NATIONALISM

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 107, 7 May 1936, Page 15

NATIONALISM

ITS GROWTH TRACED

GENESIS IN THE CRUSADES

LECTURE BY PROF. YON

ZEDLITZ

Continuing His short course of lectures on "Nationalism" for the Workers' Educational. Association, at the Trades Hall last Friday night, Professor G. W. yon Zedlitz explained that nationalism arose in Europe about the time of the Crusades, though the symptoms were slight at first.

In his .book, "The Talisman," Sir Walter Scott shows how the 4th_ Crusade quickened national consciousness and accentuated a sense of rivalry among the countries of Europe, and this movement was accelerated from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries by the development of vernacular languages. Hitherto Latin had been the common medium of expression, and all lectures had been delivered in that language. In 1670, however, tjie first books were published in the vernacular language, and university lectuves began to be delivered in the vernacular tongue. Shakespeare's literature magnificently illuminated national characteristics and enhanced national pride, but the literature of the nineteenth century tended to darken what was universal and to represent the foreigner as the "villain" in the piece. THE NATION-STATES. Political differentiation also had an influence in. the development of nationalism, as the nation-States such as France, Spain, Portugal, England, Holland, and the Scandinavian countries felt that the nation-State was a coherent whole autocracy and they .frowned, upon any national feeling if it was unwanted, though they encouraged it for their own benefit. They would not readily surrender any part of their national territory, and the development of nation-States in western Europe was the result of an accident rather than design. The monarch was.1 the symbol of unity and patriotism; centred round him. The third factor in the development of; nationalism, said the lecturer, was dpue to the change in economic life. S?his had rested upon cities in the past, but from the fifteenth century onwards these nation-States were the centres of their own life. Their colonies brought the raw material to the mother State, and navies were built up to protect the colonies. Tariffs were introduced 'and this brought about wars, which have persisted right up to the present day. Then began that misleading and fallacious notion that profits made by an Englishman or an English firm "benefited the nation," and that idea was still with us. A final important factor in the development of nationalism throughout Europe was religious differences, and this was particularly so in England, where the feeling between Protestants and Roman Catholics ran very high. Thus by 1700 the process of nationalism had begun, stated the professor. There were nation-States with definite national: territory .and. more or less homogeneous .speech and institutions, politically independent, also economically, and to some . extent culturally. But modem nationalism had not yet come up above the horizon, and it was still doubtful whether the ■ unifying effect of easier travel, commercial interdependence, and weakening of religious differences, the growth of rationalism, and the vogue for discussion, might not arrest the process and lead to unification. THE SEARCH FOR PEACE. In . eighteenth-century France, a numerous school of thinkers believed that permanent peace in Europe was an attainable ideal. Reason must conquer, and national citizenship give way to world citizenship. Goldsmith said: "The whole world being only one city I do not much care in which of its streets. I happen to reside," and Lessing considered that "love of country was at best but an heroic vice." This hope was far nearer possible realisation then than today, but was soon to be extinguished, for a series of new forces definitely swung the compass in the direction of the new nationalism. * These were the French revolution, the industrial revolution, and the romantic movement, and they accounted for the birth .of the new nationalism. The French Revolution proclaimed national sovereignty and national self-determination. In France it meant a sweeping away of barriers separating Frenchmen. Outside, it was a gospel of "right to self-determination" of the Government. Later, under Napoleon, the opposing kings first decided to encourage nationalism, of which hitherto they had disapproved. Thus positively and negatively the French Revolution contributed to the rise of nationalism, and it further originated the scheme of conscription for military service which has since been adopted by all countries. It was responsible also for national education, being followed by Prussia and Scandinavia,. and ultimately England and Russia; and for linguistic uniformity in the schools—still not fully compulsory with us. In all countries the Romantic Movement has meant a tremendous backing for the development of nationalism, and the effects of the Industrial Revolution within . the nation-States in which it originated, and from which it first spread, more than outweighed its unifying value outside these States. Domestic consumption increased faster than foreign requirements, capital organisation was national—even labour was not really international. Newspapers and propaganda were national, and the extension of democracy was in that direction. Nationalism was indeed a worldwide phenomenon, and while the French Revolution- started the principle of the new nationalism, the Industrial Revolution provided the instrument of acceleration, and its inner spirit as a doctrine and a driving force was provided by Romanticism. BECOME A DOGMA. Nationalism was inculcated in the schools, today, concluded the lecturer, and outside organisations encouraged its development. ' From art idea and aspiration in the minds of intellectuals —the sort of thing that Pacifism was todays-nationalism has by these means become a dogma, penetrating through the masses. Even those few who oppose it, accept it as being a dogma and a cult, with a right to respectful recognition, which they would refuse now to grant to astrology—once so generally accepted—or. to the 'belief in witches. At the close of the lecture a number of questions were asked, and the speaker was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his informative address.

■ Next Friday night Professor yon Zedillo will speak on. -'Nationalism 'Within the Empire."