Nationalism During The Early-Twentieth Century

What is a Nationalism? Nationalism can be defined as an individual nation or country attempting to become an independent or strong nation. While this is the definition of nationalism, nationalism can affect different regions of the world differently than other countries. In general, nationalism is a political movement of power and a moral or cultural belief in that nation's rights and origin (Barrington, 1997). Overall, nationalism has made a drastic impact on multiple countries of the world, specifically during the early-to-mid twentieth century. Nationalism as a whole can affect specific groups of people more so than others during a given time period, as well as political and economic values. Specifically, nationalism has affected regions
Further, this drastically backfired on the government during times such as the Great Depression due to retaliation. Nevertheless, this economic nationalism affected countries worldwide due to a decrease in world trade (Bentley and Ziegler, 2011). Overall, nationalism can be born out of good intentions, but may result in a bad outcome. Furthermore, nationalism can be spotted within different countries during this time period. For example, a commonly noticed act of nationalism was within Germany during Hitler’s dictatorship. According to Fremdling in an article published in 1988, “It was the simplifying fanatical and ambiguous character of Hitler’s revolutionary nationalism which helped paralyze his adversaries and competitors by setting one against another.” Within this nationalism, it was originally directed towards the imperfections of the Treaty of Versailles, which further resulted in issues within Germany. One main issue that German officials wished to fix was unemployment within Germany. This new type of nationalism was expressed as a turning point in the twentieth century to show the activism willing by the people of
Effectively, nationalism can be started by an individual wishing to empower their beliefs and their country, which can further result in events as drastic as the Holocaust. Similar to the term Pan-Islamism, the term Pan-German became more noticeable under Hitler’s rule due to his view of Germany and its people. More specifically during the Holocaust the assumption of Jews based on looks, and what the “perfect German” should look like, which was referred to as Aryan (Gurian, 1945). All in all, German nationalism can be considered rather brutal by some, but this has taught many of an individual region's impact. Lastly, turning towards the perspective of African Nationalism during the 20th century, it is clear that African nationalism can overall affect multiple regions. During and around the time of World War II, African Nationalism flourished and was often promoted as “Blackness” (Bentley and Zeigler, 2011). Prior to this form of nationalism becoming known, Africa was used greatly for their labor and natural