The Role of Nationalism

Not only did authority finally transfer to the people, but passion sprang from them that empowered the state as well. Although Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) disrupted French republicanism when he crowned himself emperor of France in 1804, he still encouraged the fervor of French nationalism. This set of beliefs involves a special sense of identity and pride among a group of people that distinguishes them from other groups. Napoleon employed nationalism to raise an army of hundreds of thousands of men and marched them to far-flung places, including Egypt and Russia, all for the greater glory of France and, of course, Napoleon.

Nationalism today is not the fierce political force that it was in the Second World War or during the colonial independence movement following this war, but it remains an important political force in the world. A major concern of the Western democracies is that Russia could veer toward an extreme form of nationalism and try to rebuild the territorial base of the old Soviet Union. Although strong nationalistic feelings can engender hostility among countries, at the same time the sense of unity and loyalty nationalism brings to countries has become essential to hold states together as viable political units.

A viable state may have to have what French historian Ernest Renan (1823-1892) called a "spiritual principle." Renan examined, one by one, geography, religion, race, military needs, and language before he concluded that none of these are sufficient to unite a people within a state. He found that a population sharing a state's territory must have a strong sense of a shared past and must expect to share a future, regardless of whether these experiences bring glory or grief. A sense of unity such as that nationalism brings, then, is often the psychological "glue" that holds an ethnically divided people together. Nationalism does not always succeed in this task, however.

Task 5.Answer the following questions:

1. What motives did the acquisition of colonies have?
2. Was a primary objective to enhance or to decrease the wealth of the colonizing states?
3. What empires could be encountered in the 1500s?
4. Europeans were able to dominate other lands and civilizations, weren’t they?
5. What was the second colonial period known as? Why did it pretend more than to achieve wealth and power?

Task 6. Here you have got five sentences. You have to put as many questions as possible. They must be of various types.

1. A primary objective was to enhance the wealth of the colonizing state in a different way.
2. During the second colonial period, Europeans were able to establish far-flung empires through two important technological developments.
3. The planet had become a single geopolitical unit involving European competition over trade and colonies.
4. In Europe, only Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Russia retained powerful monarchies by the time of the First World War.
5. The institution of conference diplomacy became well established in the nineteenth century.

Task 7. Translate the following phrases and words into English using the texts and learn them by heart:

Много мотивов, цель первостепенной важности, колониальный период, середина XIX столетия, государственная система, Африканское побережье, богатая палитра ресурсов, преобладать над другими странами, важные торговые пути, сферы влияния, получить богатство и власть, дух, «бремя белого человека», технологическое развитие, неисследованная Африка, груз, во имя престижа, успешные переговоры, демократическое самоуправление, победить в войне, взаимодействовать, защищать независимость, включать в себя, международный порядок, равенство.