what are the elements of nationalism and what is the cause and rise of it?

To study a modern example of the rise of nationalism, you can look at the United States post 9-11.

Nationalism is based in pride (or arrogance, if the pride gets too great) and is coupled with fear of outsiders or the unknown. The result is the belief that one’s country (nation) is better than other nations.

Nationalism is often a result of some sort of national crisis — whether a momentary crisis like 9-11, or an ongoing crisis like the economic depression experienced by Germany post WWI. The crisis generates the fear. A leader who seeks to overcome the crisis can create a nationalistic furor by blaming outsiders for the crisis. This doesn’t always solve the crisis, but diverts focus from it to the sense of national pride.

Great waves of nationalism almost always lead to violence and war. It is a logic progression from fear of others, to pride in self, to quelling the fear by attacking the preceived source of the crisis.

Nationalism is like patriotism. For a rise in nationalism, you need the group of people (the country) to see themselves as one unit of people with similar (if not the same) culture, language, sometimes race, etc. For nationalism to exist there needs to be a national feeling of “us” and “them.”

For instance, before European states/countries unified (during the time of feudal states), there was little of what we could call nationalism because people saw themselves more as subjects under a certain Lord. THey may have felt unified under the Catholic church, but that is it.

Nationalism can best be seen in unified countries. For example, in Germany nationalism occured after all the German states had been unified for a long time, and the people saw themselves as one group, the Germans, with the same language, people and general culture.

War really helps stir nationalism, as it really emphasizes the “us” vs. “them” mentality.