Nation-State

The nation-state is an ideal concept rather than one that is an actual or real geographic phenomenon. The nation-state is the ideological belief that the population of one state consists entirely of the members of one national group. Nearly all states in the world contain multinational populations and so violate the nation-state ideal. For example, Great Britain is home to the English, Welsh, Scottish, Ulster, and Irish nations. Those pressing for Scottish independence from Great Britain are acting in the nationalist belief that the Scottish people have a right to their own state, a Scottish nation-state. Although nation-states are practically nonexistent in the world, nationalist politics, or the desire to create nation-states, has been the most effective and powerful ideology of modern times and is the cause of the ever changing boundaries of the world political map.

Despite the fact that the nation-state is an ideal concept, everyday language usually denies the problematic difference between political reality and rhetoric. Politicians usually convey the impression that their country is a nation-state, in other words, that their population shares a common national identity. However, contemporary geographic analysis is more focused on the national diversity within states and on how the geography of collective identity transcends state spaces in the form of networks.

The nation-state was the fundamental geographic unit of the modern period. The Treaty of Westphalia of 1648 established the principle of state sovereignty, that is, a singular authority to rule over a territorial area defined by state boundaries. In Europe, the system of nation-states replaced feudal empires in which a hierarchy of sovereignty through baronial and majestic rule was played out over a network of fuzzy political boundaries. In addition, the ideal of the nation-state emphasized the ideal that sovereignty lay within the people rather than within a royal divine right to rule. The head of state was granted authority through the will of the people rather than being ordained by God. The nation-state became the political home, as well as the political vehicle, for a national citizenry.

Identity with the nation-state needed to be nurtured. The nation-state political project replaced established local and regional identities and loyalties with a national identity as well as an investment in the state. The invention of national traditions, customs, and holidays has been an integral part of popular practice that legitimizes the ideal of the nation-state. The epitome of the success of the nation-state ideal was seen on the battlefields of World War I. Prior to the outbreak of war, Europe had been rife with talk of international socialist revolution. But between 1914 and 1918, millions of Europeans blew each other to pieces in the name of national security. The relationship between interstate politics and individual duty, bridged by the ideal of the nation-state, was captured by wartime poet Wilfred Owen's caustic reference to the British propaganda slogan, “Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori” (It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country). Despite continued political challenge to this ideal, the notion of the nation-state demanding personal sacrifice in the name of interstate competition remains today.

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