quote:

Originally posted by DarkCloud on 11-15-2000 07:19 PM
Shouldn't Nationalism be before Fascism?
 |
Right O !!
I see that in this thread bits and parts of the discussion on advancements in the thread "tech tree 1.0" by Dark Cloud re-occur. This reply has been posted in almost the same form in that thread as a reaction to posts by Wernazuma and and Ribannah.
First a historical explanation, just to put things in perspective .
Romanticism has its roots in mid 18th century France. It’s most important "prophet" was the Genevan writer/pamfletteer Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), who f.i. wrote
"Du contrat social". The one thing romanticism is about, is
(personal) self-determination. In literature a new phenomen appeared
the novel (french/dutch/german=roman: a novellist=romancier) in which the personal life of citizens was the main subject. A good example of a german "romantic" book is "die Leiden des jungen Werthers", from Goethe first published ± 1790. Romantic idea’s played a very important role in the american and french revolution.
The expression
the rights of man comes from the name of a pamflet written by a scottish American
Thomas Paine *, in favor of the french revolution. He’s also is the writer of two other pamflets of which the names have stuck in the "westernworld" collective memory,
"Common Sense" and
"the Age of Reason". "Common sense" was written during the American revolution, "the Age of Reason" after the french revolution. All three pamflets basically are about basing the right of self-determination of a people/nations on reason. (BTW one of the example’s for the american and french republic was the dutch republic (for whom (little known) the suisse republic was an example)) (in the NL there was widespread "patriotic" support for the american and french revolutionary cause).
After the revolt in 1789 in France a "constitutional" republic was founded. The
constitution (D=Grundgesetz, NL=grondwet) was to be the foundation of the whole legislative system. This law, a legislative novelty !!, started with a summary of
the rights of man. The revolutionary concept of administration and legislation was based on the
Trias Politica. In the french revolutionary constitution also was stated that all citizens (mind you, in those days there wasn’t any talk about women(rights/duties)) had the duty to defend their country. This lead to the introduction of
Conscription. The large "people’s-armies" lead by (a.o.) Napoleon swept across the european mainland. There’s also the brilliance of Napoleon as a strategist, but in general the opponent states just couldn’t power up against the massive french force. Britain had to heavily use pressgangs to reinforce its army and navy.
After the revolution was corrupted for (also but mainly) napoleonic dynastic reasons, Napoleon propagated the threat of the occupation of the "french fatherland" itself, and used this as a reason to maintain the armies/conscription. You can say
Nationalism was born in that moment of time. "Allons enfant the leur patrie . . etc."
The revolution and its ideas about people’s-rights/legislation/administration had been exported all over the continent. In general all over Europe the french occupation at first was welcomed with great enthousiam, f.i. Jews and in the Netherlands also the catholics (a.o. tolerated religions) for the first time were given equal civilian rights. In Germany and Austria it inspired a complete generation with revolutionary/romantic (nationalistic/liberal) ideals
**.
After the french were beaten, all over Europe a/the
reaction (to the revolution) set in. Large parts of the legislative and administrative system based on the Trias Politica, just without a sigh were adopted by the reactionary,
Conservative monarchistic/impirial governments. The reaction first and foremost meant that the revolutionary constitution (with all its people’s-rights !!!!!) was abandoned. But, all over Europe one revolutionary duty remained, . . . . . conscription. The idea must have appealed to the governments (as happened in the NL), it was a cheap way to produce massive armies. Because of the fact that the people were kept from their former (revolutionary) rights, nationalistic propaganda "We must keep France at bay" was heavily used as a way to justify conscription.
Nationalism as an ideological set of ideas about the self-determination of a
nation has helped to emancipate smaller nations, like the Belgians, under Dutch rule from 1815 to 1830, the Greeks (Turkish rule up to 1836), the Serbs (Turkish rule up to 1878), the Norwegians (Swedish rule up to 1905, etc.) That’s I think the good side of Nationalism.
During the reaction
Liberalism and
Socialism as movements emerged.
Liberalism was a movement less radical than the french revolutionary movement but still based on the romantic ideas of self-determination. It was concerned with civilian and administrative renewal, re-installment of the constitution, but only the right to vote for those who were able to pay taxes, which meant no votes for the "mob/proles". Economical it leaned heavily on the ideas of the scottish American
Adam Smith !! (1723-1790), who propagated very little state influence on trade and industrial affairs, a strong reaction towards the former british and also (!) french (Colbertism) monarchistic practice.
Socialism was based on the more radical ideas which (a.o.) Rousseau wrote about. The term Socialism also comes from late18th century France. Vote had to be given to every citizen, whether paying taxes or not. Economical it said that governments had a social duty towards their citizens, should protect them from bad working conditions.
Both liberalism and socialism were strongly oppressed by the reactionary governments. In 1830 and in 1848 in dramatic climatological conditions which caused cropfailure (potatoedisease in Ireland), famine and economical depression, this lead to "romantic" revolutions all over Europe (in 1848 in NL we didn’t have a revolution. But the King (Willem II van Oranje-Nassau) was just so scared out of his wits that he literally overnight gave in to the liberals, a new (second !) constitution was instated in 1849.).
1848 also gave birth to an even more radical movement than socialism,
Communism a term being invented by Marx and Engels. In "das Kommunistische Manifest" they stated that should the working class survive and prosper, all economical means should be ruled/owned by it.
Early 20th century, right after WW-I, the process of becoming a unity-state in Italy and Germany got so frustrated that politics radicalized. And that’s when
Fascism/(c.q.)National-Socialism appeared.
Underneath of all of this lies the social and economical change from the organization of the working and trading class through guilds towards industrialization and free trade.
-------------------------------------------------------
So, here I go.
Romanticism + Trias Politica > Constitution (rights of man)
Romanticism > Nationalism
Romanticism + Economics > Liberalism
Romanticism + Industrialization > Socialism
Romanticism > Conservatism (reaction)
Constitution > Conscription
Socialism > Communism
Liberalism + economics > Free trade
Nationalism + Socialism > Fascism
You can see Romanticism is pivotal in these scheme. Somehow it’s the epitome of 18th century, and the base of all the 19th & 20th century ideological developments.
Rifle men (which in CIV-II come with conscription) were a very important military advancements. It gave the "west" for the first real supreme military power over their colonies !! (muskets were just a bit to slow for that). In my "complete tech-tree" they would come with
machine tools
------------------------------------
*Last summer, very surprising to me, I heard a beautiful almost "republican" song about Paine being sung by an enthousiastic audience in a folkclub in Whitby, North-Yorkshire, England. Things like that I didn’t expect to happen in the United
Kingdom. That really added to the english experience on my holiday.
**which in the end after some 60 years lead to the re-unification of germany as a unity-state, which scared the hell out of the french, the english and the russians, which lead to an armsrace, which culminated in the first and second world war and last be not least luckily enough in the cold, and not the third world, war.
[This message has been edited by Vrank Prins (edited December 18, 2000).]