How Humans Invented Nationalism

00:26:42
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXz0kbMKPu0

Resumen

TLDRThe video explores the concept of nations as modern constructs that shape identity and politics. It illustrates how nations like France, Italy, and Germany were formed through language, culture, and political myths, not naturally but through historical processes. It discusses how nationalism was spread and solidified through revolutions, wars, and industrialization that unified distinct regions culturally and linguistically. Despite creating a sense of unified identity, nationalism has also led to conflicts due to its tendency to exclude those who don't fit its mold. The possibility of changing these constructs is considered, highlighting more inclusive forms of identity, such as cosmopolitanism, and questioning whether human organization can evolve beyond nations.

Para llevar

  • 🌍 Nations are modern constructs and not natural formations.
  • πŸ—ΊοΈ National borders often don't align with ethnic or linguistic divisions.
  • πŸ‡«πŸ‡· France's unification was a complex historical process involving language and industrialization.
  • πŸ“š Education and literacy played key roles in fostering national identities.
  • πŸš‚ Industrialization helped physically unify disparate regions.
  • 🏰 National myths were important tools in nation-building.
  • πŸ”„ National identities can evolve and become more inclusive.
  • πŸ’­ Nations are ideas that affect politics and identity profoundly.
  • 🌐 A cosmopolitan identity can offer an alternative to nationalism.
  • 🀝 Inclusivity in national identity can help mitigate conflicts.
  • πŸ•ŠοΈ The video questions if there are better ways to organize societies than by the nation.
  • πŸ” The study of national identity reflects broader themes of human organization and community.

CronologΓ­a

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    The concept of a nation is a modern creation, shaping our identities and politics despite being a relatively new and entirely fabricated idea. The video begins by discussing this notion with Max Fisher, explaining how countries like France are built on stories of united heritage rather than historical truth. Maps of genetic makeup and language distribution reveal the arbitrary nature of national borders and cultural identities.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    In the past, people within borders like those of France didn't identify as a unified nation, unlike today. Historical maps show no concept of national identity, with borders fluctuating and people considering themselves as local subjects rather than part of a larger national entity. This section highlights the difference between past and present perceptions of national identity.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    Empires played a significant role in creating unified national identities. In France, figures like Napoleon Bonaparte advanced nationalism, promoting loyalty to the nation over religion and spreading the idea of a unified France through symbols, education, and military service. This period saw movements like the French Revolution as attempts to create a collective national story.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    The industrial era physically connected communities, contributing to the sense of nationhood through infrastructure and mass media that cultivated a unified language and culture. This section discusses how industrialization and government education systems were crucial in forming national identities, suggesting that true national cohesion in places like France didn’t emerge until the late 19th or early 20th century.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:26:42

    The notion of nationhood is both a recent and an ongoing process that can lead to conflict when tied to ethnicity and exclusive identities. Post-WW1, many countries faced tensions due to artificial borders that didn't match ethnic distributions, leading to wars and nationalism-fueled violence. The content suggests that national identities are flexible, evolving, and should aim for inclusivity rather than rigid exclusion.

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Mapa mental

VΓ­deo de preguntas y respuestas

  • What is the main idea of the video?

    The main idea is that the concept of nations is an imagined and recent construct that shapes politics, identity, and global interactions.

  • How does the video describe the nation?

    The nation is described as a powerful, albeit made-up, concept that unites people culturally, linguistically, and politically within defined borders.

  • Are countries natural occurrences according to the video?

    No, the video argues that countries are not natural but are constructed ideas formed through historical processes.

  • What example does the video use to illustrate how nations were formed?

    The video uses France as a primary example, explaining its transformation through revolutions, language unification, and industrialization.

  • Did languages and ethnicities align with national borders historically?

    No, historically, languages and ethnicities often did not align with national borders; these borders were often drawn arbitrarily.

  • What events helped solidify the French national identity?

    The French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, and industrialization helped solidify a national identity for France.

  • How did industrialization impact nations?

    Industrialization physically united regions by improving transportation and communication, which helped consolidate national identities.

  • What is the concern about nations and nationalism?

    The concern is that nationalism can lead to exclusion, conflict, and wars due to its rigid definitions and borders.

  • How does the video suggest nations can evolve?

    Nations can evolve by expanding definitions to include diverse groups, thereby fostering inclusivity.

  • What is a cosmopolitan identity according to the video?

    A cosmopolitan identity is seen as transcending national borders, focusing more on global integration and multiculturalism.

