Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-669899f699-tzmfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-02T11:10:44.736Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Is nationalism the cause or consequence of the end of empire?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2013

By
Wesley Hiers  and
Andreas Wimmer
Edited by
John A. Hall  and
Siniša Malešević
John A. Hall
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal
Siniša Malešević
Affiliation:
University College Dublin
Get access

Summary

This chapter addresses the question of whether and to what degree nationalism was the cause or the consequence of imperial collapse. We go about this task in four steps. The first three steps use quantitative data that cover most of the world since 1816. In the first step, we simply analyze the temporal relationship between the transition from empire to nation-state and the foundation of nationalist organizations. We find that in the overwhelming majority, the latter precedes the former. We then proceed to a more fine-grained analysis and ask whether these nationalist organizations were perhaps inspired by imperial retreat from other parts of the empire, such that a partial imperial breakdown would further fuel the flames of nationalism elsewhere. No such effect emerges, however. In the third step, we determine whether nationalist mobilization is a cause for the individual transitions from empire to nation-state observed in the history of today's countries and find this to be the case, even if we take a host of other factors into account (including the weakening of empire through wars).

In the fourth and most important step, we go beyond these coarse quantitative analyses and shift to empires as units of analysis, asking to what degree nationalism caused imperial collapse. Discussing the demise of the Ottoman, Habsburg, French, British, Portuguese and Soviet empires, we assess the varying degrees to which nationalist movements contributed to each imperial collapse and the extent to which each transition was due to other, unrelated factors, including the voluntary retreat of empire or the breakdown of empire due to defeat in international wars. We find that in all cases of imperial collapse nationalist movements played an important, and sometimes, crucial role (for the opposing view, see Betts 1991; Burbank and Cooper 2010; Flint 1983; Sked 2001; Solnick 1998). There is little evidence – with a handful of exceptions such as the Central Asian republics and some African countries – for the idea that imperial breakdown produces nationalist movements or nation-states without a previous agitation for them.

