Why Have States Emerged Essay
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The main reason for states emerging is because of the desire of peoples of the same or similar ethnic background for self-rule. A state is defined as, ‘A political organisation exercising complete authority over a defined territory, .’ Over the past 200 years there has been a considerable increase in the number of states in the world compared to any other time period in history. In 1700 there were 45 states, in 1945 there were about 65 states. Currently, there are around 200 states. Arguably, nationalism has played the biggest role in the emergence of countries as a result of revolutionary ideas originated from philosophers such as John Locke and John Stuart Mill. The French Revolution became a catalyst for transformation in the way distressed people perceived their governments; consequently, leading to revolutions throughout the world. As the 20th century unfolded, the role of the United Nations in support of self-determination led to the increasing number of countries, which is depicted through the process of decolonisation. Subsequently, new states in Africa have confronted many problems since achieving independence; many being due to colonisation. The lack of economic investment, education and continuous tribal warfare has hampered improvements in Africa.
Many historians argue that nationalism has contributed to be a major factor in the emergence of new states. Nationalism is defined as, ‘(The) sentiment of pride in belonging to a community whose members identify with a set of symbols, beliefs and ways of life (for example, common language, history, culture and religion) .’ Since the late 1700's, nationalism has become a significant force in international relations. Nationalistic feelings, particularly the desire of each country to govern itself, have helped to modify the map of Europe several times since the 1800's. Since the late 1940's, nationalism has also transformed the maps of Africa and Asia. One might wonder why nationalism only became a dominant force in the late 1700’s. The reason why is because improvements in communications extended the knowledge of people beyond their village or province. Likewise, the spread of education gave the people the feeling of participation in a common cultural heritage. Through education, people learned of their common background and tradition and immediately began to identify themselves with the historical continuity of the ethnic group . Nationalism in Europe was greatly increased with the influence of the French Revolution in 1789 when loyalty to the king was replaced by loyalty to the ‘fatherland.’ This can be illustrated by the first verse of the French national anthem, ‘Allons enfants de la patrie,’ which the translation into English means ‘March on, children of the fatherland.’ As a result of the French Revolution, France achieved a truly representative system of government with a uniform and united national territory, as well as common laws and institutions . A representative form of government is something that many people throughout the world felt could happen in their own country. As a result of the ideology of the French Revolution (freedom, equality, fraternity), a powerful revolutionary movement swept across South America. Between 1810 and 1820, what is now the territory of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay were liberated from the Spanish. As well as Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru were liberated from Spain and formed sovereign countries. Brazil was finally liberated from Portugal in 1822. Back in Europe, Belgium won its independence from the Netherlands in 1830 and Greece won its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1832. Later in the century, Central Europe underwent a radical change due to nationalism. An Italian kingdom was created in 1861 and a German empire in 1871 . More recently, at the end of the First World War the defeated Ottoman, Austrian-Hungarian, and German empires began to weaken politically and militarily. This led to demands by nationalistic groups for greater autonomy (local self-government) and usually as far as total independence. Consequently, Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia all became independent countries . All these revolutionary movements have a lot in common. They include the fact that the people fighting for independence all shared a similar cultural background and a desire for self-rule. Another commonality includes the fact that these people had been un-represented in ‘their own’ country for far too long. Self-determination for many of these un-represented people was just a matter of time.
The concept that every people should freely determine their own political status and freely pursue their own economic, social and cultural status have long been something for which patriots have been ready to lay down their lives for . Self-determination is defined by Webster’s dictionary as, “free choice of one's own acts or states without external compulsion; free will. Determination by the people of a territorial unit of their own future political status .” Self-determination is quite different to nationalism, because as with self-determination the people actually want to rule their own political future, whereas nationalism is merely the feeling of pride in belonging to a cultural group (although nationalism often leads to self-determination.) Although the principle of self-determination was practiced following the First World War (with the creation of various countries from the defeated empires), it only became international...
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