BRIDGEMANAs much as the evolving national map of Europe led to
the First World War, it was also clear in its aftermath that a
redrawing of this map was required in an attempt to prevent
further conflict in the name of nationalism. The creation of the
League of Nations in 1920 was a consequence of the previous
year’s Treaty of Versailles, under the guidance of the US pres-
ident Woodrow Wilson. The first international organisation
designed to maintain peace and political stability across its 58
national member states (including Japan, a sign of the global
reach of the concept of the nation state), and a forerunner of
the United Nations, the League was both a noble idea and a
significant failure. It was, ultimately, powerless to prevent the
slide into the Second World War that was partly caused by the
national divisions created by the treaties that had also created
the League. Much of the subsequent history of 20th-century
conflict reflects the contradictory aspirations that lie at the heart
of national self-determination – liberty and freedom, yet at the
expense of religious and ethnic exclusivity – which have so eas-
ily tipped over into warfare, ethnic cleansing, even genocide.
The problems are perhaps most clearly seen in Africa. Be-
tween 1957, when Ghana claimed independence from British
colonial control, and 1962, when Algeria declared its independ-
ence from France, 24 African countries established national au-
tonomy f rom for mer c olon i a l m a s ter s. Ye t t he i mplement at ion of
national sovereignty in the region was largely inherited from the
same colonial administrations that created countries throughof the French nation created by generations of the Cassini map-
making family. Using the latest scientific surveying methods,
it showed the entire French nation printed on 180 sheets at a
uniform scale of 1:86,400. One map, written in one language,
showing one nation, it provided the template for all subsequent
national surveys across the world.
The rest of the world quickly began to adopt the national
principles established by the French Revolution in what is now
considered the great age of nationalism. One of the most re-
markable stories of the history of the nation state is how quickly
it was adopted following 1789 – not in Europe but in South
America. By the late 18th century, many of the Spanish colo-
nies in the Americas had begun their struggles for independ-
ence, and the rallying cry of nationalism was at the vanguard
of their demands for autonomy. In an extraordinary period of
less than two decades between 1808 and 1826, virtually all of
Latin America gained national independence from its Europe-
an colonial masters. Influenced by the revolutions in France and
America, and the wave of Enlightenment thinking that had
swept Europe in the early 18th century, first Haiti (1804) then
Colombia (1810), Venezuela (1811), Argentina (1816), Chile
(1818), Peru and Mexico (1821), Brazil (1822) and Bolivia (in
1825, and named after one of the region’s great liberation lead-
ers, Simón Bolívar) proclaimed national independence.
The reasons for this sudden explosion of national inde-
pendence remain the subject of considerable debate, but it was
certainly not driven exclusively by mass populism from below.
Many of the demands for autonomy were driven by relatively
prosperous Creoles (people of European, in most cases Span-
ish, heritage born in the Americas) who were dissatisfied with
European colonial rule yet shaped by many of its principles and
institutions. A blueprint for national identity was inherited and
implemented in South America, though the many differences
between that continent and Europe – as well as an enduring
colonial presence in places such as Cuba (until 1902) and the
Guianas – have continued to leave the region bedevilled by po-
litical and economic instability.
When America inspired Europe
One of the many ironies of nationalism is that its next great
wave occurred in Europe, where the idea was born but which
by the early 19th century found inspiration in the revolution-
ary national struggles of South America. As the Habsburg and
Ottoman empires began to unravel, calls for national independ-
ence emerged, particularly in eastern Europe in regions such
as Serbia, Greece, Belgium and Poland, giving rise to a new
noun: nationalism. The bourgeois revolutions of the mid-19th
century were caused by a variety of different factors, but they
all marched under the flag of national self-determination. Italy
became a sovereign state in 1861 (though unification was com-
pleted only in 1871), and Germany achieved full national unifi-
cation under Bismarck as recently as 1871.
History of the nation stateIndependence in the Americas
General José de San Martín proclaims
independence for Peru in 1821. Liberation
from colonial rule swept across Latin
America following the French Revolution