Describe the role of culture in shaping the feeling of nationalism in Europein 19th century.
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Describe the role of culture in shaping the feeling of nationalism in Europein 19th century.
Culture played an important role in creating the feelings of nationalism in Europe:
1. Romanticism was a cultural movement that believed in emotions, intuitions and mystical feelings over reason and science. They tried to evoke the feelings of a common past and shared heritage.
2. Romantics like Johann Gottfried Herder believed that German culture was alive among the common people- das volk. The idea of nation was popularised through the folk culture of songs, poetry, and dance.
3. Local culture was sought also to reach the large population of illiterate people. In Poland, Karol Kurpinski turned the folk dances and music into nationalist symbols.
4. The language was also essential as a nationalist identity. When Polish was forcefully removed from schools and Russian was imposed everywhere after Russian occupation, the people saw the use of Polish language as a sign of national resistance.
The 'Go Eat Movement of the early twentieth century:
1. In 1907-08, about 300 Vietnamese students went to Japan for modern studies. They wanted foreign help as well as arms.
2. Most of these nationalists aspired to oust French from Vietnam, remove the puppet emperor and bring back the Nguyen dynasty. They expected Japanese support as fellow Asians.
3. Japan was looked up to because it resisted western colonisation by modernizing itself and even defeated Russia through its military power.
4. Vietnamese students opened a branch of the Restoration Society in Tokyo but Japanese Ministry of Interior closed it in 1908.
5. Most of the students including Phan Bol Chau had to seek exile in China and Thailand because they were deported.
Answer:
The development of nationalism did not come about only through wars and territorial expansion. Culture played an important role in creating the idea of the nation: art and poetry, stories and music helped express and shape nationalist feelings. Romanticism was a cultural movement which sought to develop a particular form of nationalist sentiment. Romantic artists and poets generally became strong critics of reason and science in their glorified forms. The Romanticists dwelt more on emotions, intuition and mystical feelings. They were aiming at creating a sense of shared collective heritage and common cultural part to serve as the basis of a nation.
German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744 – 1803), a Romantic, claimed that true German culture was to be discovered among the common people — das volk. He claimed that folk songs, folk poetry and folk dances held the true spirit of the nation (Volksgeist). He encouraged collecting and recording these forms of folk culture as essential to the nation-building process.
The emphasis on vernacular language and the collection of local folklore, as the Grimm brothers (Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812) did, was not just to recover an ancient national spirit, but also to carry the modern nationalist message to large audiences who were mostly illiterate. Even though Poland no longer existed as an independent territory, national feelings were kept alive there through music and language.