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SubtΓ­tulos
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Desplazamiento automΓ‘tico:
  • 00:00:00
    (dramatic music) (radio crackling)
  • 00:00:01
    - Our world is built on an idea.
  • 00:00:04
    It's an idea so powerful that we fight and die for it.
  • 00:00:07
    We draw our maps around it.
  • 00:00:09
    It shapes our politics
  • 00:00:10
    and forms the basis of our very identity,
  • 00:00:13
    who we think we are.
  • 00:00:15
    It's an idea so pervasive
  • 00:00:16
    that you've probably never even stopped
  • 00:00:18
    to notice how weird it is.
  • 00:00:20
    Because here's the thing:
  • 00:00:21
    this idea is completely made up.
  • 00:00:23
    And even though it might feel like it's been around forever,
  • 00:00:27
    it's actually newer than you think.
  • 00:00:32
    That idea is called the nation.
  • 00:00:35
    (light airy music)
  • 00:00:39
    It says that a country
  • 00:00:41
    is more than just the land drawn into a set of borders.
  • 00:00:46
    It's actually a giant community
  • 00:00:48
    that is united by heritage and identity.
  • 00:00:51
    It says that the people, the land, the state,
  • 00:00:54
    they're all one thing.
  • 00:00:55
    That thing is called a nation.
  • 00:00:57
    You're not just a person
  • 00:00:58
    who happens to live in a place called America.
  • 00:01:00
    You're American.
  • 00:01:02
    Or Brazilian, or Japanese, or Mexican,
  • 00:01:05
    or Egyptian, Nigerian, Dutch, Micronesian.
  • 00:01:08
    But let's stop a moment to learn the story
  • 00:01:10
    of where this idea came from
  • 00:01:12
    and how it took over everything.
  • 00:01:14
    Because once you do,
  • 00:01:16
    so much about our world suddenly makes sense.
  • 00:01:22
    Right, okay, cool. - Yeah. Are we rolling?
  • 00:01:24
    - We sure are. - Great to see you.
  • 00:01:26
    - Great to see you.
  • 00:01:27
    - It feels wrong to call it made up, I know.
  • 00:01:29
    Like it sort of contradicts
  • 00:01:31
    everything you've ever been told about the world.
  • 00:01:33
    - That's Max Fisher,
  • 00:01:34
    my old colleague who taught me a lot about journalism.
  • 00:01:36
    Max was a New York Times columnist,
  • 00:01:38
    he wrote this book,
  • 00:01:39
    and now he hosts a couple of podcasts.
  • 00:01:41
    And he recently planted this idea in my mind
  • 00:01:43
    of just how fake countries really are.
  • 00:01:46
    So I wanted to bring him on
  • 00:01:47
    to help me understand it
  • 00:01:48
    and then explain it to you.
  • 00:01:50
    It really does feel like countries are like natural,
  • 00:01:54
    like they're a fundamental law of humans and human society.
  • 00:01:58
    - Well, take France as an example.
  • 00:02:00
    If I tell you France is made up,
  • 00:02:02
    that feels wrong.
  • 00:02:04
    - I mean, it does feel wrong
  • 00:02:06
    because I look at a bunch of old maps,
  • 00:02:09
    and like even way back in time,
  • 00:02:12
    there is a shape on the map called France,
  • 00:02:15
    or the Kingdom of France,
  • 00:02:16
    whatever, and it's changed,
  • 00:02:17
    but like France was there for a really long time.
  • 00:02:20
    - But, okay, think about it.
  • 00:02:22
    Is that true?
  • 00:02:23
    France, like most countries, is built around a story,
  • 00:02:27
    and that story says that there's always been a French people
  • 00:02:30
    who share a culture and ethnicity
  • 00:02:32
    and an eternal connection to the land.
  • 00:02:35
    The borders and the government
  • 00:02:36
    might have changed over the years,
  • 00:02:38
    but this land has always been some version of France.
  • 00:02:44
    Wrong. It's not true.
  • 00:02:46
    - Okay, but show me why not?
  • 00:02:47
    - Okay. We think that borders like France's formed
  • 00:02:51
    because they contained people
  • 00:02:53
    with the same ethnicity
  • 00:02:54
    who spoke the same language, right?
  • 00:02:57
    But when you overlay a map
  • 00:02:58
    of the actual genetic makeup in Europe,
  • 00:03:00
    it looks like this.
  • 00:03:02
    Now, look at France
  • 00:03:03
    and you'll see that any given part of the country
  • 00:03:05
    has closer genetic links with foreigners across the border
  • 00:03:08
    than they do with their own countrymen.
  • 00:03:10
    - Yeah, but like you talk to Europeans
  • 00:03:12
    who see their country
  • 00:03:14
    as like the home of their unique ethnic group.
  • 00:03:17
    And I think there's even studies on this
  • 00:03:18
    that show that like Germany is for Germans
  • 00:03:21
    and Italy is for Italians.
  • 00:03:23
    Like these borders were drawn around groups of people
  • 00:03:26
    because of their common ethnicity.
  • 00:03:28
    - So people from certain areas
  • 00:03:30
    might share certain traits,
  • 00:03:32
    like red hair, for example,
  • 00:03:34
    but look at a map that shows the distribution of red hair
  • 00:03:37
    and you see stuff like this
  • 00:03:38
    never lines up with national borders.
  • 00:03:41
    - Okay, so countries aren't correlated with ethnicity,
  • 00:03:44
    but what about like language?
  • 00:03:46
    - So today, sure, people within these borders
  • 00:03:49
    predominantly speak one language,
  • 00:03:51
    but this only happened really, really recently.
