Nationalism And Nationalism Essay

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Nationalism and imperialism both had good intentions individually, but when you combine the two, that’s when the results become disastrous and uncontrollable. Nationalism is the belief that one’s country should support everything it does, even the bad decisions. Imperialism is the belief that if someone truly supports their country that they would be willing to spread these ideals to other countries through democracy or in this case, war. The terrible effects of these combined were shown throughout the First World War. Many countries started getting a more advanced sense of excessive pride to their country and when imperialism began spreading decided to spread their “supreme” ideals to the rest of the world. The balance of powers that were established in the Congress of Vienna made all other countries scared of this sudden uprising and so war was inevitable. The war also started based off alliances and pacts tying together most countries. Once Serbia and Austria-Hungary went to war, every country followed, but not all followed because they were bound to do so. Most of the countries in the war were influenced heavily by nationalism, imperialism and somewhat of militarism. All together the war started because of these beliefs and continued because of them as well. If it wasn’t for the beliefs spread with nationalism and imperialism the First World War might never have started. Nationalism showed everyone that it was good for them to have excessive self-pride in their country, combined with imperialism teaching them that they should spread their supreme ideas, the results could have been worse. With just those two, some countries would try democracy and spreading that way. Militarism was also present during these times, which taught... ... middle of paper ... ...war” (Shen, 1). Both nationalism and imperialism are dangerous together, but when they are combined, that is when the results become sporadic and uncontrollable. They teach a country that it’s better to fight and lose with a chance of success is better than alliances and having an overall success. In conclusion, nationalism, the belief that one’s country is supreme, imperialism, the belief that one’s countries should spread the supremeness of the country through democracy combined with a touch of militarism, the belief that a country should go to war over democracy started the First World War. The war ended with an armistice, a formal agreement to stop all fighting, because the results were tragic and a loss the world never fully recovered from. Until the last minutes of the war there was still blood being shed and families, countries and lives being torn apart.

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