Ch7/Sec2: Why Have Ethnicities Been Transformed Into Nationalities?
Nationality: identity with a group of people who share legal attachment and
personal allegiance to a particular country (Latin nasci = “to have been
born”)
Ethnicity v. nationality: both pertain to shared cultural values, BUT
 Ethnicity: language, religion, & material culture
 Nationality: passport, voting, & civic duties
Rise of nationalities: in the U.S., it is kept distinct from ethnicity & race
Nationality: natural born or naturalized citizens of the United States
Ethnicity: groups w/ distinct ancestry & cult.’l traditions, e.g. Hispanic
Americans, African Americans, Armenian Americans, etc.
Race: groups w/ distinct skin color, e.g. whites, blacks, Asians
 The U.S. forged a distinct nationality, “American,” from the shared
beliefs in the principles expressed in
- The Declaration of Independence
- the U.S. Constitution
- the Bill of Rights
(the unalienable rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”)
 Legal recognition of nationalities:
- Quebecois in Canada: clearly a distinct ethnicity but is it a distinct
nationality?  Legal recognition as a separate nationality would
support their claim of breaking away from Canada.
Nation-State:
 State whose territory correspond to that occupied by a particular ethnicity
that has been transformed into a nationality
 Goal of creating a nation-state: desire & right to self-rule, i.e. selfdetermination in order to preserve & enhance distinctive cultural
characteristics
 There are no perfect nation-states
Example: Denmark
 The territory occupied by the Danish ethnicity closely corresponds to the
state of Denmark
 Strong sense of unity (history of 1,000 years)
 Nearly all Danes speak Danish & nearly all Danish-speakers live in
Denmark
BUT!!!
- 10% of Denmark has ethnic nationalities (Turkish, Bosnian Muslims)
- It controls 2 non-Danish islands in the Atlantic: Faero Islands &
Greenland
Nation-states in Europe:
 Ethnicities became nationalities as in the 19th & early 20th centuries
 Germany did not become a nation-state until 1871 (until then: 300
states comprising the German Empire, dominated by Prussia)
 WWII: goal of unifying all German-speaking territories (Austria & the
Sudentenland)
 Defeat in WWII  division into W. & E. Germany  unification in
1990
Nationalism:
- Loyalty & devotion to a nationality (necessary for a nation to survive)
- Promotes a sense of national consciousness that places one’s nation,
culture, & interests above those of other nations
- Emphasizes shared attitudes that unify people & enhance support for a
state  it is a centripetal force (“directed toward the center”)
How?
 Promoting national symbols, e.g. flag (Pledge of Allegiance), songs
(National Anthem, America the Beautiful)
 Legal holidays associated w/ historical events, e.g. 4th of July,
Thanksgiving, MLK Day
 Sports
- Nationalism can become extreme when it primarily relies on creating
negative images of other nations, e.g. jokes
Multiethnic states:
 States that contain more than one ethnic group
 Each ethnic group contributes cultural features to the formation of a
single nationality, e.g. the United States, Canada, Bosnia and Herzegov.
 Multinational states: contain two or more ethnic groups w/ traditions of
self-determination that agree to coexist peacefully (or not) by recognizing
each other as distinct nationalities (or not), e.g. UK (England, Scotland,
Wales, Northern Ireland)