Transcript The Nation State

The Nation State
Support or refute the
following statement:
The creation of “The Nation-State” was a
powerful, positive force that united people
and nations.
The Ausgleich: Austria-Hungary 1867
After the Hungarian Revolutions of 1848, Austria created
a more centralized government on its empire. Local
privileges were abolished and a strict, unified system of
administration of law, taxation and education policies
were enacted. Only German speaking people were given
positions within the administration of this new system.
After the defeat of Austria in the Austro-Prussian war
the Hungarians sensed weakness in the Empire and
began rumblings of another nationalist revolt. A
compromise between the Austrian government of Franz
Joseph and the Hungarians was created in 1867 and
established the “Dual Monarchy” of Austria-Hungary.
Each side had its own constitution, its own legislature
and machinery for a domestic government. Holding the
two states together was a single monarch (Franz Joseph
of Austria) and a common army and foreign policy.
Although the Dual Monarchy settled issues between the
main powers, it did not satisfy the Slavic peoples: Poles,
Croatians, Serbs, Czechs, etc.
In spite of the fact that we have no such fleet as we should have, we have
conquered for ourselves a place in the sun. It will now be my task to see to
it that this place in the sun shall remain our undisputed possession, in order
that the sun’s rays may fall fruitfully upon our activity and trade in foreign
parts, that our industry and agriculture may develop within the state and
our sailing sports upon the water, for our future lies upon the water….
As head of the empire I therefore rejoice over every citizen...who goes
forth...and seeks new points where we can drive in the nail on which to
hang our armour.
Source: Kaiser Wilhelm II, speech at Hamburg, 1901.
Our oldest common ancestors, the original people of the new culture, The Teutons, called Germans by the
Romans, set themselves bravely in opposition to the overwhelming worldwide rule of the
Romans...Freedom was their possession, that they might remain Germans, that they might continue to
settle their own affairs independently and originally in their own way, and at the same time to advance their
culture and to plant the same independence in the hearts of the posterity…
We who are the nearest heirs of their land, their language, their sentiments, owe to them that we are still
Germans…
These addresses have attempted to implant in your minds the deep and immovable foundations of the true
and almighty love of the fatherland, in the conception of our nation as eternal….
Source: Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Addresses to the German Nation, 1807-1808
Ernst Moritz
Arndt:
The German
Fatherland
Where is the German's fatherland?
Then name, oh, name the mighty land!
Wherever is heard the German tongue,
And German hymns to God are sung!
This is the land, thy Hermann's land;
This, German, is thy fatherland.
This is the German's fatherland,
Where faith is in the plighted hand,
Where truth lives in each eye of blue,
And every heart is staunch and true.
This is the land, the honest land,
The honest German's fatherland.
This is the land, the one true land,
O God, to aid be thou at hand!
And fire each heart, and nerve each arm,
To shield our German homes from harm,
To shield the land, the one true land,
One Deutschland and one fatherland!
Natural Selection acts solely through the preservation of variations in some
way advantageous, which consequently endure. Owing to the high
geometrical rate of increase of all organic beings, each area is already fully
stocked with inhabitants; and it follows from this, that as the favoured forms
increase in number, so, generally, will the less favoured decrease and become
rare.
Source: Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species, 1859.
I contend that we are the finest race in the world and that the more
of the world we inhabit the better. Just fancy those parts that are at
present inhabited by the most despicable specimens of human
beings, what an alteration there would be if they were brought
under Anglo-Saxon influence....The absorption of the greater portion
of the world under our rule simply means the end of all wars.
Source: Cecil Rhodes, “Confession of Faith,” 1877
The Jew as a whole must be considered harmful, for the racial traits of this people are of a kind that in the
long run do not agree with the racial traits of the Teutons (authentic Germans). Every Jew who at this very
moment has not as yet transgressed is likely to do so at some future time under given circumstances
because his racial characteristics drive him on in that direction.
