How Nationalism and the New Imperialism Shaped Nationhood and Citizenship in the West during 1815-1914
Instructions
For this assignment, you will write a scholarly paper in which you discern how nationalism and the New Imperialism shaped nationhood and citizenship in the West during 1815-1914. Your paper will also include a short reflection and an annotation.
First, you must select two nations and, from each, identify two unique conflicts for a total of four conflicts. View these Helpful Tips for detailed guidance to assist you in completing this assignment.
• For each nation, one conflict should highlight nationalistic tensions within the nation and the other should relate to the New Imperialism.
• Remember that conflicts may not necessarily mean military engagement, and instead may refer to political, economic, or social arguments over citizenship or colonization.
Next, using these four conflicts, compare how they impacted civil dynamics and defined civil roles in nation-states and the roles of these nations internationally. Your comparison should demonstrate an ethical awareness, integrate perspectives of diverse cultures, and esteem the values of social and/or cultural aspects.
You will end the body of your paper with a one-paragraph reflection on how the guidelines in the section “The Role of the Historian as Scholar and Citizen” in the Unit V Unit Lesson influenced your consideration of how nationalism shapes modern society.
Finally, you will prepare one annotation for a library source you used and place it under the reference for that source. An annotation is not a summary or an abstract but, instead, is a quick identification of the credibility and utility of a source. Write one sentence answering each item listed in Step 5 of the Helpful Tips document to complete your annotation.
Your paper must be at least two pages in length, not including the title or reference pages. You must use at least three sources to support your comparison and discussion. All sources used must be properly cited. Follow APA Style when creating citations.
NATIONALISM AND THE NEW IMPERIALISM
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Abstract
Nationalism is defined as people who share a common history, culture, language, nationality, territory, or religion should offer their most extraordinary loyalty to a nation of people but not to an individual or a dynasty. The citizens` identity quest and pride for their countries in the West shaped nationhood and citizenship during 1815-1914. Local stability of newly unified countries across Europe, technological advancements, and industrialization birthed the new imperialism in defining Europe's independent nations' strength and pride. It was a period of aggressive imperialistic territorial expansion that spanned half of the 19th century to 1914 at World War I. The resuscitated urge for growth did encompass the former western European colonial powers and new entrants like Germany and Italy.
HOW NATIONALISM AND THE NEW IMPERIALISM SHAPED NATIONHOOD AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE WEST DURING 1815-1914
Numerous nationalistic and the new imperialism tensions played vital roles in molding nationhood and citizenship in Germany and Italy. In Germany, the nationalist conflict towards unification would be realized through the military force of the Prussians. Although Germany and Italy both had a standard literary language, which could have necessitated unification, they lacked a central government structure like France, which was successful in the region during conquests. The culmination of cultural kingdoms formed the German states under the 1815 Vienna Convention. Austria had diplomatic tensions with Prussia under the rulership of Wilhelm I, who a weak congress limited. Germany's unification push came from within the middle-class effort who were yearning for a stable and more robust parliament.
Italy's scenario was different, and it had a unique political system altogether. Albeit marred with a series of kingdoms, the region prided in its extremely crucial role in the world because of a favorable geographical location for trade and defense, its innovators, philosophers, and a claim to Christianity's top leadership in its city. The world was fast-changing. Unlike in the previous times when the smaller culturally linked kingdoms had been efficient in Italy, the Industrial revolution vastly changed European politics and economics. Small independent states without a single currency and rule would no longer compete with the larger nations globally. The country had to restructure its political system. Therefore, Italy's nationalistic conflict would be achieved through political tension, under the rulership of King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia, with his crafty Prime Minister Count Camillo Benso di Cavour.
Emmanuel II advanced his political prowess in Italy's unification which had already proven successful both in his kingdom and European powers. He founded a monarchy in 1849 but maintained a progressive and liberal-leaning, emphasizing strong civil liberties (Wiesner-Hanks et al., 2020). In the urge to win public approval, he got into an awkward alliance with France's Louis Napoleon in executing a successful attack against Austria. Emmanuel managed to acquire Milan in the conquest while Savoy and Nice went to France. The attack caused a rift between his kingdom and the Catholic believers as they deemed progressivism as a contrast to the Papal State traditions. The religious mishap did not deter the unification aspirations, as Emmanuel II was realizing military successes in the north and increased calls from citizens for nationalism and unification in the southern and central kingdoms. However, Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was deemed a local military hero, posed a hindrance to the merger. Cavour proved his political wisdom by uniting Emmanuel II and Giuseppe while avoiding war with Rome, eventually unifying Italy's majority (Wiesner-Hanks et al., 2020). The capture and unification of the two mighty kingdoms, Venice in 1866 and Rome, through voting of its citizen, to join Italy in 1870, meaning the entire Italian peninsula was united.
In trying to fight the weaknesses that marred Germany's realization as a nation, while not giving in to Austria or a formal Prussian kingdom, Wilhelm I appointed a strong and witty prime minister, Count Otto von Bismarck. The minister understood that Germany's strengths emanated from supremacy in battle and not from an oratory in parliament, France's case (Wiesner-Hanks et al., 2020). Bismarck utilized some of Italy's Cavour tactics that won him public approval, thus fostering national unity. He expanded Prussian lands westwards in German states and occasionally asking for support from Germany's unstable ally, Austria, like reclaiming northern parts from Denmark. However, a bitter dispute occurred after the war between Prussia and Austria over the newly won territories. Later, Bismarck would command the Austro-Prussian War, which ensured a successful removal of Austria from German affairs, credit to the victorious Battle of Sadowa (Wiesner-Hanks et al., 2020). Peaceful negotiations ensued to set boundaries between the rival nations and not disturb the regional...