Author: Dr. Fazl Ahmad Ahmadi
The Emergence and Elements of Nationalism (Part Three)
Factors of arising nationalism:
There is no doubt that nationalism is one of the most important political ideas in the 20th and 21st centuries in the Western world, especially in European countries, and it has expanded over time. The existence of language, identity, religion, ethnic and racial roots and common historical experiences have been effective in expanding the sense of nationalism of Europeans.
In fact, European nationalism is the result of the developments of the period of religious reforms in this continent and the Renaissance or the intellectual movement has strengthened it. Over the centuries, Europeans were influenced by pre-Christian cultural concepts and teachings and the culture of Hellenism (ancient Greek and Roman civilization); But with the advent of Christianity, the idea of the rule of religion over the state within the framework of the Catholic Church ruled Europe, and popes were the most important religious and political figures throughout medieval history.
During this era, which is known as the era of the Inquisition, thousands of people were burned for apostasy and witchcraft by order of the church, and science was confined to the experiences and absolutes of the church. So that the earth was recognized as the center of the universe and the Bible became the only trusted source for the correctness and incorrectness of scientific phenomena.
During the period of church rule, many European kings needed the power and spiritual influence of the popes to gain legitimacy and continue their political dominance, and they even sought permission from the pope for war and peace. This relationship reached its peak during the crusades and they sought to explain the existing situation by relying on the relationship between religion and the state, and the concept of the Christian nation and the followers of Jesus found a special place among Europeans; Against that, the concept of barbarism that was applied to Muslims was strengthened. In fact, the Crusades represented the intersection of two Islamic and Christian worldviews and ideologies, which was formed in the form of a religious and civilizational war. By the end of the Crusades, Islamic and Christian civilizations moved towards peace to some extent and transferred scientific and cultural findings to each other. This connection has been so effective that some researchers believe that the knowledge of the Western Renaissance was caused by the contact of Europeans with Islamic civilization during the Crusades.
Later, during the Thirty Years’ War and in the 17th century, the German and Hapsburg empires faced France and Sweden, and finally, with the signing of the Peace Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, this war ended, and Germany was influenced by France. This treaty marked the end of the old era and the beginning of a new era in the history of international relations. The new divisions brought by this treaty, concepts such as nation, government and nationalism were formed. The impact of this treaty was so wide that even many historians consider the basis of the formation of new states/nations, the number of states, the concepts of independence, territorial integrity, etc. to be due to the conclusion of this treaty.
Also, the developments of the Age of Enlightenment or Renaissance in the 17th century ended several hundred years of the Middle Ages and in the battle of rationality and wisdom with illusions and superstitions, thought and wisdom won, and the rule of the Church ended.
In the field of political thought, two concepts were opposed to each other: traditional king-centered thinking and nation-centered thinking. The idea of monarchy or patrimonial has a long historical origin in the East and the West. According to this thinking, the basis of the legitimacy of the government is the divine right of the government, which is transferred to a particular family, and the power is hereditary and is continued by the male children. Monarchy is a divine deposit that must be protected by the king, and his orders are obedience to the sacred order. Even after the rise of Protestantism, this idea persisted among a number of Protestant kings.
On the other hand, Protestant kings, relying on the beliefs of this religious movement, developed trade and commerce; Because Protestantism believes that the most important enemy of faith is poverty, and to prove Christian faith, poverty must be reduced, and the best way to reduce poverty is trade and commerce. Luther, like most of the medieval theologians, considered vocation to mean a kind of life that a person has according to divine providence, and disobeying it is against divine decrees. Economic activity, once considered a danger to the soul, finds a new sanctity after being baptized in the healing but frozen waters of Calvinist theology. Work is not only an economic means and livelihood, but also has a spiritual purpose.
Although temptation is a danger to the human soul, it is not heavier than idleness and unemployment. Since idleness destroys morals, a person is obliged to choose a profitable profession for himself. There is not only no conflict between piety and seeking wealth, but they are allies of each other. Accordingly, the discovery of new lands, the development of maritime trade, the rise of colonialism, and the industrial revolution were all somehow related to the Protestant movement. Also, the development of capitalism and the industrial revolution destroyed feudalism in Europe and challenged the absolute monarchy that was the legacy of the Middle Ages; Because in the structure of feudalism and traditional kingdom, the economic interests of special and privileged classes of the society were provided and due to the lack of law or its deficiency, the interests of the lower classes were not supported.
By the end of the thirty-year religious wars and the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia, the old period of Christian Europe ended, and new concepts appeared in the culture of the new European man. Wisdom and rationality, humanism (anthropocentrism), secularism (separation of religion from politics), legalism, natural and innate rights, empiricism and positivism and the scientific revolution, questioned the worldview and ideology of the Middle Ages and above all the “absolute sovereignty of the kingdom”.
People like John Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Francis Bacon and René Descartes changed Europe in the space of three centuries.
During the 17th and 18th centuries AD, the idea of democracy spread among intellectuals with a fundamental doubt about the origin of the absolute sovereignty of the kingdom. The collapse of the idea of absolute sovereignty was accompanied by the spread of innate and natural rights. In the years 1648-1649 AD, the country of England had experienced a revolution that resulted in the execution of King Charles Stuart I. The execution of the absolutist king forever defeated the historical idea of Europeans that the government is a divine deposit. The reduction of the power of the aristocracy and the weakening of feudalism and the establishment of a republican government by Oliver Cromwell in the highly class society of England sounded the alarm of the revolution in France as well.
The wars of Italian unification, German unification and the crises in the Balkan region were all due to national motives. Finally, some presented World War I as a nationalist crisis and saw its end as the solution to this problem. After the end of the war, the nations of Eastern Europe achieved their national independence. The main importance here is that in the wars of the 19th century in the European continent, religion was not the main factor that started and ended the conflicts, but nationalism prevailed over the religious identity of Christianity and the European identity was formed on the basis of nationalism. After the Maastricht and Rome treaties, from 1990 onwards, the process of European Union unity was completed, and one of the basic foundations of this unity was the Christian identity of the European nations.
At the end of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th century, European nationalism faced the challenge of the emergence of two ideologies, communism and fascism. These two ideologies had a significant impact on the philosophical, social and political structure of the European nation-state. For European nationalist governments, the fear of the collapse of political borders became a security challenge. An important issue is that communist and fascist regimes are totalitarian states despite their philosophical differences. In other words, totalitarian regimes are divided into two categories: extreme right (fascist) regimes and extreme left (communist or socialist) regimes. Ebenstein and Falgman also present a psychological interpretation of fascist and communist regimes as members of a totalitarianism versus democratic regimes. Communist regimes ignore individualism and emphasize the collective and collectivist spirit. Both ideologies are opposed to democracy and are authoritarian, not democracy.
Of course, some other ideas are sometimes associated with nationalism, for example: emotional liberalism with its romantic aspects, may be influential in nationalist movements and in the acceptance of nationalism in general. From the point of view of liberalism, nations are considered to have souls like individuals, and the right to life and independence as an individual is valuable for every nation.
Continues …
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