Culture VII – Ethnicity and Nationalism

What is Nationality?

• Nationality is identity with a group of people who share legal attachment and personal allegiance to a particular country– United States of America – Americans– United States of Mexico – Mexicans– France – French– Ireland – Irish– Japan - Japanese

Nation-States

• Nation-State– When a state’s territory coincides w/an ethnicity

that has been transformed into a nationality• Most of western Europe – France, Denmark

– Attempt to organize the Earth based on idea of self-determination

• Nation-States in Europe

Nationalism

• Mass Media• Propaganda• Symbol of Nationalism• Centripetal vs. Centrifugal Forces

“liberté, égalité, fraternité”

Multinational States

• Multi-ethnic state – no self-determination– Belgium• Dutch-speaking Flemish• French-speaking Walloons

• Multinational state – self-determination– United Kingdom• England• Wales• Scotland• Northern Ireland

Former Soviet Union

• Largest multinational state until its breakup in 1991

• 15 republics based on the largest ethnic groups• Today, all 15 are independent states– Three Baltic: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania– Three European: Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine– Five Central Asian: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,

Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan– Three Caucasus: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia– Russia

Fifteen Nations of the USSR

Russia• The largest multinational state today– 39 official nationalities – many want

independence• Russia has numerous ethnic groups– 20% or non-Russian– Most of these ethnic groups were conquered in

the sixteenth century by Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible)• Chechnya – Sunni Muslims• Russians in other states

Turmoil in the Caucasus

• Fall of Soviet Union led to creation of three independent states– Azerbaijan (fragmented

state) – Azeris– Armenia – Armenians

(98% of pop.)– Georgia – Georgians

Ethnicity and Communism

• Karl Marx saw nationalism as a means for the dominate class to maintain power over the working class

• Economic cooperation more important than ethnic differences– Gov’ts banned ethnic differences

• Religion and language

• Soviet propaganda and centripetal devices– “socialist realism”– Language– Religion

Rebirth of Nation-States in Europe

• Fall of Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia caused in part by ethnic groups refusing/opposing the domination of an ethnic group

• Some made peaceful transitions in to nation states, while others were violent– Slovenia and Slovakia– Croatia and Bosnia