Nationalism in All Quiet on The Western Front :: All Quiet on the Western Front Essays

Nationalism in All Quiet on The Western Front      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nationalism can be defined as having a sense of belonging and loyalty to ones country or nation state. Of all the European nations, France was the first to sport the idea of nationalism. Many countries became influenced by the French's ideas of nationali sm, As a result nationalism had spread throught out Europe by the nineteenth and twenteth century. One result that nationalisn had on Europe was, the wanting of unification. The people of nation states wanted their country to belong to. This wanting lea d to the unfying of Italy and Germany. Soon nationalism had increased the peoples confidedence., and a feeling of imperialism ran through the unified countries.   Unified countries such as France, Germany, Russia wanted to extend their empires.   But this Imperialism in Europe led to many conflicts between countries. All this Conflict eventually resulted in the begining of Worls War I.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The causes of World War I were the intense nationalism that dominated Europe throughout the 19th and into the 20th century, and the establishment of large armies in Europe after 1871. Imperialism created a rivaly between nations and empires. The build up   of armies and navies created fear between nations. France feared Germany, Germany feared Russia, Austria-Hungary and Russia rivaled around Bulkans, Britain feared German's expanding navy, Slovakia wanted to free Slavian land from Astria-Hungary's apressi on. Italy was jealous of French and English colonies in Africa. Ottoman Empire struggled to survive in a hostile climate. Germany signed a secret alliance with Austria-Hungray and Italy, thus creating a Triple Alliance. France and Russia signed an Entente   agreement which was later signed by Britain, thus creating Triple Entante. Then Europe was divided into hostile camps. During this time nationalism had caused a golrified view of the war. Thise view showed how inexpirence the people of Europe were in war far. In Erich Maria Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front, we can see that eventhough this gorious view contradicted the Germans soildiers expectations, they still stayed loyal.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the Begining of the novel we read that Paul Baumer and his class mates had volunteered to enlist in the war. But they were forced in to volunteering. Their school master Kantorek had filled their heads up with views of nationalism which glorified the war.