drawn, not to unify ethnic groups, but to divide them...

  Because of the broad range of expressions of romantic nationalism, it is listed as a contributing factor from everything from the creation of independent states in Europe, to the rise of Nazi Germany. As an idea, if not a specific movement, it is present as an assumption in debates over nationality and nationhood even today, and many of the world’s nations were created from principles drawn from romantic nationalism as their source of legitimacy.

*Polemic: diatribe, rant, tirade, attack, harangue, condemnation, criticism, stricture, admonition, rebuke, castigation, argument, debate, contention, altercation…

See also. Scandinavism; Norwegian romantic nationalism; German question; Slavophiles; Pochvennichestvo; Britishness; Ethnic nationalism; Civil religion; Polytheistic reconstructionism; National epic; National treasure; National anthem; Nationalism; Patriotism; Rise of nationalism in Europe; Historiography and nationalism; Musical nationalism.

*Ethnic nationalism.

*Ethnic nationalism [https://en.wikipedia.] is a form of nationalism wherein the “nation” is defined in terms of ethnicity. The central theme is that “nations are defined by a shared heritage, which usually includes a common language, a common faith, and a common ethnic ancestry”. It also includes ideas of a culture shared between members of the group, and with their ancestors. However, it is different from a purely cultural definition of “the nation,” which allows people to become members of a nation by cultural assimilation; and from a purely linguistic definition, according to which “the nation” consists of all speakers of a specific language…  In scholarly literature, ethnic nationalism is usually contrasted with civic nationalism. Ethnic nationalism bases membership of the nation on descent or heredity, often articulated in terms of common blood or kinship, rather than on political membership. Hence, nation-states with strong tradition of ethnic nationalism tend to define nationality or citizenship by the law of blood, descent from a person of that nationality, and countries with strong traditions of civic nationalism tend to define nationality by citizenship by the law of soil, birth within the nation state. Ethnic nationalism is, therefore, seen as exclusive, while civic nationalism tends to be inclusive. Rather than allegiance to common civic ideals and cultural traditions, then, ethnic nationalism tends to emphasize narratives of common descent.   Theorist Anthony D. Smith uses the term “ethnic nationalism” for non-Western concepts of nationalism as opposed to Western views of a nation defined by its geographical territory. Diaspora (see) studies scholars extend this non-geographical bound concept of “nation” among diasporic communities, at times using the term ethno-nation or ethno-nationalism to describe a conceptual collective of dispersed ethnics.   Ethnic nationalism is also present in many states’ immigration policies in the form of repatriation laws. States such as Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Turkey provide automatic or rapid citizenship to members of diaspora of their own dominant ethnic group, if desired. For example, Israel’s Law of Return, grants every Jew the right to settle in Israel and automatically acquire citizenship.   ...On the other hand, civic nationalism defines membership as an individual’s duty to observe given laws and in turn receive legal privileges.   A nation-state for the ethnic group derives political legitimacy from its status as homeland of that ethnic group, from its protective function against colonization, persecution, or racism, and from its claim to facilitate the shared cultural and social life, which many not have been possible under the ethnic group’s previous status as an ethnic minority. See also. Essentialism, Ethnocentrism, Ethnocracy, Identity politics (Civil Rights Era), Nationalization of history, List of irredentist claims or disputes, Stateless nation.

*Historiography and nationalism.