  • 00:03:55
    Here's a map of languages in France
  • 00:03:57
    as of the early 1800s.
  • 00:03:59
    Only the people in this one area
  • 00:04:02
    spoke something close to modern day French.
  • 00:04:04
    Most people in France spoke something else
  • 00:04:06
    and had for hundreds of years.
  • 00:04:08
    - Wow, that's surprising to me,
  • 00:04:10
    that there were a bunch of different languages
  • 00:04:12
    within today's France.
  • 00:04:14
    So people living in this land
  • 00:04:16
    were culturally and genetically fractured,
  • 00:04:20
    that's what these maps show,
  • 00:04:21
    and they spoke a bunch of different languages,
  • 00:04:23
    but they still belonged to one big political entity.
  • 00:04:28
    Like there was a France here.
  • 00:04:30
    Again, I've got this tool
  • 00:04:31
    and like scroll all the way back to like the 1200s,
  • 00:04:35
    and I see a thing called the Kingdom of France
  • 00:04:38
    ruled by a king
  • 00:04:41
    who was apparently ruling people
  • 00:04:42
    who lived on all of this land.
  • 00:04:44
    So wouldn't these people be considered French?
  • 00:04:47
    Like isn't this proof that countries have existed
  • 00:04:50
    for hundreds, if not thousands, of years?
  • 00:04:53
    - Actually, no, not in the way that we mean countries today.
  • 00:04:57
    For someone living down here,
  • 00:04:59
    hundreds of kilometers from the king's palace in Paris,
  • 00:05:02
    there was no concept of being French.
  • 00:05:05
    They probably identify
  • 00:05:07
    with the people in their village or their town,
  • 00:05:09
    but that is about it.
  • 00:05:10
    And like what do you care
  • 00:05:12
    if another town, hundreds of miles away,
  • 00:05:14
    happens to be ruled by the same king,
  • 00:05:16
    who, by the way, is just some guy
  • 00:05:18
    who levies taxes on you, occasionally?
  • 00:05:20
    - Okay, so French people at this time
  • 00:05:23
    were more like subjects
  • 00:05:25
    who happened to be ruled by the same person
  • 00:05:27
    living in a faraway capital
  • 00:05:29
    as opposed to today
  • 00:05:30
    where countries are more like one giant club
  • 00:05:34
    where we all feel unified
  • 00:05:35
    and we're willing to die for a national story.
  • 00:05:39
    - Right. And borders used to fluctuate all the time.
  • 00:05:43
    If you lived up here and your town switched
  • 00:05:45
    from the French king to the English king,
  • 00:05:48
    did your identity suddenly flip from French to English too?
  • 00:05:52
    No, you're still just a farmer from a village
  • 00:05:54
    trying to scrape by.
  • 00:05:55
    - Okay, so that's France.
  • 00:05:57
    There was divided languages and ethnicities,
  • 00:06:00
    arbitrary borders,
  • 00:06:01
    and not really a sense of like unified France.
  • 00:06:06
    But what about elsewhere?
  • 00:06:07
    Is this happening everywhere?
  • 00:06:09
    - That's everywhere.
  • 00:06:10
    Okay, but what about like China?
  • 00:06:13
    China was a place
  • 00:06:14
    where you had a powerful imperial government.
  • 00:06:17
    They were proud of their identity.
  • 00:06:18
    They saw themselves as the world's central civilization.
  • 00:06:22
    Like when I look at Chinese history,
  • 00:06:24
    there seems to be this cultural identity
  • 00:06:26
    that lasted and lasted
  • 00:06:28
    and still seems to last into today.
  • 00:06:30
    - So that version of ancient Chinese identity
  • 00:06:34
    that you're referring to,
  • 00:06:35
    that was felt strongly
  • 00:06:36
    among the political elite in the capital,
  • 00:06:38
    but basically nowhere else.
  • 00:06:41
    Most people under their rule did not speak Chinese
  • 00:06:44
    and did not think of themselves as Chinese.
  • 00:06:46
    The borders were always shifting
  • 00:06:48
    and even sometimes split between rival empires,
  • 00:06:51
    which meant there was no fixed sense
  • 00:06:53
    of what constituted the Chinese people
  • 00:06:55
    or Chinese land.
  • 00:06:57
    - So actually, very similar to the French story.
  • 00:07:00
    So let's get back to that.
  • 00:07:01
    If I look at my little time lapse of maps,
  • 00:07:03
    eventually, the shape of France does turn into France.
  • 00:07:09
    The France that we know today.
  • 00:07:11
    How does that happen?
  • 00:07:13
    - A big step in that direction,
  • 00:07:15
    and this applies for China too,
  • 00:07:16
    is by becoming an empire.
  • 00:07:18
    - Ah, okay. Empires.
  • 00:07:20
    Yes, I know empires.
  • 00:07:22
    That's something that I've actually,
  • 00:07:23
    like, looked quite a bit into,
  • 00:07:24
    and I want to kind of approach
  • 00:07:27
    the imperial history of France and Europe and the world,
  • 00:07:31
    but through this lens of like it was very fractured,
  • 00:07:34
    and sort of see where it goes from there.
  • 00:07:36
    (gentle music)
  • 00:07:42
    Wait, before we go on,
  • 00:07:43
    I'm flying to Saudi Arabia tonight,
  • 00:07:44
    like literally in a few hours.
  • 00:07:46
    And one of the biggest issues that I face when I travel
  • 00:07:48
    is staying connected on my phone.
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    It's pretty expensive to just
  • 00:07:52
    let my phone connect to the local network
