The Dark Side of Nationalism in World War One Explained

so clearly your readings and some of the videos you've already watched revealed that nationalism does indeed have a dark

side and one of the better examples of this dark side of nationalism and how this ideology can be used for insidious

purposes is in world war one world war one shows how powerful nationalism can be how essentially millions of people

will willingly die or slaughter they will either die or kill for the color of a uniform or over the color of the

uniform a patch on a sleeve a piece of dyed fabric flowing above them and it draws it it makes us it's one of the

reasons we were motivated to even create this course what could prompt what ideology could be powerful enough to

prompt this type of behavior to willingly gasp another human being that you've never met and this is where the

dark side of nationalism really comes into play and the nationalism during the World War 1 era of the 20th century the

early 20th century uses the same methodologies of all the ideologies that we've talked about so far it uses

ritualization of behavior a manufactured creation story it manipulates its narratives especially the narratives or

competing narratives of other nation-states it limits exposure to other ideas xenophobia obviously is a

huge part of 20th century nationalism and the concoction of a foreign threat and other and of course it spreads fear

nationalism in the 20th century is predicated on fear fear of this other fear of losing one's own identity ever

again as we saw during the Atlantic Revolutionary period this 20th century version of nationalism used storytelling

classes and systems to reinforce the narrative over and over again in the modern world through national

departments of Education through the media and of course popular events in popular culture some societies of course

even in their education practices for students of course to pledge allegiance --is to national constructs just as one

very obvious exam moreover when it is time to engage in conflict with completing nation-states

the stories that are concocted are usually only very vague not necessarily true alternative facts are not

necessarily a new thing and they contain abstract notions of what the subscribers nation-state pretends to stand for

maybe they stand for Queens maybe they stand for freedom maybe they stand for democracy these very abstract ideas that

means something different to everybody the key however is that the stakeholders for war even in a nationalist era are

not that different than stakeholders in the ancient world these are the people essentially at the top of the proverbial

pyramids and it is not necessarily them that are engaging in the actual Wars in fact very rarely do they ever serve in

the wars that they start the idea is that they use nationalism in some extreme forms of nationalism sometimes

described as ultra-nationalism some ultra patriotism to get people to willingly engage in these conflicts for

them based on the abstract ideas that the nation in says that it stands for democracy republicanism freedom yada

yada yada further nationalism in the twentieth century had already spread throughout

most of the globe and while some people willingly adopted others resisted still others of course wanted it but could not

have it and that really actually again is what starts World War one most people are aware that there is a very famous

assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo but what is often not told is that he was assassinated

assassinated because he represented the old order and the lineage of the austro-hungarian Empire he was

assassinated by a Serbian nationalist a Serbian nationalist that wanted an independent nation of Serbia but had

been forced Serbia of course had been forced to be part of the austro-hungarian Empire

centuries of course of being under the Ottoman Empire so this desire for nationalism is what Spurs the

assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and eventually of course because of the Bismarck ian's system as

a system of alliances that you've already watched a youtube video about basically throws Europe into a massive

war a massive war that also is not just of course affecting people on the continent of Europe a war that affects

people around the globe European during our Europe during World War one is still a colonial power so all of Europe's

colonies are forced to contribute either manpower or resources to the war to provide an interesting example 1 million

Indians from India served in served in the British military in World War one in the various theaters throughout Europe

nationalism would also act as a motivator for subordinated peoples around the world to engage in the war or

choose a side in World War 1 one of the best examples of this is within the Ottoman Empire an empire that dates all

the way back to 1299 and it existed in in in various forms all the way up until World War one well one of the things

that helped the Allies eventually defeat the Ottoman Empire alongside some of its cohorts was by spreading the idea of

nationalism within some of these large empires within the Ottoman Empire which ethnically had been a Turkish Empire in

wit that ruled over various different ethnicities as Aries and Kurds and most importantly of course for the Allied

cause Arabs a large population that they could use to fight actually against the Ottoman Empire by promoting a new Arab

nationalism essentially if you help us against the Ottoman Empire you'll be able to create a new Arab state we'd

already seen this work with two other different ethnicities or ethnic groups that had been able to separate from the

Ottoman Empire that was of course Greek independence of the 19th century and the aforementioned Serbian Independence

which of course was short-lived as it was eventually absorbed into austro-hungarian

Peyer but this is where we get these famous stories of TE Lawrence ie Lawrence of Arabia going down and

forming these relationships and fighting of course for Arab freedom and liberty and eventually Arab nationalism we know

that in reality the Allies did not necessarily intend on keeping their word of creating a United Arab state we

actually have the sykes-picot agreement that reveals to us it was drawn up in San Remo Italy and it reveals to us at

the fraction and-and-and British even though they promised the Arabs a nation-state of their own had actually

planned to carve it up and create a mandate system more or less to control the development of what would become the

Middle East but it didn't matter it was the promise of a nation-state that led to of course the Arabs fighting against

the Ottoman Empire that's just one of many examples of where nationalism played a crucial role in a different

facet than what we're used to understanding when we analyze World War one another good example of nationalisms

influence in World War one in the post-war period was the construction of new nationalism to again cite the

Serbians after of course the Allies won World War one and got to dictate how the austro-hungarian and Ottoman empires

would either be carved up or turned into new nation-states they chose in parts of the austro-hungarian Empire to create a

new nation state by smashing together what is basically what existed until the 1990s the country of Yugoslavia of which

multiple ethnic and religious groups were basically put together Serbs and Croats and some Albanians and Bosnia

Bosnians and again representing major religions Catholics Eastern Orthodox Christians Muslims all basically smashed

together into one nationalist identity constructed from the outside that's a key component that we see here is that

nationalism is not always constructed from the inside by the people that want to construct their nation-states

oftentimes nationalist constructs from the outcome from the outside by again these world powers drawing imaginary

lines on a map and dictating that this is you this is where you live you must now be Yugoslavia essentially deal with

it it's into this atmosphere that one of the biggest evidences of a growing and as of 2018 permanent understanding of

nationalism came into being is in the formation of the League of Nations which basically wrap wraps up this this this

part one of the world wars in the 20th century the League of Nations essentially was meant to act as a a

overwatching governing body a loosely governing body of these nation-states to preserve the national sovereignty and

integrity of these newly constructed entities