What we want is a clear and reasonable separation of the Jews from the Germans
Source: Hermann Ahlwardt, member of the German Reichstag (legislature), address to the Reichstag, 1895
Irish Nationalism: Home Rule Fight 1880’s
‘
“Nationality is the role assigned
by God to a people in the work of
humanity. It is its mission, its task
on earth, to the end that God’s
thought may be realized
in the world.”
Giuseppe Mazzini The Duty of Man
Theodor Herzl and Zionism
We are but one people--our enemies have made us one without our consent, as
repeatedly happens in history. Distress binds us together, and thus united, we
suddenly discover our strength. Yes we are strong enough to form a State, and,
indeed, a model State. We possess all human and material resources necessary for
the purpose.... Let the sovereignty be granted us over a portion of the globe large
enough to satisfy the rightful requirements of a nation; the rest we will manage for
ourselves.
Source: Theodor Herzl, Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), 1896
Theodore Herzl was a Viennese lawyer, journalist and playwright who saw the rise of antisemitism first hand in observing the Dreyfus Affair. In 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish
officer in the French army, was unjustly accused of treason, mainly because of the prevailing antiSemitic atmosphere. Herzl witnessed mobs shouting “Death to the Jews” in France, the home of
the French Revolution, and resolved that there was only one solution: the mass immigration of
Jews to a land that they could call their own. Thus, the Dreyfus Case became one of the
determinants in the genesis of Political Zionism.
Herzl concluded that anti-Semitism was a stable and immutable factor in human society, which
assimilation did not solve. He mulled over the idea of Jewish sovereignty, and, despite ridicule
from Jewish leaders, published Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State, 1896). Herzl argued that the
essence of the Jewish problem was not individual but national. He declared that the Jews could
gain acceptance in the world only if they ceased being a national anomaly. The Jews are one
people, he said, and their plight could be transformed into a positive force by the establishment
of a Jewish state with the consent of the great powers. He saw the Jewish question as an
international political question to be dealt with in the arena of international politics.
Herzl proposed a practical program for collecting funds from Jews around the world by a
company to be owned by stockholders, which would work toward the practical realization of this
goal. (This organization, when it was eventually formed, was called the Zionist Organization.) He
saw the future state as a model social state, basing his ideas on the European model of the time,
of a modern enlightened society. It would be neutral and peace-seeking, and of a secular nature.
Theodore Herzl
Dr. Karl Lueger Vienna,
Austria“Christian Socialism”
Karl Lueger, attended Theresianische Ritterakademie before studying law at the
University of Vienna, receiving his doctorate in 1870. During this period he joined
the Catholic Student Association. Lueger established a law office in Vienna in
1874 and established a reputation for representing the interests of the working
class. The following year he was elected to Vienna's City Council and later as
Mayor of Vienna.
Lueger advocated an early form of "fascism". This included a radical German
nationalism (meaning the primacy and superiority of all things German), social
reform, anti-socialism and anti-semitism. In one speech in 1890 Lueger
commented that the "Jewish problem" would be solved, and a service to the
world achieved, if all Jews were placed on a large ship to be sunk on the high
seas.
Lueger was a zealous Catholic, and wished to “capture the university” for the
Church. He made it clear that he would have neither Social Democrats nor PanGermans nor Jews in the municipal administration. Lueger did introduce
important social reforms. This included the extension of the public water supply,
the municipalization of gas and electricity works as well as the establishment of a
public transport system. He also built parks and gardens, and hospitals and
schools.
In a speech in 1899, Lueger claimed that Jews were exercising a "terrorism,
worse than which cannot be imagined" over the masses through the control of
capital and the press. It was a matter for him, he continued, "of liberating the
Christian people from the domination of Jewry". On other occasions he described
the Jews as "beasts of prey in human form". Lueger added that anti-semitism
would "perish when the last Jew perished".
The Rise of AntiSemitism
In 1896, the new head of the army’s intelligence unit,
Georges Picquart, uncovered evidence pointing to
another French military officer, Major Ferdinand Walsin
Esterhazy, as the real traitor and word about Esterhazy’s
possible guilt began to circulate.