  • 00:07:53
    and my, like, carrier back here in the United States
  • 00:07:56
    charges me a ton of money every day.
  • 00:07:57
    So I started using eSIMs,
  • 00:07:59
    which is the reason I'm telling you about this
  • 00:08:00
    is 'cause it's the sponsor of today's video: Airalo.
  • 00:08:03
    I just, a moment ago, right,
  • 00:08:05
    before filming this, went on to Airalo,
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    and found Saudi Arabia,
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    and went through a literal 90-second
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    signup and checkout process
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    where I was able to purchase a large data pack
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    and get this QR code.
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    At the moment I land in Saudi Arabia,
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    I scan this and set it up on my phone,
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    and, boom, I will have access to high speed data.
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    A lot of it.
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    And I got it for a really affordable price.
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    If you travel,
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    you should definitely download this app
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    to be ready next time you land in a new place.
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    Having high speed internet on your phone
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    is so important when you're traveling,
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    at least for me,
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    and Airalo is making it so easy
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    nothing physical, it's all digital
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    and all very smooth and easy.
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    So next time you're going down the road, check this out.
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    I did this on my computer,
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    but I'm currently downloading the app.
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    No matter where I'm in the world,
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    I will easily be able to jump in
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    and sign up for an eSIM.
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    you use the code JOHNNY3
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    and you will get $3 off your first eSIM purchase.
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    This is a cool product, and I'm very excited about it.
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    If it's interesting to you, you can do two things.
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    This will allow you to quickly buy an eSIM
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    next time you land in some other country,
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    or before you go.
  • 00:09:26
    eSIMs are game changers when you're traveling.
  • 00:09:28
    I'm very happy Airalo exists,
  • 00:09:30
    and I'm very grateful that they sponsor today's video.
  • 00:09:32
    With that, let's dive back into this history.
  • 00:09:34
    Okay, so Max has sufficiently convinced me
  • 00:09:37
    that countries aren't real,
  • 00:09:39
    that they're made up in our minds,
  • 00:09:41
    and that France was not a real country until recently.
  • 00:09:44
    So I've been looking into what happens next.
  • 00:09:46
    Trying to answer this question
  • 00:09:47
    of when does France start to look like the France of today?
  • 00:09:52
    The first thing I thought of here was the French Revolution,
  • 00:09:54
    the late 1700s.
  • 00:09:56
    What looks more like national spirit
  • 00:09:58
    than a bunch of people rising up together
  • 00:10:00
    to overthrow their king.
  • 00:10:02
    - Let them eat cake.
  • 00:10:03
    - But it turns out that we're not even close.
  • 00:10:06
    People at this time still basically didn't speak French.
  • 00:10:10
    They didn't share some French identity.
  • 00:10:12
    In fact, the French Revolution
  • 00:10:13
    can kind of be seen as the start
  • 00:10:16
    of the long road of building a French identity.
  • 00:10:19
    The process of a bunch of fractured communities
  • 00:10:22
    unifying under one story.
  • 00:10:24
    This revolution embodied a fairly new idea
  • 00:10:28
    that the government actually derives its legitimacy,
  • 00:10:31
    not from God or some other natural right,
  • 00:10:35
    but from the people themselves.
  • 00:10:37
    That all of these people were not royal subjects,
  • 00:10:39
    but rather citizens.
  • 00:10:41
    That this country was theirs.
  • 00:10:43
    Which turned all of this land,
  • 00:10:45
    at least in their minds,
  • 00:10:46
    into a new kind of thing.
  • 00:10:50
    The soil that they came from and owned together.
  • 00:10:54
    But listen, this is all still really abstract.
  • 00:10:55
    In people's minds, it's like a very new idea,
