Militarism, Nationalism and First World War

This essay discusses the correlation among nationalism, militarism led to imperialism, racism, islamophobia and finally terrorism. It also discusses the roots of nationalism and militarism that led to the development of colonial activities leading to world war.

Running head: MILITARISM, NATIONALISM AND FIRST WORLD WAR
MILITARISM, NATIONALISM AND FIRST WORLD WAR
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Author Note:

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MILITARISM, NATIONALISM AND FIRST WORLD WAR
Introduction:
This essay has aimed to discuss the correlation among nationalism, militarism led to
imperialism, racism, islamophobia and finally terrorism. The imperialism of the European
countries created a feeling of deprivation in the minds of the people for which they used
nationalism as the weapon to fight imperialism but this led to world wars and racism in the later
time. These instances of deprivation, discrimination and powerlessness have taken shape of
terrorism. This essay will be discussing the roots of nationalism and militarism that led to the
development of colonial activities leading to world war. The world war situation therefore led to
the deprivation of the people which created the issues like islamophobia and finally terrorism.
The dominating nature and execution of power ad created the emotional gap among the human
beings that led to racism and islamophobia creating the threat of terrorism in the global context.
Discussion
Nationalism is a great reason of World War as the countries were not ready to negotiate
among themselves and started to act greedy. Nationalism showed that these countries
manipulated the citizens stating that the country we want to be the best hence they should be
proud of their country. The feeling of nationalism created competition among the Nations mainly
of Europe and the Nationalist groups of Austria Hungary and Serbia wondered their
Independence. The Franco Prussian war in 1871 was due to the demand of Alsace Lorraine that
started the collision in an explicit way. The use of nationalism helped the countries rather the
national leaders to give false hope to the people and get their support for aggressive attack upon
one another in the form of War. Even if some of them were not able to win the war as their
strength as well as understanding of the plans could not help them but this lead to imperialism.
All of the countries started to think that their country is the best of all hence they should rule and

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not be ruled. This created a feeling of loath towards the culture, society, economy, tradition and
philosophy of the other countries other than the own.
This feelings of nationalism became so aggressive that the people started to feel that they
need to you have a leader who will make them a powerful Nation and exploit one or more
colonies. The major power of Britain, France and other western European nations instigated the
less powerful states of Italy and Germany to grab the opportunity of colonizing the African
states. However, nationalist feeling was so deep at that point of time that two main crisis relating
to the nationalism emerged. In 1905 German Kaiser visited Morocco where Germany had been
building up the empire. In the next year 1906 at the conference he was humiliated as if he did not
have any right to join and speak in the international conference. This made him enraged as he
wanted to see himself as the major power in Africa. In 1911 France aims to take over this place
again and it was supported by Britain. This is due to the fact that Britain was thinking that Kaiser
would be setting up a naval base in that particular area which will affect their own colonies in
Africa. In another conference France and Britain stood up against the imperialistic set up of
Germany. France this time to control of Morocco and Germany was given part of land in Central
Africa as compensation1. This gradually created the ground of militarism that it led the countries
towards the world war.
Nationalism could have been the only cause of world war but this was supported by
militarism. The main event of militarism leading to world war was the rivalry of the super
powers of Europe regarding naval power. At that point of time Britain had the most powerful
Navy but it was threatened by the growth of Germany after 1900s. Kaiser Wilhelm head
announced that he would build a bigger Navy of Germany than Britain which threatened the
1 Laqueur, Walter. A history of terrorism. Routledge, 2017.

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letter in such a way that the British army was set in all over its colonies for protection2. Germany
might not have a big Empire like that of Britain but the feeling of nationalism was so high in
Germany that it they developed best friend and most powerful army of the world3. Along with
them Russia, France, Austria, Hungary and Italy were taking part in small or medium war among
themselves that only affected them financially and human lives. Thus militarism and aggressive
nationalism led to the First World War and in the recent times, to the racism.
The feeling of nationalism and experience of colonialism has affected the growth of
identity of the nationals. The idea of nation is a group of people whose language, belief system,
religion, culture and past histories are common but in the theory of colonialism moulds this
understanding. It has dominated the nations to adapt the culture, religion , language, state of
affair, customs, traditions, knowledge and even behaviour or etiquette of the colonial overlords.
Thus the militarism that led to imperialism or colonization of the lands, developed the mentality
to see the people not as citizens of the countries but a subject largely identified as the race4.
Towards the end of 1900s thus the feeling of racism developed which led to discrimination and
violence. This can be the reasons of the increased aggression against the afro American
community of the American society or for that matter the aboriginal people living in the islands
of Australia. These racism is however related to the cultural and ethnic background, origin and
dependent on the skin colour of the communities. These are none by the cultural hegemony of
one racial group with the other5.
Along with the racism problem based on the culture and skin tone, the religious racism
has become one of the most important factors that has been linked with the contemporary issues
2 Mulligan, William. The Origins of the First World War. Vol. 52. Cambridge University Press, 2017.
3 Combs, Cynthia C. Terrorism in the twenty-first century. Routledge, 2017.
4 Morgan, George. Global Islamophobia: Muslims and moral panic in the West. Routledge, 2016.
5 Garner, Steve, and Saher Selod. "The racialization of Muslims: Empirical studies of Islamophobia." Critical
Sociology 41, no. 1 (2015): 9-19.

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of terrorism. The religious connotation of racism has led the western countries to develop Islam
phobia. This incident has been added in the human history after the terrorist attack of 9/11 in the
twin towers of the New York City, America. Islam phobia is the fear, heard and prejudice against
the Muslims or the Islam religion6. Based on this, the anti-Muslim prejudice has grown
considerably as rapidly that created a threat among the people of the world. This idea of
islamophoba is not completely baseless. Most of the terrorist organizations are somehow
connected with the Islamic ideology who believe to destroy all the non-Muslims in the name of
‘Jihad’7. The most important of this, is ISIS which is connected with the disturbances of the
middle part of Asia and attack different region of the world to establish their ideology of Jihad.
The country like America is showing hyper national behaviour based of islamophobia and is
putting strict regulations against the migration of the people from Islamic background. Thus
nationalism, militarism led to imperialism, racism, islamophobia and finally terrorism.
Conclusion:
Therefore, it can be conclude that human history has been changing for long and these
changes are not very supportive of the growth. The ideological differences are leading to war
which ultimately destroying the human lives and property.
6 Love, Erik. Islamophobia and racism in America. NYU Press, 2017.
7 Townshend, Charles. Terrorism: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press, 2018.

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References:
Krehbiel, Edward B. Nationalism, War and Society; a Study of Nationalism and Its Concomitant,
War, in Their Relation to Civilization; and of the Fundamentals and the Progress of the
Opposition to War. New York: Macmillan Company, 1916.
Laqueur, Walter. A history of terrorism. Routledge, 2017.
Combs, Cynthia C. Terrorism in the twenty-first century. Routledge, 2017.
Townshend, Charles. Terrorism: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press, 2018.
Morgan, George. Global Islamophobia: Muslims and moral panic in the West. Routledge, 2016.
Garner, Steve, and Saher Selod. "The racialization of Muslims: Empirical studies of
Islamophobia." Critical Sociology 41, no. 1 (2015): 9-19.
Love, Erik. Islamophobia and racism in America. NYU Press, 2017.