NATIONS WITHOUT NATIONALISM: THE ENLIGHTENMENT
ERA AND THE PASTRationalism, the Classics and classical antiquity during the
EnlightenmentThe philosophy and political thought of the Enlightenment were crucial pre-
conditions for the later emergence of nationalism. The concern with the past
had a central role to play in both. Two main cultural currents arose in this
century, neoclassicism and pre-Romanticism. These were not as contradictory
as they later appeared, for features of both can be found in the same authors
(Pomian 1990: 253; Smith 1976b: 82–4). From the Revolutionary era from the
end of the eighteenth century until the 1870s, the focus of interest in classi-
cism would be dominant. The might of the barbarian and Gothic past, so
closely connected with romantic ideals, would only be really successful there-
after, although it would never totally eclipse the lure of classicism.
The eighteenth century was the era of rationalism. The foundations of this
ideology lay in the previous century, in the mechanical philosophy of nature
as drafted by scholars such as the British scientist Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
and the French philosopher Rene ́Descartes (1596–1650). For them nature
could be explained as a mechanism which worked like a gigantic clock, as a
self-regulating system of laws. This belief would eventually prove fatal for the
survival of the religious modes of thought prevalent until then, opening the
political path which would lead to the deWnite emergence of political nation-
alism (Anderson 1991: 11; Cook 2004). According to the laws of rationalism,
monarchies could only exist because they responded to natural units by divine
will. Through this logic, the Enlightenment promoted the primacy of the
monarchy as opposed to the religious power; supporters of this belief were
named Regalists (Mora 1998: 33; Paquette 2005). In distinction to religious
loyalty, the rational, enlightened, political elite advocated patriotism, the
readiness to sacriWce oneself for one’s community, for its king and for one’s
country. The ‘patriot community’ was formed by ‘citizens’ who enjoyed equal
rights and duties. In the view of the most radical thinkers, individuals
subsumed within the community should sacriWce their will to that of their
fellow citizens (Smith 1976b: 78, 83). The new type of allegiance needed a new
vocabulary as an alternative to the traditional religious ones. New concepts
such as ‘common good’ and ‘utility’ were fostered. Linked to the last was that
of ‘veritas’—the Truth. Truth had to be discovered and was the basis of science.
But it was sensible (i.e. rational) to avoid mistakes made in the past, to learn
Antiquities and Political Prestige 41