The Struggle Between Countries Who Were Nationalist or Imperialist

Second Mid Term Essay Johann Gottfried von Herder wrote much about nationalism. John Hobson wrote of imperialism, and Charles Darwin of natural selection and “survival of the fittest.” First I will discuss nationalism from Herder’s perspective. Second, I will discuss imperialism from Hobson’s perspective. Then Hobson writes about how nationalism leads to imperialism. Last, I will discuss the assumption that “nineteenth-century European societies were engaged in a struggle for existence among themselves?” There was a struggle, a great struggle between countries who were nationalist or imperialist. The struggle was because of competition. This is where Charles Darwin and his work of the struggle of existence ties Herder and Hobson’s opinions together.

First I must assume that there was a struggle between societies even though there clearly was between each nation because of the competition, the need for resources, the need to be dominant and victorious, and the need to survive. It is assumed that societies struggle to co-exist with each other in Europe.

Herder says, “Nature has sketched with mountain ranges which she fashioned and with streams which she caused to flow from them the rough but substantial outline of the whole history of man.” “Seas, mountain ranges and rivers are the most natural boundaries not only of lands but also of peoples, customs, languages and empires, and they have been, even in the greatest revolutions in human affairs, the directing lines or limits of world history.” (Herder p.1) These two quotes define nationalism by explaining nature is what makes nations by having natural boundaries such as mountains and rivers. He says nationalism is natural. “Nothing therefore seems more contradictory to the true end of governments than the endless expansion of states, the wild confusion of races and nations under scepter. An empire made up of a hundred peoples and a 120 provinces which have been forced together is a monstrosity, not a state-body.” (Herder p. 1) There is no purity in expansion to a nationalist country. Nationalism does not allow expansion of government or land. It is a nation that has the same race, language, and people. The way Herder would define nationalism is a group of people with the same language that has been divided by natural boundaries, with a common interest of protecting the nation because it was a duty for the people for the nation to survive. It is supposedly confusing to mix race under one nation.

Hobson thought imperialism was all about economic interest and economic growth. Imperialism in simpler terms could be explained by nations taking control over other nations because they wanted more resources, to conquer land, and expand their territory. Of course nationalist wanted their country to flourish but they did not want anything to do with spreading farther than the natural boundaries of there own nation. Imperialist and nationalist countries were in a battle between conquering land because they had to find a way to keep their own country plentiful. “During the nineteenth century the struggle towards nationalism, or establishment of political union on a basis of nationality, was a dominant factor alike in dynastic movements and as an inner motive in the life of masses of population.” (Hobson p. 1) Hobson says there was a struggle towards nationalism or any other type of government like it. They people of the country knew what nationalism meant, a duty to protect the country.

Hobson discusses that nationalism leads to imperialism and he gives several countries as examples: “Holland, Poland, Belgium, Norway, and the Balkans…” (Hobson p. 1) There is a connection between nationalism and imperialism. A country cannot be strictly a nationalist society, they would not survive which is the whole reason of a country. The country would have to get resources somehow because after a while natural resources will be consumed by the people. “After 1870 this manufacturing and trading supremacy was greatly impaired: other nations, especially Germany, the United States, and Belgium, advanced with great rapidity, and while they have not crushed or even stayed the increase of our external trade, their competition made it more and more difficult to dispose of the full surplus of our manufactures at a profit. The encroachments made by these nations upon our old markets, even in our own possessions, made it most urgent that we should take energetic means to secure new markets.” Hobson talks of how those nations grew rapidly in the market not because they stayed within their country but kept securing new markets because competition made it harder for a country to grow.

The assumption that there was a struggle between nations was because of nationalism and imperialism and the competition amongst them. Charles Darwin states “Nevertheless, this difficulty, though appearing to our imagination insuperably great, cannot be considered real if we admit the following propositions, namely, -- that gradations in the perfection of any organ or instinct, which we may consider, either do now exist or could have existed, each good of its kind, -- that all organs and instincts are, in ever so slight a degree, variable, -- and, lastly, that there is a struggle for existence leading to the preservation of each profitable deviation of structure or instinct.” (Darwin p.1) Darwin talks about species struggle and only the strong survive which in this case would be imperialist because nationalist soon become it. Darwin applies this to species but it is applied to nation states as well. Nationalism and imperialism are completely about preservation of a country. Anything that has a profit, men will try and preserve that land. Land can be considered profit because by taking control over it, the resources are also under control.

“Nineteenth-century European societies were engaged in a struggle for existence among themselves?” Charles Darwin ties the evidence there was a struggle in the nineteenth-century in European societies. Herder, Hobson, and Darwin were great thinkers and knew what happened to societies. They knew societies would soon become nationalist to imperialist and fight to keep themselves safe from other land conquering nations. Because of other nations, there was competition which started to struggle to co-exist in European societies.