Nationalism and State Formation

Nationalism and state formation names Tilly’s account of how national states generated both identification with state projects and counterclaims by populations seeking their own states. Nationalism is not just sentiment; it is part of the state-making process.

Two Nationalisms

In the expanded Coercion, Capital, and European States ingest, Chapter 4 distinguishes nationalism as popular identification with state ends from nationalism as a claim by distinct populations to have their own states. These two forms can reinforce each other, especially under conquest, direct rule, and military mobilization.

Chapter 7 shows the late-twentieth-century continuation: stateless peoples, postcolonial states, Soviet nationalities, and military regimes all complicate the national-state model that Europe exported.

Place in This Wiki

This concept helps prevent a flattened state critique. Nationalism can legitimate state extraction and war, but it can also appear as resistance to an existing state. Tilly’s point is historical-sociological, not libertarian.

See Also

• Coercion, Capital, and European States - primary source
• Charles Tilly - author reference
• Citizenship and State Bargaining - related Chapter 4 concept
• Late-Twentieth-Century State Forms - Chapter 7 continuation
• War and State Formation - broader Tilly concept
• Evolution of the State - historical state-development context
• The State as Parasite: A Thesis - reciprocal link.

Sources

• Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990-1992 - expanded raw aggregate including nationalism material in Chapters 4 and 7