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Introduction: presenting Nationalism
Cariad at ein Gwlad is the title we use for the text by Richard Price – A Discourse on the Love of our Country – which sparked the pamphleting war during the years following the French Revolution in 1789. The essay became familiar as a result of the radical, liberal arguments expressed in it and the fact that they prompted Edmund Burke to respond with his famous text, Reflections on the Revolution in France. However, Price’s main purpose was to discuss nationalism, and in particular those principles which should be the basis of the modern nation.
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The Roots of Nationalism
The discussion about the roots of nationalism is one which has caused fierce debate among a number of historians, political scientists and sociologists. The vast majority of scholars agree that it was at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century that terms such as ‘nation’ and ‘nationalism’ and related terms such as ‘national self determination’ and ‘national identity’ began to be used regularly in political contexts. However, there is considerable disagreement to what degree the feelings and ideas which came to be represented by these terms should also be treated as things which belong only to the modern era.
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Forms of Nationalism
Nationalism is an ideology which encompasses a very wide range of streams. Indeed, at times it appears it would be more appropriate to talk of different nationalisms rather than treat nationalism as one coordinated tradition. To some extent such an argument could be put forward in almost every political ideology.
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Key Elements of Nationalism
As seen in the previous section, nationalism is an ideology which has encompassed a wide and diverse range of political viewpoints. Moreover, these are viewpoints which have overlapped nearly each of the other main ideological traditions, including liberalism, conservatism, socialism and fascism. Even so, despite this breadth, some key aspects remain which can be seen to be fundamental to all forms of nationalistic politics.
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Nationalist and the Civic-ethnic Divide
The distinction between civic and ethnic nationalism was introduced by Hans Kohn (1891-1971) in order to analyse and describe different types of nationalism. Despite being fairly recent categories, they are based on perspectives which have a long history extending back to the eighteenth century. Furthermore, despite being categories introduced for analytical purposes, they also have a strong normative element – in the sense that Kohn tends to associate the civic with that which is ‘good’ and the ethnic with that which is ‘bad’.
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Nationalism in the Politics of Wales
Owain Glyndŵr It’s possible to initiate a discussion about the influence of nationalistic ideas on Welsh politics by looking back at the time of Owain Glyndŵr. Glyndŵr‘s rebellion began in 1400 and reached its climax in 1405, before the tide turned away from him. From a nationalistic viewpoint, one of significant features of his campaign is the way in which extensive use was made of mythology and history, and in particular the emphasis on Glyndŵr’s lineage and his connections with the House of Aberffraw.
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Nationalism and Global Politics
Nationalistic tendencies are central to global political systems. This is evident in the fact that we now have an international system based on interaction between a series of sovereign nation-states. Of course, the expansion of this system of nation-states to all four corners of the world is a fairly recent development.
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