Pro’s and Con’s of Nationalism

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Pro’s and Con’s of Nationalism Nationalism was coined back in the 1770’s it has a major role in the shaping many nations throughout the world. Nationalism has many positive and negative aspects to it. Nationalism has the strength to unify people despite their classes. It also has the ability to united people to lead movements against oppressive governments. There is a downside Nationalism can as method to evoke fear. The biggest negative is that most nationalism movement’s inevitably led to some form of conflict. Nationalism is a dangerous movement that can lead to oppression of opposition groups and lead to conflicts. Nationalism is a sense of strong pride and loyalty of ones nation over other nations. This is different from past beliefs that pride and loyalty rests in religion. Its biggest strength was to cut across the social classes and motivate large groups of people. Stavrianos, 1999) Nationalism developed in the 1770’s gaining major support throughout Europe. The earliest signs of nationalism were found in England during the puritan revolution. England during the time of the revolution was becoming a leading nation scientifically and economically which they thought would change they viewed freedom. John Milton a major writer at the time defined this change in freedom as “celebrated for endless ages as a soil most genial to the growth of liberty.” (Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2011) The French revolution had a major influence on the development of nationalism. French enlightenment thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau helped spread nationalism throughout Europe through his works about popular sovereignty where people would give their consent to be governed. (Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2011) This was the starting point fo... ... middle of paper ... ... unite a group of people by using evoking fear of another group. The biggest weakness of nationalism is the large amounts of conflicts that are created by nationalism movements. It seems like nearly all nationalism movement lead to some form of conflict. Even the examples that were considered positive example of Nationalism have led to conflict. The inevitability of conflict along with groups being persecuted for not being part of nationalistic movement makes nationalism more dangerous than good. Works Cited 1. "nationalism." Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. 2. Halsall, Paul. "Nationalism." FORDHAM.EDU. 22 Sept. 1997. 3. Stavrianos, Leften S. A Global History. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1999. 4. Norton, James H.K. India and South Asia. 9th ed. New York: Mc Graw Hill, 2010.

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