Type
Chapter
Information
Nationalism and War , pp. 212 - 254
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Anderson, B. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Ashton, S.R. 1998. “Ceylon.” Pp.447–64 in The Oxford History of the British Empire. Vol. IV The Twentieth Century, edited by Brown, J.M. and Louis, W.R.. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ashton, S.R. 2006. “Keeping Change within Bounds: A Whitehall Reassessment.” Pp. 32–52 in The British Empire in the 1950s: Retreat or Revival? edited by Lynn, M.. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Beissinger, M.R. 2002. Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beissinger, M.R. 2009. “Nationalism and the Collapse of Soviet Communism.”Contemporary European History 18(3): 331–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beller, S. 2006. A Concise History of Austria. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Betts, R.F. 1991. France and Decolonization 1900–1960. New York: St. Martin's Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breuilly, J. 1994. Nationalism and the State. 2nd edn. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bridge, F.R. 1990. The Habsburg Monarchy among the Great Powers, 1815–1918. New York: Berg.Google Scholar
Brubaker, R. 1994. “Nationhood and the National Question in the Soviet Union and Post-Soviet Eurasia: An Institutionalist Account.”Theory and Society 23(1): 47–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burbank, J. and Cooper, F.. 2010. Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Chabal, P. 1993. “Emergencies and Nationalist Wars in Portuguese Africa.”Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 21(3): 235–49.Google Scholar
Chafer, T. 2002. The End of Empire in French West Africa: France's Successful Decolonization?Oxford and New York: Berg.Google Scholar
Darwin, J. 1988. Britain and Decolonization: The Retreat from Empire in the Post-War World. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darwin, J. 1999. “Decolonization and the End of Empire.” Pp. 541–57 in The Oxford History of the British Empire. Vol. V Historiography, edited by Winks, R.W. and Low, A.. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Findley, C.V. 2010. Turkey, Islam, Nationalism, and Modernity: A History. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Flint, J. 1983. “Planned Decolonization and Its Failure in British Africa.”African Affairs 82(328): 389–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furedi, F. 1993. “Creating a Breathing Space: The Political Management of Colonial Emergencies.”Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 21(3): 89–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grimal, H. 1978. Decolonization: the British, French, Dutch and Belgian Empires 1919–1963, trans. De Vos, S.. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Haddad, W.M. 1977. “Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire.” Pp. 3–24 in Nationalism in a Non-National State: The Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.Google Scholar
Hale, H. 2000. “The Parade of Sovereignties: Testing Theories of Secession in the Soviet Setting.”British Journal of Political Science 30: 31–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanioğlu, M.Ş. 2010. A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Heinlein, F. 2002. British Government Policy and Decolonisation 1945–1963: Scrutinising the Official Mind. London and Portland, OR: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Himka, J. 1992. “Nationality Problems in the Habsburg Monarchy and the Soviet Union: the Perspective of History.” Pp. 79–94 in Nationalism and Empire: The Habsburg Empire and the Soviet Union, edited by Rudolph, R.L. and Good, D.F.. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Holland, R.F. 1985. European Decolonization 1918–1981: An Introductory Survey. Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hroch, M. 2000 [1969]. Social Preconditions of Patriotic Groups among the Smaller European Nations. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Hyam, R. 2006. Britain's Declining Empire: The Road to Decolonization, 1918–1968. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jászi, O. 1961. The Dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Jelavich, C. and Jelavich, B.. 1977. The Establishment of the Balkan National States, 1804–1920. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Kahler, M. 1984. Decolonization in Britain and France. Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kann, R.A. 1977. A History of the Habsburg Empire 1526–1918. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Keyder, C. 1997. “The Ottoman Empire.” Pp. 30–44 in After Empire: Multiethnic Societies and Nation-Building, edited by Barkey, K. and von Hagen, M.. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Lapidus, G.W. 1992. “From Democratization to Disintegration: the Impact of Perestroika on the National Question.” Pp. 45–70 in From Union to Commonwealth: Nationalism and Separatism in the Soviet Republics, edited by Lapidus, G.W., Zaslavsky, V., and Goldman, P.. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, B. 1961. The Emergence of Modern Turkey. London and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Louis, W.R. 1998. “The Dissolution of the British Empire.” Pp. 329–56 in The Oxford History of the British Empire. Vol. IV The Twentieth Century, edited by Brown, J.M. and Louis, W.R.. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
MacQueen, N. 1997. The Decolonization of Portuguese Africa: Metropolitan Revolution and the Dissolution of Empire. London and New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Mann, M. 1993. The Sources of Social Power. Vol. II. The Rise of Classes and Nation-States, 1760–1914. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mason, J.W. 1997. The Dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 1867–1918. London and New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Maxwell, K. 1982. “Portugal and Africa: the Last Empire.” Pp. 337–85 in The Transfer of Power in Africa: Decolonization 1940–1960, edited by Gifford, P. and Louis, W.R.. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