*Historiography and nationalism [https://en.wikipedia.] Historiography is the study of how history is written. One pervasive influence upon the writing of history has been nationalism, a set of beliefs about political legitimacy and cultural identity. Nationalism has provided a significant framework for historical writing in Europe and in those former colonies influenced by Europe since the 19th century. According to the medievalist historian Patrick J. Geary: [The] modern [study of] history was born in the nineteenth century, conceived and developed as an instrument of European nationalism. As a tool of nationalist ideology, the history of Europe's nations was a great success, but it has turned our understanding of the past into a toxic waste dump, filled with the poison of ethnic nationalism, and the poison has seeped deep into popular consciousness. Origins of national histories. Although the emergence of the nation into political consciousness is often placed in the 19th century, attempts by political leaders to craft new national identities, with their dynasty at the center, have been identified as early as the late Roman Empire. The Barbarian rulers of the successor states crafted these new identities on the basis of descent of the ruler from ancient noble families, a shared descent of a single people with common language, custom, and religious identity, and a definition in law of the rights and responsibilities of members of the new nation.   The 18th and 19th century saw the resurgence of national ideologies. During the French revolution a national identity was crafted, identifying the common people with the Gauls. In Germany historians and humanists… identified a linguistic and cultural identity of the German nation, which became the basis of a political movement to unite the fragmented states of this German nation.   A significant historiographical outcome of this movement of German nationalism was the formation of a “Society for Older German Historical Knowledge,” which sponsored the editing of a massive collection of documents of German history, the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. The sponsors of the MGH, as it is commonly known, defined German history very broadly; they edited documents concerning all territories where German-speaking people had once lived or ruled. Thus, documents from Italy to France to the Baltic were grist for the mill of the MGH’s editors.   This model of scholarship focusing on detailed historical and linguistic investigations of the origins of a nation, set by the founders of the MGH, was imitated throughout Europe. In this framework, historical phenomena were interpreted as they related to the development of the nation-state; the state was projected into the past. National histories are thus expanded to cover everything that has ever happened within the largest extent of the expansion of a nation, turning Mousterian (Middle Paleolithic period) hunter-gatherers into incipient Frenchmen. Conversely, historical developments spanning many current countries may be ignored, or analyzed from narrow parochial viewpoints. Time depth and ethnicity. The difficulty faced by any national history is the changeable nature of ethnicity. That one nation may turn into another nation over time, both by splitting (colonization) and by merging (syncretism, acculturation) is implicitly acknowledged by ancient writers; Herodotus (see) describes the Armenians as “colonists of the Phrygians”, implying that at the time of writing clearly separate groups originated as a single group. Similarly, Herodotus refers to a time when the “Athenians were just beginning to be counted as Hellenes”, implying that a formerly Pelasgian group over time acquired “Greek-ness”. The Alamanni are described by Asinius Quadratus as originally a conglomerate of various tribes which acquired a common identity over time. All these processes are summarized under the term ethnogenesis.   In ancient times, ethnicities often derived their or their rulers’ origin from divine or semi-divine founders of a mythical past (for example, the Anglo-Saxons deriving their dynasties from Woden; see also Euhemerism). In modern times, such mythical etiologies (study of origination, cause) in nationalist constructions of history were replaced by the frequent attempt to link one’s own ethnic group to a source as ancient as possible, often known not from tradition but only from archaeology or phiology, such as Armenians claiming as their origin the Urartians, the Albanians claiming as their origin the Illyrians, the Georgians claiming as their origin the Mushki, or Hindu nationalists claiming as the origin of their religion the Indus Valley Civilization -all of the mentioned groups being known only from either ancient historiographers or archaeology. Nationalism and ancient history. Nationalist ideologies frequently employ results of archaeology and ancient history as propaganda, often significantly distorting them to fit their aims, cultivating national mythologies and national mysticism. Frequently this involves the uncritical identification of one’s own ethnic group with some ancient or even prehistoric (known only archaeologically) group, whether mainstream scholarship accepts as plausible or reject as pseudo-archaeology the historical derivation of the contemporary group from the ancient one. The decisive point, often assumed implicitly, that it is possible to derive nationalist or ethnic pride from a population that lived millennia ago and, being known only archaeologically or epigraphically, is not remembered in living tradition.   (Examples)... In extreme cases, nationalists will ignore the process of ethnogenesis altogether and claim ethnic identity of their own group with some scarcely attested ancient ethnicity known to scholarship by the chances of textual transmission or archaeological excavation… Study of nationalist historiographies. Nationalism was so much taken for granted as the “proper” way to organize states and view history that nationalization of history was essentially invisible to historians until fairly recently. Then scholars… made attempts to step back from nationalism and view it critically. Historians began to ask themselves how this ideology had affected the writing of history.   ...historian E.J. Hobsbawm pointed out the central role of the historical profession in the development of nationalism: Historians are to nationalism what poppy-growers in Pakistan are to the heroin-addicts: we supply the essential raw material for the market. Nations without a past are contradictions in terms. What makes a nation is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past, and historians are the people who produce it. So my profession, which has always been mixed up in politics, becomes an essential component of nationalism.

*Diaspora.

*Diaspora [https://en.wikipedia.] is a scattered population whose origin lies within a smaller geographic locale; it can also refer to the movement of the population from its original homeland. Diaspora has come to refer particularly to historical mass dispersions of an involuntary nature, such as the expulsion of Jews from Judea and the fleeing of Greeks after the fall of Constantinople. Other examples are the African Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the southern Chinese or Hindus of South Asia during the coolie trade, the Irish during and after the Irish Famine, The Palestinian diaspora, and the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries in the 20th century, the exile and deportation of Circassians, and the emigration of Anglo-Saxon warriors and their families after the Norman Conquest of England, many of whom found employment in Constantinople and bolstered the elite bodyguard of the emperor, the Varangian Guard.   Recently, scholars have distinguished between different types of diaspora, based on its causes such as imperialism, trade or labor migrations, or by the kind of social coherence within the diaspora community and its ties to the ancestral lands. Some diaspora communities maintain strong political ties with their homeland. Other qualities that may be typical of many diasporas are thoughts of return, relationships with other communities in the diaspora, and lack of full integration into the host country.

*Historian, Herodotus, the first to state the main characteristics of ethnicity.

*Herodotus [https://en.wikipedia.] is the first historian to state the main characteristics of ethnicity, with his famous account of what defines Greek identity. He lists kinship (of the same blood), language (speaking the same language), cults and customs (of the same habits or life). Herodotus, a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC; often referred to as “The Father of History”. He was the first historian to have broken from Homeric tradition (epic poems) to treat historical subjects as a method of investigation -specifically, by collecting his materials systematically and critically, and then arranging them into a historiographic narrative… Some of his stories are fanciful and others inaccurate; yet he states that he is reporting only what he was told; a sizable portion of the information he provided was later confirmed by historians and archaeologists.

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Related:

*BP: Evolution of Ethnicity, Nationalism and Racism. http://indextoblogposts. *

*BP: Imperialism, Colonialism, Right to Rule. http://historicalandmisc. * (Mandate of Heaven).

*BP: Manifest Destiny and Divine Providence. http://historicalandmisc. *American Progress, 1872 -*Columbia. *Manifest Destiny. *Divine providence. *American exceptionalism. *City upon a Hill. (especially, Use in American politics.) *Americanism (ideology).

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