Donnie Lee

Ms.Mitzi Defer
World History 10
3 March 2017

Role of Nationalism On the 20th Century

Crisis

The human race has fought in war for centuries due to various reasons. Among

others were resource, territory, religion, and greed. When people fight fearlessly in war to

protect their home and beloved ones, certain that their country is more than worth it to

fight for, we call them patriot and the ideology is defined as patriotism. Throughout the

history, some cases show patriotism as the bane of some tragedies of 20th century. The

word defined here is now nationalism, which shares a same idea but in a more extreme

version. Nationalism is defined as follows: patriotic feelings, having a strong belief of

superiority of ones own country, and belief that people of identical nations should unite

and live for themselves only. This was what laid the crises in 20th century. Although

alliances and Titos death played a great role in causing WWI and Bosnian Conflict,

nationalism contributed to the outbreak of both conflicts by accumulating the desire for

war for several decades, or even centuries.

WWI is known to have many factors for its cause. Nationalism had the most

influence on the cause of WWI as it agitated the nations to either expand the territory or

gain independence. The powerful nations such as Germany and Russia wanted to expand

their territory and increase their power. Germans had evidently exuded their desire for
world power by the Weltpolitik, name of Germanys foreign policy. Schlieffen plan, a

plan designed for over 7 years, whose goal was to cope with Russia and France at the

same time, corroborates to their desire as well. Germany thought it possible as they had

one of the strongest economic and military potentials. Russia longed to have the ports

under their control in order to have access to the sea and gain faster route for providing

resources. It also would have threatened England, who was known for its powerful navy

force. France was eager to retaliate to Alsace and Lorraine, waiting for the right time. On

the other hand, with Serbia at the vanguard, the slavic nations were united, waiting for the

chance to gain freedom from the Austria - Hungary Empire (regarded as AH Empire). All

the nations had mindsets which were in favor of war. The incendiary situation in Europe

needed a little flare to lighten up the war, and the trigger was the assassination of Franz

Ferdinand, the heir of AH Empire. He was murdered by a Serbian nationalist Gavrilo

Princip, who was a member of Yugoslavia Organization which disobeyed the Austro -

Hungarian rule and seeked for a single united slavic nation. This incident was the fruit of

Pan-Slavism, a type of nationalism promoted by Russia. While Russia used Pan-Slavism

to claim their support to Slavic Nations, whose ulterior purpose was to vanquish more

land, the Slavic nations used it to revolt against Austro-Hungarian Empire. All the

nations mentioned above had no reason to reject their participation of war. Because of

their skyrocketing ego, the powerful nations would rather not miss the chance to

strengthen their pride and extend their borderline. People who seeked for independence

fought for glory and freedom. Their thoughts were more bonded and easier to embodify

due to nationalism, which pervaded through the citizens of same nations, unifying the
ideas and glueing the relationships even more. As the groups with same purpose grows

bigger, all they need is a legal reason to start a fight. This was the essence of WWI.

The other crisis resulted from nationalism is the Bosnian Crisis. In WWI, the

slavic nations fought together despite having a different home-country. In Bosnian Crisis,

their cooperation is quite inconspicuous. For superiorization and survival, internal

division among the Balkans started, resulting inhumane actions and tragedies in history.

One example is Serbians ethnic cleansing whose target were the Bosnians. They brutally

raped about 12,000 women in order to disrupt the Bosnian bloodline. The term here now

is jingoism. The term jingo originates from a british song;

We don't want to fight but by Jingo if we do

We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money too

We've fought the Bear before, and while we're Britons true

The Russians shall not have Constantinople.

The term is defined as an extreme patriotism whose dedication to their country is absolute

nonetheless what actions the country takes, which Serbians exuded during the Bosnian

Crisis.

In short terms, Bosnian Crisis begins from Titos death. Tito had more than

successfully unified the disparate, highly self-esteemed Balkans into one. During his

presidency, every nations followed his orders without discordance.. After he had died,
local governments started to demand more autonomy from the central government.

Central government rejected their request because they thought Yugoslavia had to stay as

one or else, will perish. Demand for independence grew daily, and Bosnia was not an

exception. Communist parties had fallen and tripartite party gained power, each

representing Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia. Ironically, each countries had a very different

idea; Bosnia wanted pure independency, Croatia wanted to join other Croatian country,

and Serbia wanted to stay associated in Yugoslavia. On June 25th, 1991, Slovenia and

Croatia had seceded from the Yugoslavian Union. The following year, Bosnia held a

referendum which overwhelmingly passed its topic; Secession from Yugoslavia. Serbians

had asked for support from Yugoslavia because they knew the chance to win in the

referendum was low; Bosnians and Croatians were 60% of Bosnia-Herzegovinas

population while Serbians were only 33%. Serbians were the only ones who aspired to

stay under the control of Yugoslavia. The referendum had brought both freedom and

diabolic situation to Bosnia.

