Food for Thought

Week 8: Thursday, March 18

1) How does Benedict Anderson define a nation? What do each of the elements in his definition actually mean?

2) How does Gellner define "nation," "nationality," and "nationalism"?

3) According to Mill, what exactly is a nation? What are the factors that contribute to a feeling of nationality?

4) Mill argues that every nation ought to obtain its own state, and every state ought to contain only one nation. Nevertheless, he recognizes there are certain difficulties associated with this means of organizing Europe. What problems were there with trying to impose territorial boundaries based on this principle? What were Mill's solutions to these problems?

There was no German state in 1860. Germany was merely a region that consisted of a patchwork of states in which the preponderant part of the population spoke some form of German. In this part of Europe, Prussia and the Habsburg Empire (Austria) were predominant. The big question at this point was the following: Would Austria continue to dominate a Germany of small states, or would Prussia succeed in uniting these German states under one crown while excluding Austria?

Italy in 1858 (on the eve of the Italian wars of unification) was in much the same position as Germany. There was no "Italy," just a collection of Italian states. Indeed, from a nationalist standpoint, Italy was in an even worse position than Germany; it was poorer, and most people living on the peninsula did not even speak the same language. Here, too, Austria was a dominating power. Austria occupied Lombardy and Venetia while exercising great influence in Parma, Modena, and Tuscany. At the same time, the Pope jealousy guarded his influence in the Papal States. Nevertheless, Sardinia had ambitions of uniting the Italian peninsula under its rule, but it needed help. For that, it turned to France.