Nationalism (in the US and worldwide) during WWI

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Nationalism (in the US and worldwide) during WWI

Nationalism comes about where there is a gradual feeling of people to identify with their nation. It is also a reflection of societal order where autonomous of the people in the community generates. Therefore, nationalism during the First World War was based on the desire for independence and prestige. The First World War took a period of four years and three months because it begun in 1914 and ended 1918. The number of supreme states that were involved by number was sixty, four of these were overthrown, and other new nations were born. The kingdoms that lots power include German kingdom, Hapsburg kingdom, Turkish kingdom and Russian kingdom. Contrary to losing, there were new kingdoms that arose. These include Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Ten million people died and thirty million incurred severe injuries.

As the world war was in progress, Americans’ civil war arose. This was a result of nationalism in the south and northern part of America. This was due to economic and social differences whereby the south concentrated on plantations while the north focused on city life. Another big root that led to this eruption was the states’ federal rights. There was an argument that big states controlled bigger areas of which every state had the power to control each of their states. There was also the fight between states that had slavery in dominance and those that did not have slavery. This fight was geared to the attainment of American independence. With regard to independence, they had developed a feeling of identity towards their nation.

A great feeling of nationalism arose in the aim of unifying in Germany in 1871 and Italy in 1861. The concord that was signed at the finishing of Franco Prussian war led to frustrations that made France hungry because it had completely lost one of its states to Germany. This anger triggered for revenge of France against Germany with reference to the Alsace-Lorraine territory that it had lost. Other states like the Serbia and Austria Hungary were domicile for conflicting autonomist sets that also wanted independence from those states they resided in.

The league of nation’s trustees was different from colonies because the League of Nations wanted to enforce their military and economic base in order to become popular. In this way, agreements between countries were signed for magnifying their power in helping each other. These alliances started with Bismarck of Germany. He formed them in order to gain power over the averaging supremacy of France. The other point regarded to the colonial unions that were formed as a way of colonies to establish prestige and popularity. Many colonies united in order to restrain forces among the African countries. Many colonies in Africa were rich in mineral resources. Through these resources, colonies defined their power in those territories. Through market influence by the colonies, they were able to establish a strong economic base in the world market. This way, there resulted to colonial unions that helped each other in terms of trade.

The collapse and generation of new states had both positive and negative impacts. Emergence of new states helped in such a way to neutralize the communist era that had cropped up. Therefore, alliances were broken because this new states were busy creating and developing both the economy and their political status. Through this way, the leaders were not ready to form any union that would result to war. On the other hand, some of the states influenced negatively. For instance, Poland as a new created state was under communist threat. This was because it lied in the strip territory of river Vistula that was in great demand by Prussia. Consequently, because of   this friction, disputes began between Poland and Prussia threatening to bring another war. After this development, many nations united in order to develop their economy and rebuild those areas that were affected by the war. This resulted to more unity that enhanced nationalism among the Europe’s people.