  • 00:10:58
    and it would remain so until this guy came around.
  • 00:11:03
    Napoleon Bonaparte advanced the process
  • 00:11:06
    of turning France into France
  • 00:11:09
    perhaps more than any other French person.
  • 00:11:11
    Remember how France looked like this?
  • 00:11:13
    When Napoleon started to make it look a lot more like this,
  • 00:11:16
    he rallied the people around this new idea of patriotism,
  • 00:11:20
    complete with symbols and songs and art
  • 00:11:23
    that emphasized French greatness,
  • 00:11:25
    the idea that we all belong to one giant tribe.
  • 00:11:28
    This idea was further cemented
  • 00:11:30
    when Napoleon recruited men from all around this country
  • 00:11:34
    to come join his army,
  • 00:11:35
    to fight for France,
  • 00:11:37
    giving them the sense that they were all joined
  • 00:11:40
    in a glorious national fight.
  • 00:11:42
    And in the process,
  • 00:11:43
    spreading that nationalistic idea all throughout Europe.
  • 00:11:46
    Napoleon did something else that was very important,
  • 00:11:48
    and you can see it in this painting.
  • 00:11:50
    Instead of pledging loyalty to the pope,
  • 00:11:52
    as European kings had always done,
  • 00:11:54
    here he is crowning himself.
  • 00:11:57
    The Catholic church at this time had been declining in power
  • 00:11:59
    and Napoleon was sidelining it in favor of himself,
  • 00:12:04
    his imperial cult of personality.
  • 00:12:06
    This was a pretty smooth power play,
  • 00:12:08
    but it also helped shift people's sense of loyalty
  • 00:12:11
    away from religion and towards their nation.
  • 00:12:15
    By the end of his reign,
  • 00:12:16
    Napoleon's France was pretty unrecognizable
  • 00:12:19
    from those scattered, loosely connected kingdoms
  • 00:12:22
    that had dominated this land
  • 00:12:23
    for many, many years.
  • 00:12:25
    It was looking a lot more like one thing,
  • 00:12:28
    like a country.
  • 00:12:29
    Okay, but there was still a lot more to do
  • 00:12:31
    before France became as unified as we think of it today.
  • 00:12:34
    The revolution eventually faltered,
  • 00:12:36
    these Napoleonic wars didn't really work out,
  • 00:12:38
    but then something bigger happened:
  • 00:12:42
    industrialization.
  • 00:12:45
    What Napoleon and others previously had done
  • 00:12:48
    had helped unify France
  • 00:12:50
    kind of mentally, psychologically.
  • 00:12:52
    But what industrialization does
  • 00:12:54
    is it unites it physically with iron and concrete.
  • 00:12:58
    Here come all these factories,
  • 00:13:00
    and factories need trains to bring in raw materials
  • 00:13:03
    and to send out finished products.
  • 00:13:05
    So you see all these new train networks
  • 00:13:07
    that put France's towns
  • 00:13:08
    within just a few hours of each other,
  • 00:13:10
    interlinking communities
  • 00:13:11
    that had always been separated by distance.
  • 00:13:13
    In turn, this brought more people into the cities.
  • 00:13:16
    Melting pots of people from all over the country
  • 00:13:18
    now swirling around together,
  • 00:13:20
    all of their little regional identities
  • 00:13:22
    were mixing into a new French identity,
  • 00:13:25
    something they all shared.
  • 00:13:26
    Factory work, more and more, required people to read
  • 00:13:29
    so the government built a national school system.
  • 00:13:31
    They taught the French language
  • 00:13:32
    along with French national pride and values.
  • 00:13:35
    Soon, all the Bretons and the Occitans
  • 00:13:38
    would become Frenchmen.
  • 00:13:40
    The school teachers were kind of like heroes.
  • 00:13:42
    They were nicknamed the foot soldiers
  • 00:13:44
    on the front lines of this effort
  • 00:13:46
    to indoctrinate the next generation
  • 00:13:48
    in this new national identity.
  • 00:13:50
    Rising literacy meant mass media, newspapers.
  • 00:13:54
    Now people could read about the events of the day,
  • 00:13:57
    making them feel a part of a community.
  • 00:13:59
    They could keep up to date on the nation's politics,
  • 00:14:02
    making the capital feel within reach to everyone.
  • 00:14:04
    Now, remember how Napoleon had built
  • 00:14:06
    all of those outposts throughout the country?
  • 00:14:08
    Well, now, thanks to all of these advances
  • 00:14:09
    in travel and communication,
  • 00:14:12
    the central government could actually rule
  • 00:14:14
    over these places,
  • 00:14:15
    over every corner of the country,
  • 00:14:17
    through a uniform universal government system
  • 00:14:20
    rather than through local lords and magistrates.
  • 00:14:23
    And, like in the schools,
  • 00:14:24
    they mandated that all of this was done
  • 00:14:26
    in the French language
  • 00:14:27
    and conveying the French national story.
  • 00:14:31
    Pride in the nation.
  • 00:14:32
    So yeah, when Max says that the nation is a new thing,
  • 00:14:35
    he's really right.
  • 00:14:36
    It wasn't 'till like 1870 or 1880
  • 00:14:39
    that you start to see a modern French identity
  • 00:14:42
    that kind of looks like the one we know today.
  • 00:14:45
    And some historians,
  • 00:14:46
    like the guy who wrote this book,
  • 00:14:48
    argued that it didn't really fully happen until the 1910s,