The Dreyfus Affair was a scandal that rocked France in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries, the Dreyfus affair involved a Jewish artillery captain in
the French army, Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), who was falsely convicted of
passing military secrets to the Germans. In 1894, after a French spy at the
German Embassy in Paris discovered a ripped-up letter in a waste basket with
handwriting said to resemble that of Dreyfus, he was court-martialed, found
guilty of treason and sentenced to life behind bars on Devil’s Island off of
French Guiana.
In a public ceremony in Paris following his conviction, Dreyfus had the insignia
torn from his uniform and his sword broken and was paraded before a crowd
that shouted, “Death to Judas, death to the Jew.”
In 1898, he was court-martialed but quickly found not
guilty; he later fled the country. After Esterhazy’s
acquittal, a French newspaper published an open letter
titled “J’Accuse…!” by well-known author Emile Zola in
which he defended Dreyfus and accused the military of a
major cover-up in the case. As a result, Zola was
convicted of libel, although he escaped to England and
later managed to return to France.
The Dreyfus affair deeply divided France, not just
over the fate of the man at its center but also over
a range of issues, including politics, religion and
national identity.
In 1899, Dreyfus was court-martialed for a second
time and found guilty. Although he was pardoned
days later by the French president, it wasn’t until
1906 that Dreyfus officially was exonerated and
reinstated in the army.
1896
Olympics
1896 Olympics
"I hereby proclaim the opening of the first International Olympic Games at
Athens." With these words on April 6, 1896, King George I of Greece
welcomed the crowd that had gathered in the newly reconstructed
Panathenean Stadium to the modern-day Olympic Summer Games.
The event was the idea of Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France who traveled
the world to gather support for his dream to have nations come together
and overcome national disputes, all in the name of sport.
The program for the Games included track and field, fencing, weightlifting,
rifle and pistol shooting, tennis, cycling, swimming, gymnastics, and
wrestling. Although 14 nations participated, most of the athletes were
Greek.
The Games reached their high point on Day 11 with the first modern-day
marathon. The idea to hold an event to commemorate the Ancient Olympic
games was suggested by a friend of de Coubertin and was met with great
anticipation. The race was run from Marathon to Athens (estimated at 22–
26 miles), watched by more than 100,000 people and won by a Greek
runner, Spiridon Louis.
Read more: The First Modern Olympics: Athens, 1896
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/summer-olympics-
Greek Marathon Runners 1896
ANARCHISM
Across Europe, the nation-state was asserting its power over ordinary citizens in
a deeper and harsher way than ever before, with governments seizing taxes and
young men for conscription at an unprecedented rate. In response, there was a
growing anarchist movement that simply said that the state was illegitimate, and
should be disbanded.
The term "anarchist" had originally been an insult, but, in 1840, a French
provincial printer's assistant called Pierre-Joseph Proudhon picked it up and
wore it with pride. He said if governments were disbanded, people would
organise themselves into peaceful democratic communes that would run their
own affairs, without police or laws or taxes. It was the state – with its apparatus
of coercion and violence – that made people bad. Remove the state, and you
would have a natural order at last, based on personal freedom. Law is tyranny;
property is theft. In a society where the emaciated poor were routinely being
worked to death, it was an appealing message.
Anarchist Michael Bakunin (Russia)
Bakunin believed that small groups of well trained, fanatical could
perpetuate enough violence that the state and all of its
institutions would disintegrate.
“Weapons will cease to be the measure of strength and gold a
measure of wealth...such a world is called “Anarchy”. It will have
no castles, no places for masters and slaves. Life will be open to
all. Everyone will take what they need-this is the anarchist ideal.
And when it comes about, men will live wisely and well.”
Anarchists used assassination as their primary instrument of terror
and supposed change. Alexander II of Russia, The King of Italy
(1900) and President William McKinley (1901) of the United States
and President Carnot of France (1894) were all assassinated by
anarchists.