Nationalisms South Africa, Middle East, Africa

1. NationalismsSouth Africa, Middle East, Africa Grade 11: Term 3 (Topic 4)

2. Background and Focus • “The origins of nationalism lie in Europe” • “Nationalism needs to be studied as a phenomenon that changed form in WWII.” • “The focus should be on understanding where nationalism comes from.” • (DBE, History CAPS p22)

3. What is a Nation? Write down 5 words to describe a ‘nation’.

4. What existed before Nations? Religious Communities Dynastic Realms

5. What factors caused the rise of Nationalism in Europe?

6. A Common Language / literacy • 15th Century: invention of The Printing Press • Newspapers , pamphlets, books , spread of IDEAS not controlled by the church. • Standardised language forms emerged. • 16th Century: Reformation (Lutheranism) • Use of vernacular language (not all Latin) • 18th century: Mass Education • Growth in literacy

7. Growth of the Middle Class • 16th – 17th century new urban based merchant class emerged in Europe. (Middle Class) • Middle classes wanted power to control the terms of their trade and business. • Needed to unite with the masses (peasants, serfs) to overthrow the existing political structures ie the Kings and Queens. • The middle class encouraged a sense of common grievance, a shared identity, the idea that they all belonging to something.

8. Industrial Revolution • Urbanisation destroyed the old bonds (feudalism, village identity) • New identities forged in towns and cities (the ‘citizen’ / sans culottes / working class) • Railways made ‘national’ travel and communication possible. • Industrialisation created new national wealth and was instrumental in European colonisation (Late 19th C ‘Scramble for Africa’)

9. The creation of the ‘Nation’ state in late 18th Century. 1776: The American Revolution 1789: French Revolution

10. Napoleon and Beyond • 1795-1815 Napoleon built a great empire and extended French rule across Europe. • He also established a state bureaucracy. BUT challenged by nationalist, patriotic armies. 1815: Napoleon defeated at Waterloo and empire collapsed. 19th century: the map of Europe was re-drawn, new nation-states emerged - Unification of Germany (1870) and Italy (1861).

11. Elements of a Nation • A shared History • A shared culture and traditions • A shared language • A shared religion • A shared geographical, sovereign nation-state • NB: Clearly not all ‘Nations’ share these characteristics so nations have to be created in our imaginations.

12. ‘Imagined’ Communities • “Imagined communities”are a concept coined by Benedict Anderson. He believes that a nation is a community socially constructed, imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group. • This is in opposition to the idea that the elements of a nation are long-standing and natural.

13. Why does Anderson say that nations are ‘imagined’ communities? • “because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the mind of each lives the image of their communion”

14. Definition of Nation “An imagined political community that is both limited and sovereign” • Imagined because members cannot all know each other • Community because a nation is conceived of as a horizontal comradeship of equals • Limited because no nation encompasses all of mankind, nor even aspires to • Sovereign because nations came into being during Enlightenment and strive for freedom

15. An imaged community?

16. A common language • “What the eye is to the lover… language is to the patriot. Through that language, encountered at mother’s knee and parted with only at the grave, pasts are restored, fellowships are imagined and futures are dreamed’ (B. Anderson) • Poems, songs, national anthems • How do you create a sense of nation when there are so many languages?

17. An Imagined Community?

18. Something to live for or die for?

19. What can a positive nationalism be built on? • A sovereign political state guaranteeing full rights to all citizens. • A shared constitution. • Responsibility for our fellow citizens. • Respect for cultural and linguistic diversity. • Respect for the sacred memories of others.

20. Alternative definitions of Nationalism • Hugh Seton-Watson “I am driven to the conclusion that no ‘scientific definition’ of the nation can be derived; yet the phenomenon has existed and exists’ • Tom Nairn “The theory of nationalism represents Marxism’s greatest historical failure”

21. Contexts in which ‘National’ Identities are ‘Created’ Grade 11 Case Studies Afrikaner Nationalism – South Africa African Nationalism – South Africa African Nationalism – Ghana Jewish Nationalism – Middle East Palestinian Nationalism – Middle East