Why did this happen? When Tito was in reign, people were happy to follow his

orders. He was a hero, a man who led the partisans in Yugoslavia, and a great leader of

the nation. But after his death, politicians fought in order to fill the vacuum power and

claimed nationalism to stay united. Nations in Bosnia - Herzegovina no longer wished to

collaborate, but prioritize and superiorize themselves first. The hostility of these nations

(Bosnians, Serbians, and Croatians) towards each other had been accumulated over years

and years by various factors, and it was soon about to show its potential. One factor was
religion. Bosnians are Islamic, Croatians are Christians, and Serbians believed in

Orthodox. As mentioned previously, religion was one of the most influential and

inflammable reason for war. The Crusades and the relationship between Israel and the

Middle East evidently supports this statement. Each group asserts their own faiths

differed by religions, and collision of ideas result in war. Ethnic diversion is another long

term factor like religion. The main causes how the people in the same peninsula became

so distinct is due to division of the Roman Catholic and the Byzantine empire, and the

intrusion of the Ottoman Empire in Balkan Peninsula. These are the factors that brought

different religions in the Balkan as well. When the Roman Catholics and Byzantine

Empire split up, Balkans had to split up as well. The influence of catholic and orthodox

entered at this stage. Later, when the Ottoman Empire invaded Balkan, they introduced

Islamic culture and dyed their territory with it. As the Balkans were invaded and

influenced by many different countries, they were soon dyed with distinct culture,

government, and religion from each other. The discordance brought conflicts, conflicts

became hostility towards each nation, hostility resulted war. Nationalism gave

momentum in aggravating the relationship between the Balkans, not triggering the war

itself but setting up the background more and more incendiary. Religion and Ethnic

Diversion had closed the door of communication between the nations, and nationalism

shut the door strongly as it gave comfort and confidence that themselves were right and

others were wrong. Similar as WWI, as people with identical thoughts(nations) gathered

together, their hatred towards the others and violence exponentially grew, setting up the

background for war to happen.

 Along with that, fall of communism and secession of Slovenia and Croatia

boosted the level of conflict even more as a short term. Titos ideal governing state was

communism, and he embodied it. After his death, as the local governments were going

against the central government, communism had begun to fall. Communism, along with

Tito, was one of the least bond that glued Yugoslavia together. Nations were no longer

obligated to stay, but was able to leave freely. Slovenia and Croatia did not lose the

chance and became the inspiration to the other Balkans. The sanctions were soon divided

to ones that aspire liberty and ones who aspire unification. Under the name of

nationalism, nations stood up with their determined mind, always ready to fight for their

country. As soon as Bosnia had declared secession, Serbia immediately sent armies to

Bosnia and the war commenced.

Out of many diverse opinions on the true cause of these conflicts, people say

alliances and Titos death are the true factors of WWI and Bosnian Crisis. The reason

why WWI became the World War was because the the alliances joined the war under

the excuse of support. Russia joined to help the Slavic Nations like Serbia, Germany

joined to support Austro-Hungary Empire, Britain joined to help Belgium, which was

intruded by Germany. The war between two nations had extended its range and became

the Great War. However, alliance was just a aftermath of the trigger of WWI, not the

cause itself. The war was directly caused by the shot of Franz Ferdinand, in which

nationalism played role by precipitating pan-slavism to the slavic nations and urging
Austro-Hungary Empire to maintain their superiority. Similar to the Bosnian Crisis.

People argue that Titos death had untied the Balkans, making each nations to separate

from one another and only unite for themselves. As the countries started to fight and care

only for themselves, it became the bane of Bosnian Crisis, because the Bosnians,

Croatians, and Serbians fought only for their ideal. However, have they not had the effect

of nationalism, the nations would not had been so extremely belligerent to each others.

Without any sign of compromisation, the nations fought against one another. Serbians

had great hatred towards the Bosnians, so strong enough to activate the genocide to

accomplish Ethnic Cleansing. Not only was it genocide the Serbs did, but also rape,

decapitation, and liquidation (execution of the young and the ones able to fight).

The power of nationalism proved its deadly potential through the two conflicts. In

both cases, it had made nation's ambitions grow more and in the end formed a

relationship that needed a logical trigger to fight. In WWI, Europes ambition to expand

their territory and Slavic nations ambition to gain freedom collided. In Bosnian Crisis,

each nations own desire confronted, and nationalism made nations selfishly unite only

for themselves. Even though the two conflicts happened in a different time period and are

quite distinct, they share the same characteristic of nationalism and its effect on the

crises. There are some nationalism left in the world, which could result war any moment.

Israel and Islamic Nations, South Korea and North Korea are some examples. World

should find a way to restore reconciliation between confronting nations and deter war

from happening due to nationalism.

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