Nationalism and Me

Based on our studies so far, Nationalism is the sense of pride of the people who are part of a "nation" based on that nation's power, wealth, and culture. A nation can be interpreted is multiple ways. The United States, China, and Japan are considered as nations. The Kurds believe they are their own nation, and so does the Raider Nation, as we are not only in the bay area but also spread from sea to shining sea. The common theme in all of what we have studied is that at some point the people of the respective country, believed that they were better than everyone else. In Japan, clearly they thought they were the best through how they portrayed other nations, especially America, which is ironic because during the Meiji reform in Japan, they clearly got a lot of ideas from other countries including America. The American trader was shown as barbaric, dirty, and uncultured. During the time of imperialism, the British people had a sense of pride because their empire was larger than anyone else. So did the French people and Dutch people, as those nations were also very wealthy. Under Zheng He, before the China collapsed as a world power by being addicted to opium, they were very prideful of how powerful they were. They believed all the European powers were inferior to them, in almost a cocky way, only to have the British manipulate their addiction to opium. In fact, you could say they were too nationalistic. They, just like most nations have a big sense of pride of their power, and cultures of their nation.

Nationalism was the key to restoring many countries, but the Ottoman Empire is an example of a failed case. During the glory days of the Ottoman Empires, it encompassed a variety of cultures, mainly Muslims, but as the empire shrunk, the population was becoming more secular. They had nationalism but the government wanted to find a national identity of their own, but were not able to do so because they wanted to maintain their Islamic values. This clash of views between the government and the people, this lack of a common view of nationalism, contributed greatly to the fall of the empire.