  • 00:14:51
    like a hundred years ago.
  • 00:14:53
    Some beautiful maps in this book, by the way.
  • 00:14:56
    So, countries are a new thing,
  • 00:14:58
    but here's the deal:
  • 00:14:59
    our leaders don't want us to know that.
  • 00:15:01
    In France, the ruling elite at the time
  • 00:15:04
    didn't want to admit that France was kind of a new thing.
  • 00:15:07
    That would sound way too weak and delicate.
  • 00:15:10
    So they kind of constructed a national mythology
  • 00:15:13
    that implied that France has kind of been around forever.
  • 00:15:17
    (Asterix speaking in foreign language)
  • 00:15:18
    They wanted people to believe
  • 00:15:20
    that the idea of France was eternal;
  • 00:15:23
    it was fixed,
  • 00:15:24
    and therefore so were these borders,
  • 00:15:27
    this shape.
  • 00:15:28
    That was a much more compelling story
  • 00:15:31
    that created a sense of loyalty and patriotism
  • 00:15:34
    among the French people.
  • 00:15:37
    And it totally worked.
  • 00:15:39
    This idea spread not just in France,
  • 00:15:42
    but throughout this whole continent.
  • 00:15:44
    - [Reporter] In Italy,
  • 00:15:45
    it began when an ambitious rabble-rouser
  • 00:15:47
    set his followers marching on Rome.
  • 00:15:50
    - And eventually, our entire world
  • 00:15:52
    would be built off of this idea.
  • 00:15:54
    (gentle music)
  • 00:15:58
    This was happening all over Europe.
  • 00:16:00
    So France's nation-building
  • 00:16:02
    really seems like it was top down.
  • 00:16:05
    Was it like that everywhere?
  • 00:16:06
    - It's a lot of both top down and bottom up.
  • 00:16:09
    So Napoleon had spread these ideas
  • 00:16:12
    as he'd conquered across Europe.
  • 00:16:14
    And as that way of thinking sunk in,
  • 00:16:16
    more and more people wanted a nation.
  • 00:16:18
    People all over Europe staged this wave of revolutions
  • 00:16:22
    that mostly failed,
  • 00:16:24
    but got people animated to fight
  • 00:16:26
    for what they saw as unrealized national homelands.
  • 00:16:29
    And some fought wars of independence or unification
  • 00:16:31
    that did eventually create nations.
  • 00:16:34
    - Okay, like Italy eventually did that, right?
  • 00:16:36
    It was super fractured, seemingly,
  • 00:16:38
    and then it all comes together.
  • 00:16:40
    - Yes, though, even when Italy finally unified in 1861.
  • 00:16:44
    - Wait, 1861? That's so recent.
  • 00:16:48
    - Oh, it gets even wilder.
  • 00:16:50
    Only two and a half percent of people in the new Italy
  • 00:16:53
    even spoke Italian,
  • 00:16:54
    and almost none of them
  • 00:16:55
    even thought of themselves as Italian.
  • 00:16:57
    One of the unification leaders
  • 00:16:58
    has this famous quote that I love.
  • 00:17:00
    He said, "We have made Italy,
  • 00:17:02
    and now we have to make Italians."
  • 00:17:03
    - Wow. So how would you do that?
  • 00:17:05
    How do you make Italians?
  • 00:17:07
    - It was mostly the same as in France.
  • 00:17:09
    Schools, national administration, industrialization,
  • 00:17:12
    and a lot, a lot of national myth-making.
  • 00:17:15
    - So what I saw was that France doesn't finish that process
  • 00:17:19
    until like a hundred years ago, like 1910.
  • 00:17:22
    Was it the same for Italy?
  • 00:17:24
    - Italy started even later,
  • 00:17:26
    and it was not as industrialized as France had been,
  • 00:17:28
    so it went much slower.
  • 00:17:30
    Even by 1950, only 20% spoke Italian,
  • 00:17:35
    and people mostly identified
  • 00:17:36
    with their regional language or with their city
  • 00:17:39
    and not with Italy.
  • 00:17:40
    That only really changed
  • 00:17:42
    with the first national TV channels
  • 00:17:44
    in the 1960s.
  • 00:17:46
    There was even this famous TV show,
  • 00:17:47
    "It's Never Too Late,"
  • 00:17:48
    that taught people Italian.
  • 00:17:49
    (teacher speaking in foreign language)
  • 00:17:51
    (student speaking in foreign language)
  • 00:17:53
    - All of which is to say
  • 00:17:55
    that this process of internal nation-building,
  • 00:17:58
    of becoming a country,
  • 00:17:59
    can take like a century,
  • 00:18:01
    and it's all really recent.
  • 00:18:02
    - What's crazy about this
  • 00:18:03
    is once you start to really get your head
  • 00:18:05
    around the national myth,
  • 00:18:06
    you kind of see it everywhere.
  • 00:18:08
    And you start to see how much it has influenced
  • 00:18:10
    our modern history.
  • 00:18:11
    Identities that have led to war
  • 00:18:13
    and conflict all over the world.
  • 00:18:14
    So let's go back to Europe really quick
  • 00:18:16
    and look at a few more, like Germany.
  • 00:18:17
    Germany unified in like the 1860s and '70s.
  • 00:18:21
    Its process was a lot like Italy's.
  • 00:18:23
    And it actually inspired other countries
  • 00:18:25
    to rise up with this ethnic nationalism
  • 00:18:28
    all across Europe,
  • 00:18:29
    carving old empires into new countries.
  • 00:18:32
    Serbia, Romania, Norway, Bulgaria, Albania,
  • 00:18:36
    a lot of them followed a similar template,
  • 00:18:38
    but the invention of all of these new countries
  • 00:18:41
    was kind of like a powder keg
