Nationalism

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Eugène Delacroix - La liberté guidant le peuple ("Freedom leads people") This painting is often used as symbol of French nationalism
Eugène Delacroix - La liberté guidant le peuple ("Freedom leads people") This painting is often used as symbol of French nationalism

Nationalism is an ideology that says that every ethnic group of humans should be free to rule itself. Nationalists think that the best way to make this happen is for every ethnic group to have its own nation or society that they can rule without being controlled or oppressed by anybody else. Many nationalists think that nationalism is the best way to save small and not powerful groups, which are threatened by the mixing of ethnic groups. Nationalists think that the world is better with lots of cultural diversity. They also think that diversity is threatened by worldwide influences and mixing.

Nationalism is the opposite of imperialism. Imperialism tries to make big nations that have many ethnic groups. In imperialist states, some goups are usually more powerful and are seen as better than others. Nationalists think that such hierarchy is bad. They say that in nations with one ethnic group, everyone has the same value and power.

Nationalists think that there would not be so many conflicts in Africa if African nations would have been built in a nationalist way (so that every ethnic group is its own nation). After the imperialists left their African colonies, the new nations were built with borders that were not the same as the ethnic borders. New nations became nations with many ethnic groups, which do not want to or cannot live peacefully in the same society with the others.

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