Unit 4: Nationalism: From Concert to Competition

This blogs' topic is nationalism. For those of you who don't know what the definition of nationalism is... it's a strong feeling of pride in and devotion to one's country. Nationalism began to arise in the early 1800's in France but, really took off in Germany. Europe was affected by nationalism because, the countries of Europe were starting to care about their image, as well as their history as a country, and how they worked together.

I believe that my group effectively discussed the role that nationalism had in the country of Russia. I thought that we did a good job explaining the situation in Russia and what the current czar was trying to accomplish. I thought we did really well in explaining what we were talking about, and what was going on in the story. I thought that our presentation was great and that our puppets looked amazing. Our group as a whole was definitely trying to highlight, that the current czars in Russia didn't not want to help their people, but that they were just confused about how to do it.

In our group our discussion revolved around the first half of section 5 in chapter 10. This section talked about the people of Russia and what they were going through, as well as the nobles and czars and how they were trying to help their country grow and develop, but that in the end they weren't that successful. In section 2 of chapter 10, the book talks about Germany and how after unifying and coming together they become a huge world power in industry. In Russia they grew together as a country but, didn't really move forward together. But, in Germany the country not only grew together but, also moved forward into greater technology.

I think that nationalism as an ideology is great for bringing a country together to act as a unified group. I think that it makes a countries citizens feel proud of where they live and makes them want to help their country in any way, shape or form. I think that nationalism could be reinvented to a belief for all countries and not just one country in particular. If all the countries could come together and be proud and ready to serve every country as opposed to just one country, the world would be able to come together as a group. Who doesn't want that?