Nationalism Revived

[Henry C.K. Liu]

Edmond Burk prophetically recognized the first partition of Poland in 1773
as the beginning of the crumbling of the old international order.  The
principle of the balance of power had been historically invoked to
preserve the independence of European states, to secure weak or small
states against Universal Monarchy. Poland was the first nation in the
European system to be partitioned out of existence without a war, a source
of great satisfaction to the participating powers: Russia, Austria and
Prussia. The event showed that in a world where great powers had risen,
controlling modern apparatus of state, it was dangerous not to be strong.
A century later, Africa, lacking strong governments, was also partitioned
without war among the states of Europe.  Furthermore, the partition of
Poland profoundly altered the balance of power in Europe.  Western
European powers, such as France and England began championing the cause of
Polish resistance and nationalism for geopolitical reasons.
Resistance to the coercive internationalism of the Napoleonic empire gave
rise to modern European nationalism in protest against the Napoleonic idea
of a European continent united by uniform law and administration, with a
single economic system and foreign policy and a unified command of its
armed forces.  Since the international system was essentially French,
nationalist movements were generally anti French, except in territories
outside of French influence.  The nationalism of the period was a melange
of conservative and liberal forces, with conservatives emphasizing
preservation of traditional national culture while liberals emphasized
self-determination and decentralization. Nationalism thus was highly
complex and dependent on a larger political context that was deferent in
each country. Patriotism in England during the Napoleonic Wars helped her
through the social crisis of the industrial revolution, caused by
dislocation, unemployment and associated revolutionary agitation. With
minor exceptions, Spanish nationalism was counter-revolutionary, aiming to
restore the clergy and the Bourbons.  German nationalism rebelled not only
against Napoleonic rule, but against century-old ascendancy of French
civilization.  The age of French Revolution and Napoleonic triumph
coincided with German cultural efflorescence, with Beethoven, Goethe,
Schiller, Herter, Kant, Fichte, Hegel etc, who embodied German romanticism
against the rational dryness of the French dominated Age of Reason.
Following the Peace of Westphalia, German nationalism was largely
dormant.  The German upper class was contemptuous of anything German,
their taste and mannerism and literature was French; their music, art and
architecture were Italian.  Frederich the Great hired French tax
collectors and wrote in French.  J.G. Herder wrote in 1784, five years
before the French Revolution, his "Ideas on the Philosophy of the History
of Mankind" in which his asserted that all true culture must rise from
native roots, the life of the common people "the volk", not from the
cosmopolitan mannerism of the upper classes.  A sound civilization must
express the Volksgeist, or national character.  The French, in comparison,
has a less developed tolerance for cultural relativity.
The idea of Volksgeist became a highly significant idea through Europe and
later around the world.  It was the fundamental appeal in romantic thought
against rationalism. It celebrates difference along with similarity in
mankind, in contrary paths against the Age of Enlightenment and its
coercive universality.
Hegel asserts that for a people to enjoy freedom, order, and dignity, it
must be in control of a potent and independent state, the institutional
embodiment of reason and liberty.
In economics, Frederich List, in his "National System of Political
Economy" (1841) asserts that political economy as espoused in England, far
from being a valid science universally, was merely British national
opinion, suited only to English historical conditions.  List's
institutional school of economics asserts that the doctrine of free trade
was devised to keep England rich and powerful at the expense of its
trading partners and it must be fought with protective tariffs and other
protective devises of economic nationalism by the weaker countries.  Henry
Clay's "American system" was a national system of political economy.

The failure of the Frankfort Assembly was more nationalist than social.
Its desire to retain non Germans in the new Germany at a time when
nationalism was on the rise, forced it to depend fatally on the military.
After its failure, German liberal and revolutionaries emigrated in large
numbers to the US, known as "forty eighters", contributing to the American
socialist tradition.
>From 1870 on, a nation state system prevailed in world politics, with the
consolidation of large nation states.
Nationalist sentiments overran socialist internationalism at the start of
WWI. The anti-war Zimmerwald program split into a Zimmerwald Left, led by
Lenin whose aim was revolution in the belligerent countries caused by the
continuation of war, while the rest aimed for peace.
The Asian financial crises revived economic nationalism around the world
against US led neo-liberal globalization while the NATO attack on
Yugoslavia revived military nationalism.
Just as anti-Napoleonic internationalism was essentially anti-French,
anti-globalization and humanitarian intervention are essentially anti US.

Henry C.K. Liu