  • 00:18:43
    that eventually exploded into the 1st World War.
  • 00:18:46
    The winners got together
  • 00:18:47
    and redrew the entire map around the national idea:
  • 00:18:51
    one nation for one people.
  • 00:18:53
    The idea is that this would kind of create peace,
  • 00:18:55
    because if one people were just in these boundaries,
  • 00:18:57
    then there'd be no need to fight wars, right?
  • 00:19:01
    Wrong, because borders were never gonna be perfectly drawn
  • 00:19:04
    around a people.
  • 00:19:05
    Like this is Germany's border,
  • 00:19:07
    but this is where all the German speakers are.
  • 00:19:10
    You can see they don't line up.
  • 00:19:11
    So instead, all of this redrawing of borders
  • 00:19:14
    led to ultra nationalists rising up across Europe
  • 00:19:18
    on promises to conquer the land
  • 00:19:20
    that they considered rightfully theirs,
  • 00:19:22
    which led to yet another world war.
  • 00:19:25
    And this gets to the dark side of the idea of a nation.
  • 00:19:28
    It very naturally breeds the persecution of minorities.
  • 00:19:34
    Because if a nation is supposedly defined
  • 00:19:37
    by its shared ethnic identity,
  • 00:19:40
    then anyone who is not in that majority identity
  • 00:19:44
    is an outsider.
  • 00:19:45
    They're a threat to the character of the nation.
  • 00:19:48
    Now, of course, the national identity,
  • 00:19:50
    the national character, the ethnic identity,
  • 00:19:52
    all of this was made up,
  • 00:19:54
    but boy did people start to believe that it was real.
  • 00:19:57
    Fascists would go on to murder millions
  • 00:20:00
    in the name of nationalism.
  • 00:20:04
    An idea that was basically invented 70 years earlier.
  • 00:20:08
    So we've been talking about Europe,
  • 00:20:09
    but things like railways and mass media
  • 00:20:12
    spread around the world,
  • 00:20:13
    and so did the idea of a nation.
  • 00:20:15
    Just like in Europe,
  • 00:20:16
    communities tied by language or history
  • 00:20:19
    started to think of themselves as nationalities,
  • 00:20:22
    ready to fight for nations of their own.
  • 00:20:24
    Oftentimes, this happened in places
  • 00:20:26
    where people were forced together
  • 00:20:27
    by arbitrary imperial borders,
  • 00:20:31
    often drawn by Europeans.
  • 00:20:33
    But even that was a unifying idea
  • 00:20:35
    that led people to rise up,
  • 00:20:37
    to kick their colonizers out,
  • 00:20:39
    and to fight for their own national idea.
  • 00:20:41
    And soon, the entire world would be defined
  • 00:20:44
    by this idea of the nation.
  • 00:20:46
    Firm borders, centralized governments,
  • 00:20:49
    flags and pride in your country.
  • 00:20:52
    But while this looks neat on a map,
  • 00:20:55
    it's not perfect,
  • 00:20:56
    because the idea of a nation is inherently imperfect.
  • 00:20:59
    We have this idea that every person
  • 00:21:02
    is entitled to a nation of their own,
  • 00:21:05
    but the way those people identify
  • 00:21:07
    ebbs and flows and changes
  • 00:21:09
    and often doesn't fit perfectly into one box.
  • 00:21:12
    We start wars over territory
  • 00:21:14
    that our national myth says belongs to us.
  • 00:21:17
    We fight over who belongs in our national community
  • 00:21:19
    and who doesn't and who gets to decide.
  • 00:21:22
    So much of the conflict
  • 00:21:23
    and violence in our world today
  • 00:21:25
    comes from our belief in the nation.
  • 00:21:28
    And my question in all of this is,
  • 00:21:30
    is there a better way,
  • 00:21:32
    a more peaceful way to organize ourselves?
  • 00:21:35
    And yet it feels like we're stuck in this way.
  • 00:21:37
    These identities that seem so firm,
  • 00:21:40
    and they seem like they're getting like firmer
  • 00:21:42
    and more intense every year.
  • 00:21:44
    Like this is the only way
  • 00:21:46
    that we can organize our world:
  • 00:21:48
    by countries and nationalities.
  • 00:21:51
    - The good news is that it's not necessarily
  • 00:21:53
    as fixed as you might think.
  • 00:21:55
    National identities can change.
  • 00:21:57
    Like, let's go back to France
  • 00:21:59
    where it's becoming more accepted that you can be French
  • 00:22:03
    regardless of your race or religion
  • 00:22:06
    or your place of birth,
  • 00:22:07
    but, at the same time,
  • 00:22:08
    there's also a rising backlash to that,
  • 00:22:10
    that clings to the idea of France as just for the French.
  • 00:22:14
    You know, like it or not,
  • 00:22:15
    people need some sort of collective identity to hold onto,
  • 00:22:19
    and national identity is just the one we have right now.
  • 00:22:22
    - It seems like one answer is that
  • 00:22:24
    we still have these identities
  • 00:22:26
    that are fixed around land and borders,
  • 00:22:28
    but that they can expand and become bigger
  • 00:22:32
    and take on different meaning.
  • 00:22:33
    Like the idea of European,
  • 00:22:35
    that feels like an identity that is very real.
  • 00:22:38
    It's still collective and it's still defined,
  • 00:22:41
    but it doesn't have the danger of exclusion,
  • 00:22:44
    ethnicity, competition, and war,
  • 00:22:46
    at least not within those big borders.
  • 00:22:49
