Nationalism

Nationalism is a political ideology holding that humanity is naturally divided into nations, each with its own distinct culture, language or history, and that loyalty to the nation should surpass other individual, dynastic, religious or class loyalties. Its central political claim is that each nation is entitled to self-determination, ideally through a sovereign state whose boundaries match those of the nation, which gives nationalism its recurring role in both state-building and secessionist movements. Its legitimacy claim is that a government drawing authority from the nation itself, rather than from a hereditary monarch or a foreign empire, is the only rightful source of political power, a claim it shares in different form with liberalism, from which it remains historically distinct. It became a major force in political history toward the end of the eighteenth century, expressed in movements such as the American and French Revolutions, and later in the nineteenth century unification of Italy and Germany and in the twentieth century wave of anticolonial independence movements. Nationalism is compatible with a wide range of other ideologies, having historically fused with both liberal and authoritarian projects, which is why it is classed as a distinct ideology defined by its object of loyalty rather than by a single economic or governmental program.