Ovi Magazine Issue #24: Nationalism - Published: 2013-01-31

Nationalism and Universalism in Italian and European His
10
When we come to the Middle Ages, after the fall of
the Roman Empire, another intriguing thing happens.
National languages (French, English, Spanish,
Portuguese, Italian, German) begin to sprout but it
is the Catholic Church and Latin and more broadly
speaking Christianity which continues to supply the
unifying cultural factor to the whole continent of
Europe. Without understanding that simple historical
fact one searches in vain for the roots of European
cultural identity. This is indeed something that seems
to be either ignored or forgotten by the present day
Europeans in search of unity beyond nationalism and
sometimes finding it in inanities such as soccer games
and common banks and currency, thus ending up with
the cart before the horse. When Italian unification
was achieved Dazeglio said “now that we have done
Italy we need to make the Italians.” Similarly we now
have some Europeans proclaiming that “now that we
have a European Union we need to find the sources
of European identity.” There would be no need to
reinvent such a wheel if the Italian historical example
had been better grasped and pondered.
For nationalism to arrive on the stage in Europe
we need to wait for the Protestant Reformation
which shatters the unity provided by Latin and the
Catholic Church. And so a more narrow nationalism
follows the universal experiences of the Empire, the
Renaissance, the Catholic Church. The word Catholic,
after all, literally means universal. So we have well
formed nation states, Spain, England,
Portugal, France, fighting each other
incessantly either in Europe or all
over the globe as they build their
imperialistic empires in America, Africa and Asia.
Nationalism becomes the fashion and the politically
correct way to go. This despite the fact that the elite
aristocracy of Europe (in Russia for example) preferred
to speak French rather than their native languages.
That was a form of effete cultural showmanship and
not allegiance to France.
Napoleon provides the illusion of a unification
of Europe but what he provided was really French
imperialism with a national foundation. In America a
common English does not prevent the colonists from
declaring independence from its European colonizing
nation and proclaiming their own independent country.
Later on, the French and American revolutions
advance the idea, popularized by Rousseau’s “Social
Contract” and flourishing in the 19 th and 20 th century,
that all the classes within countries comprised the
nation. The people have become the nation.
In the 19 th century, to men like Mazzini, Garibaldi,
Verdi (see his opera Nabucco), nationalism was
an ideal worth striving for and even dying for. In
mid 19 th century both Italy and Germany become
unified countries politically, but culturally they both
possessed a viable and vibrant culture centuries
before. The number of sovereign nations in Europe
reached 24 in 1924.
There is
no doubt that
nationalism
played a major
role in World War
I. Those were the
chickens coming
home to roost given that
the Congress of Vienna
of 1815, after the demise
of Napoleon, paid little
attention to nationalistic
aspirations in its division
of European territories.
Nationalism was certainly in
the mind of Woodrow Wilson
when he declared at the Treaty
of Versailles the principle of
self-determination. What you
ultimately had there were for multinational
empires limited by the
boundaries of their predominant