McIntyre, W.D. 1998. British Decolonization, 1946–1997: When, Why, and How Did the British Empire Fall?London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, J.C. 1975. “The Politics of Decolonization in Portuguese Africa.”African Affairs 74(295): 135–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okey, Robin. 2001. The Habsburg Monarchy, c. 1765–1918: From Enlightenment to Eclipse. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Person, Y. 1982. “French West Africa and Decolonization.” Pp. 141–72 in The Transfer of Power in Africa: Decolonization 1940–1960, edited by Gifford, P. and Louis, W.R.. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Pinto, A.C. 2003. “The Transition to Democracy and Portugal's Decolonization.” Pp. 17–36 in The Last Empire: Thirty Years of Portuguese Decolonization, edited by Lloyd-Jones, S. and Pinto, A.C.. Bristol, UK: Intellect.Google Scholar
Reynolds, M.A. 2011. Shattering Empires: The Clash and Collapse of the Ottoman and Russian Empires 1908–1918. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, R.A.H. 2003. “The Influence of Overseas Issues in Portugal's Transition to Democracy.” Pp. 1–16 in The Last Empire: Thirty Years of Portuguese Decolonization, edited by Lloyd-Jones, S. and Pinto, A.C.. Bristol, UK: Intellect.Google Scholar
Roshwald, A. 2001. Ethnic Nationalism and the Fall of Empires: Central Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, 1914–1923. London and New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rusinow, D. 1992. “Ethnic Politics in the Habsburg Monarchy and Successor States: Three Answers to the National Question.” Pp. 79–94 in Nationalism and Empire: The Habsburg Empire and the Soviet Union, edited by Rudolph, R.L. and Good, D.F.. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Shaw, S.J. and Shaw, E.K.. 1977. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2 vols. Vol. II Reform, Revolution, and Republic: The Rise of Modern Turkey, 1808–1975. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sked, A. 2001 The Decline and Fall of the Habsburg Empire, 1815–1918. 2nd. edn. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Smith, A.D. 1986. The Ethnic Origins of Nations. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Smith, T. 1982. “Patterns in the Transfer of Power: A Comparative Study of French and British Decolonization.” Pp. 87–116 in The Transfer of Power in Africa: Decolonization 1940–1960, edited by Gifford, P. and Louis, W.R.. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Solnick, S.L. 1998. Stealing the State: Control and Collapse in Soviet Institutions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Spruyt, H. 2005. Ending Empire: Contested Sovereignty and Territorial Partition. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Stone, N. 1966. “Army and Society in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1900–1914.”Past and Present 33 (April): 95–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sugar, P. 1967. “The Rise of Nationalism in the Habsburg Empire.”Austrian History Yearbook 3: 91–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sugar, P. 1981. “An Underrated Event: the Hungarian Constitution Crisis of 1905–6.”East European Quarterly 15: 281–306Google Scholar
Suliman, H.S. 1987. The Nationalist Movements in the Maghrib: A Comparative Approach. Research Report No. 78. Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.Google Scholar
Suny, R.G. 1993. The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Szporluk, R. 1997. “The Fall of the Tsarist Empire and the USSR: The Russian Question and Imperial Overextension.” Pp. 65–93 in The End of Empire? The Transformation of the USSR in Comparative Perspective, edited by Dawisha, K. and Parrott, B.. Armonk, NY and London: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Taylor, A.J.P. 1965[1948]. The Habsburg Monarchy, 1809–1918: A History of the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Thomas, M., Moore, B., and Butler, L.J.. 2008. Crises of Empire: Decolonization and Europe's Imperial States, 1918–1975. London: Hodder Education.Google Scholar
Ülker, E. 2005. “Contextualizing ‘Turkification’: Nation-Building in the Late Ottoman Empire, 1908–18.”Nations and Nationalism 11(4): 613–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Üngör, U. 2011. The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913–1950. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wank, S. 1967. “Foreign Policy and the Nationality Problem in Austria-Hungary, 1867–1914.”Austrian History Yearbook, Vol. III.Google Scholar
Wank, S. 1997a. “Some Reflections on the Habsburg Empire and Its Legacy in the Nationalities Question.”Austrian History Yearbook 28: 131–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wank, S. 1997b. “The Habsburg Empire.” Pp. 45–57 in After Empire: Multiethnic Societies and Nation-Building, edited by Barkey, K. and von Hagen, M.. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Wank, S. 1997c. “The Disintegration of the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires.” Pp. 94–120 in The End of Empire? The Transformation of the USSR in Comparative Perspective, edited by Dawisha, Karen and Parrott, Bruce. Armonk, NY and London: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Wimmer, A. and Feinstein, Y.. 2010. “The Rise of the Nation-state Across the World, 1816 to 2001.”American Sociological Review 75(5): 764–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wimmer, A. and Min, B.. 2006. “From Empire to Nation-state: Explaining Wars in the Modern World, 1816–2001.”American Sociological Review 71(6): 867–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaslavsky, V. 1992. “The Evolution of Separatism in Soviet Society under Gorbachev.” Pp. 71–97 in From Union to Commonwealth: Nationalism and Separatism in the Soviet Republics, edited by Lapidus, G.W., Zaslavsky, V., and Goldman, P.. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zaslavsky, V. 1997. “The Soviet Union.” Pp. 73–96 in After Empire: Multiethnic Societies and Nation-Building, edited by Barkey, K. and von Hagen, M.. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Zeman, Z.A.B. 1961. The Break-Up of the Habsburg Empire 1914–1918: A Study in National and Social Revolution. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zürcher, E.J. 2000. “Young Turks, Ottoman Muslims and Turkish Nationalists: Identity Politics 1908–1938.” Pp. 150–79 in Ottoman Past and Today's Turkey, edited by Karpat, K.H.. Leiden: BrillGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×