What Is A Nation?
What is a Nation?
The concept of a nation refers to a socially constructed and politically organized grouping of a people, or ethnic group, within a self-governing physical boundary. Historically, the concept of a nation in its modern understanding has been distorted to further it from its original definition. Evidence of such distortion exists in our present society, and has continued through common conflation of definitions between a nation and other similar social groupings. This essay will attempt to trace the origins of nations, expand on the various mechanisms in which nations are created, and discuss the effects of assuming a national identity.
What is a nation?
According to Walker Connor (1978), the notion of a nation is commonly …show more content…
To begin on the former, advances and discoveries in both social and scientific thought reduced the influence of religion as a cohesive social factor within Europe. Ties to a greater religious communities, such as Roman Catholicism, were slowly replaced with regional Protestant religions, which helped to create a vacuum to allow the replacement of other unifying communities (1991). These thoughts also challenged notions of absolute monarchisms who, through claimed religious authority, provided a foil against a civic nation. This is seen especially in the case of the first French Republic, whereby a civic nation was formed and replaced the usage of ruling monarchs in …show more content…
These nations contrast with the above nations due to the simultaneous or relatively quick consecutive development of a cultural community alongside a civic state. These nations were often sparked by national movement, and often times willed due to a crisis related to national identity. Status-inconsistency is often times a motivator of these newer forms of nation building, whereby individuals sense that their status as an ethnic group in their greater society is lower than they perceive it should be. These sentiments of inferiority oftentimes climax into national independence
The concept of a nation refers to a socially constructed and politically organized grouping of a people, or ethnic group, within a self-governing physical boundary. Historically, the concept of a nation in its modern understanding has been distorted to further it from its original definition. Evidence of such distortion exists in our present society, and has continued through common conflation of definitions between a nation and other similar social groupings. This essay will attempt to trace the origins of nations, expand on the various mechanisms in which nations are created, and discuss the effects of assuming a national identity.
What is a nation?
According to Walker Connor (1978), the notion of a nation is commonly …show more content…
To begin on the former, advances and discoveries in both social and scientific thought reduced the influence of religion as a cohesive social factor within Europe. Ties to a greater religious communities, such as Roman Catholicism, were slowly replaced with regional Protestant religions, which helped to create a vacuum to allow the replacement of other unifying communities (1991). These thoughts also challenged notions of absolute monarchisms who, through claimed religious authority, provided a foil against a civic nation. This is seen especially in the case of the first French Republic, whereby a civic nation was formed and replaced the usage of ruling monarchs in …show more content…
These nations contrast with the above nations due to the simultaneous or relatively quick consecutive development of a cultural community alongside a civic state. These nations were often sparked by national movement, and often times willed due to a crisis related to national identity. Status-inconsistency is often times a motivator of these newer forms of nation building, whereby individuals sense that their status as an ethnic group in their greater society is lower than they perceive it should be. These sentiments of inferiority oftentimes climax into national independence