Nation-building and regional integration, c.1800–1914: the role of empires

Abstract

This article takes issue with the view that nation-states challenged empires in the nineteenth century and ultimately brought about their downfall. Instead it argues that nation-states were created by empires. It discusses nationalising strategies of diverse empires in comparative perspective, and focuses on their key elements, including, first, mental mapping of empires, second, the role of elites (both at the centre and at the periphery), third, means of transport and communication as well as the emergence of a public sphere, fourth, migration within and between empires, and, finally, the economic development of empires and their border regions. In conclusion, the article offers some tentative suggestions as to why some empires were more successful than others in nationalising their cores and incorporating diverse peripheries.

Keywords:

• empire
• nation-state
• region
• identity
• comparison
• mental maps
• elites
• transport
• communication
• migration
• public sphere
• economic development
• borders

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Al Rieber and Marsha Siefert for their valuable intellectual input into some of the ideas and arguments presented in this article.

Notes

 1. Kamen, Spain's Road to Empire; Colley, Britons; Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen; Ther, “Imperial Instead of National History,” in Imperial Rule, 47–66; Miller, The Ukranian Question ; Miller, Imperiia Romanovykh I nacionalizm (The Romanov Empire and Nationalism); von Hagen, ed., After Empire ; Hara and Matsuzato, eds, Empire and Society ; Maner, ed., Grenzregionen der Habsburgermonarchie im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert; Stoler et al. , eds, Imperial Formations and Their Discontents ; Stoler and McGranahan, “Refiguring Imperial Terrains”; on the historic evolution from empires to nation-states see also Suny, “The Empire Strikes Out.”

 2. Lieven, “Dilemmas of Empire 1850–1918,” 165.

 3. Wendland, Die Russophilen in Galizien.

 4. Miller, “Between Local and Interimperial.”

 5. For Galicia see Miller, “A Testament of the All-Russian Idea.”

 6. Symonds, Oxford and Empire.

 7. Quilley, “’All Ocean is Her Own,” in Imagining Nations, 140.

 8. Colls, Identity of England, 235.

 9. Briggs, Victorian Cities, ch. 7.

10. Mackinder, Britain and the British Seas; Mackinder's historical equivalent was, of course, Seeley, The Expansion of England.

11. Koshar, German Travel Cultures, 80.

12. Piskorski et al. , eds, Deutsche Ostforschung und polnische Westforschung im Spannungsfeld von Wissenschaft und Politik. Disziplinen im Vergleich.

13. On Froude see the forthcoming biography by Ciaran Brady to be published by Oxford University Press; on Lecky see Stuchtey, W.E.H. Lecky (1838–1903); generally on the importance of history for constructions of the Irish story see the excellent book by Foster, The Irish Story.

14. MacDougall, Racial Myth in English History; Curtis, Anglo-Saxons and Celts.

15. Sinha, “Gender and Imperialism.”

16. Gilroy, “ There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack .”

17. Miller, Imperiia Romanovykh I natsionalizm, 147–71.

18. Hagen, Germans, Poles and Jews.

19. Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen.

20. Miller, “The Empire and the Nation in the Imagination of Russian Nationalism.”

21. Cooper, “Provincializing France.” See also Sahlins, Boundaries.

22. Adanir and Kaiser, “Migration, Deportation and Nation-Building: The Case of the Ottoman Empire,” in Migrations and Migrants in Historical Perspective. Permanencies and Innovations, esp. 279–81; Karpat, The Politicization of Islam.

23. Smith and Cox, eds, The Crisis of 1898.

24. John, “National Movements and Imperial Ethnic Hegemonies in Austria, 1867–1918.”

25. The strong interrelationship between regionalism and the making of the nation is discussed in Umbach, ed., German Federalism; Green, Fatherlands; Klein, Zwischen Reich und Region; Ziblatt, Structuring the State.

26. Compare the contribution by Xosé-Manoel Nuňez and Maiken Umbach in this issue.

27. Armstrong, “Mobilized and Proletarian Diasporas.” For a good example of the increasing ethnic tensions between different ethnic groups under conditions of a nationalising empire see von Hirschhausen, Die Grenzen der Gemeinsamkeit.

28. Hoffmann, “Geschichte und Ideologie”; Feldman, “Was Modernity Good for the Jews?”; Bauman, “Allosemitism.”

29. Berger, “Border Regions, Hybridity and National Identity”; Rieber, “Comparative Ecology of Complex Frontiers.”

30. On the formation of national elites see Kappeler et al. , eds, The Formation of National Elites. For comparison of elites in contiguous empires see: Hye, “Elity i imperskie elity v Gabsburgskoj imperii, 1815–1914”; Somel, “Osmanskaja Imperija”; Kamenskij, “Elity Rossijskoj Imperii i mekhanizmy administrativnogo upravlenija”; Kappeler, “Imperiales Zentrum und Eliten der Peripherie.”

31. The move away from the ideal typical distinction between ethno-cultural and civic-political nationalisms is confirmed by the more recent literature on nationalism. See, for example, the contributions in Baycroft and Hewittson, eds, What is a Nation?

32. See, for example, Kenny, ed., Ireland and the British Empire; Leask, “Imperial Scots.”

33. On the Habsburg army see: Deák, Beyond Nationalism, 198.

34. Frevert, Die kasernierte Nation, ch. IV.

35. Velychenko, “The Size of the Imperial Russian Bureaucracy and Army in Comparative Perspective”; Weeks, Nation and State in Late Imperial Russia.

36. On the importance of systems of transport and communication in empires and on their impact on the relationship between regions, nations and empires, see Siefert, “Chingis Khan with the Telegraph: Empires, Telegraphy and their Legacies.”

37. Green, “How did German Federalism Shape Reunification?”

38. Rieber, “The Debate over the Southern Line.”

39. See, for the Russian case, Renner, Russischer Nationalismus und Öffentlichkeit im Zarenreich.

40. Umbach, “A Tale of Second Cities.”

41. Williams, Capitalism, Community and Conflict, 69.

42. Sherrington, Australia's Immigrants 1788–1978; Atkinson, The Europeans in Australia.

43. Himka, “The Construction of Nationality in Galician Rus'”; Wendland, Die Russophilen in Galizien.

44. Holquist, “To Count, to Extract, and to Exterminate. Population Statistics and Population Politics in Late Imperial and Soviet Russia.”