Nationalism

= ** Nationalism ** = Before you start you might be wondering what **Nationalism** is defined as a political ideology, which involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity, defined in national terms. The 19th Century saw the growth of nationalism across Europe. This came both as new nations formed, like Germany and Italy and as empires dissolved like the Ottoman Empire and the Austo- Hungarian Empire. In Germany the growth of nationalist feeling had significant and lasting effects. [|**Source 1**]

** Source 1 ** ** A letter to the international law expert ** **Johann Kasper Blutschli (1808-81) from Count Helmuth von Moltke** In the letter to the international law expert, Johann Kasper Blutschli (1808-81), Count Helmuth von Moltke expresses his philosophical and nationalist views on the necessity of war. In this letter von Moltke writes about how useful war is, he says, "Eternal peace is a dream- and not even a beautiful one. War is part of god's world-order:" this is showing his quick jump to war he also states that it makes men better for it "within it unfold the noblest virtues of men, courage and renunciation, __loyalty to duty and readiness for sacrifice"__ von Moltke defies the need of a codification of the law of war. Von Moltke does not want to be opposed of suppressed by a law stopping him from waging war, von Moltke knows that their is nobody to stop him from waging war, even if it is against 'an international law' as he states "Every law requires an **authority** to oversee and administer its execution and just this force is __lacking__ for the observation of international agreements." If you look at it in the sense of this wasn't written to be shown in the public domain you really see that von Moltke does not want to show a great audience about his views, although he does proclaim them rightly, and there is a consistency within the source to agree with everything he has said. From this source we can realize that the head of the Germany army is quick to war and defies any reason against war. As the head of Germany's military von Moltke would inspire these thoughts through the German identity and this could spark the start of Nationalism.

[|**Source 2**] ** Source 2 ** ** Bernhard von Bulow in a speech before the Reichstag on December 11th 1899 ** In this speech, Bernhard Von Bulow is telling the Reichstag about how England has dramatically increased its colonial empire; this had been told to be the largest the world has ever seen ever since the years of the once victorious and dominant Roman Empire. Because of this the French have also decided to increase their colonial power by taking over some Northern and Eastern African countries, creating themselves a new empire within the far east. This created a problem for Germany, as now was the time to expand its empire and compete with the powerful British and French empires. Being successful in this would help achieve that goal of 'world domination’, which inspired German nationalistic views. Being the most powerful country in the world would bring all sorts of benefits to Germany. "Make it clear in our own minds what stance we have to take and how we need to prepare ourselves in the face of the processes taking place around us which carry the seeds within them for the restructuring of power relationships for the unforeseeable future. To stand inactively to one side, as we have done so often in the past." The reliability of this source is useful in a way that shows the direction in which Germany wants to take to achieve world domination. Nationalism plays a large part in this, as Germany will need all the support it can get from its allies and most importantly the German people. Not only is this speech talking about the 'world domination' by German but it also reinforces the growth and support for German Nationalism.


 * Intended audience is the Reichstag and German people
 * Convince German people about a 'united' Germany
 * Support of people would help achieve their goals
 * Useful because it was a speech aimed towards the German parliament (aka the Reichstag)

** Source 3 ** ** A memorandum sent from the German Admiral Georg von **** Müller, to the Kaiser's brother in 1896. **  In this letter we see Georg use nationalism as an excuse for war. He notes that it is everybody else's fault and not Germanys; Germany is but disadvantaged. It was Germanys disadvantage on the worldwide scale and that the colonialists shouldn’t have advantaged themselves at this world side stage. I think we can see from the audience being the Kaiser's brother that von M üller would be trying to get to the Kaiser himself, the Admiral was the head of the navy and we can see that he wants to expand his navy and a war could be the result of such action. Although the information is not factual information rather it's strongly held set opinion of the Admiral we can test its reliability. This opinion could lead to the rise in nationalism, nationalism develops itself, it doesn't just start at 100 percent, something always has to set it off, and the building of a larger naval fleet can inspire more nationalistic views through out Germany ** Main Points: **
 * Nationalism is an uprising thought in German Military and Parliament
 * Larger naval fleet for German
 * Expanding thoughts within Germany

** Causes of the war: the historians' debate ** In the years since the Armistice of World War 1, the question of 'what caused the Great War' has become a focus point of many historical debates and the centre of all controversy. Countless books and articles have been published on the subject as many people still have this topic on their mind. Initially people want to know who was to blame for starting the war. The Allies blamed the Germans and the Germans blamed the British, giving everyone their own bias opinion on who and what caused the war. During the peace conference of 1919 it was decided that the blame should be directly placed on the German people and the Kaiser, and that Germany should therefore pay reparations to the victorious powers. This was purely based on Nationalism.

// Sidney Bradshaw Fay, Fritz Fischer, Paul Schroeder //

** Conclusion: ** Nationalism was a rising theme in Germany. It is evident in the Primary sources and Secondary sources that nationalism played a great part in the outbreak of war in Europe. We have seen great leaders use for nationalism and we have seen a great German nation outspread through nationalism.