    How would you describe a cosmopolitan identity?
  • 00:22:52
    - Think of people who live in a big global city
  • 00:22:54
    like New York or Hong Kong or London or Singapore,
  • 00:22:57
    and this identity that you are a person of the world,
  • 00:23:00
    that you're a globe traveler,
  • 00:23:01
    that you're taking in many different cultures,
  • 00:23:03
    that's kind of cosmopolitan identity, which is ironic.
  • 00:23:06
    We don't think of that as an identity,
  • 00:23:07
    but it absolutely is,
  • 00:23:09
    and it's one that's taken the place of national identity.
  • 00:23:11
    - What else do you think exists out there
  • 00:23:14
    that could replace this?
  • 00:23:15
    And does the nation ever go away
  • 00:23:18
    or does it just get watered down
  • 00:23:20
    and become less salient over time?
  • 00:23:23
    - There are lots of places
  • 00:23:24
    that you can get your sense of identity
  • 00:23:26
    and your sense of community from.
  • 00:23:28
    I mean, I think there are people who find that in religion.
  • 00:23:32
    You can find that in your profession,
  • 00:23:33
    you can find that in,
  • 00:23:35
    just your local community,
  • 00:23:37
    which is the way that a lot of people used to do it.
  • 00:23:39
    And I think the fact that we are all becoming more aware
  • 00:23:42
    and more conscious of the fact
  • 00:23:43
    that we need to get community from someplace
  • 00:23:45
    is making us a little more thoughtful about it
  • 00:23:48
    and, at times, more constructive about it.
  • 00:23:51
    Although you still see this push-pull,
  • 00:23:52
    which is probably gonna go on forever,
  • 00:23:54
    of do we want a hardened national identity
  • 00:23:57
    that's about us versus them
  • 00:23:59
    and who's in and who's out,
  • 00:24:00
    or do we want to create some sort of a way
  • 00:24:03
    of thinking about our role in our community
  • 00:24:06
    and our identity that is more inclusive.
  • 00:24:08
    - I also wonder often
  • 00:24:10
    if humans need a them, an enemy.
  • 00:24:15
    Like, I...
  • 00:24:17
    Or at least in a nationalistic context,
  • 00:24:20
    there seems to have to be a them
  • 00:24:22
    in order for there to be an us.
  • 00:24:24
    But I do wonder, within our psychology,
  • 00:24:26
    if these identities that don't have an enemy
  • 00:24:29
    are less potent or have less staying power
  • 00:24:32
    than the kind of embattled sense of like,
  • 00:24:35
    I'm an American and terrorists are out to get me.
  • 00:24:39
    You know, like having an enemy
  • 00:24:42
    is such a potent way to coalesce people around fear.
  • 00:24:46
    - I think that's totally true.
  • 00:24:48
    I think there's so much evidence that, psychologically,
  • 00:24:50
    just our brains are so much more drawn to identities
  • 00:24:54
    that are defined around fighting and resisting
  • 00:24:57
    and fearing some out group, some them.
  • 00:25:00
    But I think that just goes to show that
  • 00:25:03
    it is something that we have to be conscious about
  • 00:25:05
    and really thoughtful about
  • 00:25:07
    in order to rise above.
  • 00:25:09
    - So this has been a pretty fascinating history for me.
  • 00:25:12
    And after charting through it,
  • 00:25:14
    I'm left with this feeling that countries and nations
  • 00:25:18
    are ideas that we as a world
  • 00:25:21
    are still learning to live with peacefully.
  • 00:25:24
    But ultimately, countries are just that.
  • 00:25:26
    They're an idea.
  • 00:25:27
    They're flexible.
  • 00:25:28
    They're malleable.
  • 00:25:29
    As malleable as our minds.
  • 00:25:30
    We can change how we draw these lines
  • 00:25:33
    and who gets left in and who gets left out.
  • 00:25:36
    It's something that I believe we are slowly figuring out
  • 00:25:39
    with a lot of bumps in the road.
  • 00:25:41
    And even though it feels hardwired and fixed,
  • 00:25:44
    like this is the way it has to be,
  • 00:25:45
    it only feels that way until someone comes around
  • 00:25:48
    with a better, more enlightened way
  • 00:25:51
    to organize the 8 billion people on this planet.
  • 00:25:54
    (gentle music)
  • 00:25:56
    Wait, before you go, you can buy this shirt.
  • 00:25:59
    If you're into this shirt,
  • 00:26:00
    which I think is pretty sick,
  • 00:26:01
    you can buy it.
  • 00:26:02
    It was designed by our very own Nick,
  • 00:26:04
    the studio manager
  • 00:26:05
    who wears a shirt like this into the studio,
  • 00:26:08
    and it is perfect for today's video
  • 00:26:10
    because it's borders and countries.
  • 00:26:12
    You can scrutinize the borders
  • 00:26:14
    and pester me about them later if you'd like.
  • 00:26:16
    Borders are made up and arbitrary,
  • 00:26:17
    but they're very important to a lot of people
  • 00:26:19
    because they actually affect people's lives.
  • 00:26:22
    Big theme on the channel.
  • 00:26:23
    But yeah, check it out.
  • 00:26:24
    The link is somewhere.
  • 00:26:25
    And thanks for watching today's video,
  • 00:26:27
    and I'll see you in the next one.
  • 00:26:29
    (gentle music)
  • 00:26:32
    Nick, we're done?
  • 00:26:34
    (gentle music)
Etiquetas
  • nation
  • identity
  • nationalism
  • France
  • myth
  • history
  • cosmopolitanism
  • conflict
  • borders
  • evolution