Nations & Nationalism essays

Nations & Nationalism essays When discussing the concept of nation, there are two nuances of the word that come to mind. The first relates to politics and geography and explains the concept as a land separated by boundaries. The second is a much larger concept and describes more a people than a country. The second concept somewhat embraces the first and cover a larger number of people. Let's just briefly exemplify this and move on to refer to some of the textbooks and how they divide the concepts. If we are to consider the French nation, the geographical concept of nation strictly delimitates the French nation as belonging to the French state, that is, conscribed by the boundaries that have been traced with time and that are identified with the French territory. However, the French nation as seen in the second concept, is much larger: it takes into account the people of French nationality from Switzerland, from Belgium, those working at the science centers in Antarctica or those in diplomatic missions over the world. Let's have a more analytical look at the two concepts and for this, we can refer to Chapter 7, where a Siam geography lesson is presented. The lesson is rather simple, as it describes a discussion between an uncle and his two nephews, however, the definition of the nation that is revealed is quite profound. As the uncle puts it here, "continents are divided into nations. Many nations are all different. China is one big country; Siam is a small one". Just as the oceans and the continents, the nation is a geographical element that can form a description of the Earth. In fact, it is the smallest undividable element of the Earth's geography. This is a first definition that we receive for a nation. Just as the oceans and continents that are circumscribed by the boundaries of each other a nation is defined as such through its boundaries. Boundaries make a country like ...