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Hi I’m John Green;

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this is Crash Course World History
and today

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we’re going to talk about Nationalism,

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the most important global phenomenon
of the 19th century

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and also the phenomenon responsible

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for one of the most commented upon aspects
of Crash Course:

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my globes being out of date.

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USSR: not a country.

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Rhodesia?

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South Vietnam?

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Sudan with no South Sudan?

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Yugoslavia?

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Okay,
no more inaccuracies with the globes.

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Ugh, the little globes!

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This one doesn’t know about Slovakia.

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This one has East frakking Pakistan.

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And this one identifies
Lithuania as part of Asia.

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Okay, no more globe inaccuracies.

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Actually, bring back my globes.

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I feel naked without them.
[many people find comfort in inaccuracy]

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[Intro music]

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[intro music]

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[intro music]

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[intro music]

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[intro music]

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[intro music]

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[intro music]

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So, if you’re into European history,

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you’re probably somewhat familiar
with nationalism

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and the names and countries
associated with it.

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Bismarck in Germany,

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Mazzini and Garibaldi in Italy, a

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nd Mustafa Kemal (aka Ataturk) in Turkey.

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But nationalism was a global phenomenon,

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and it included a lot of people
you may not associate with it, like

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Muhammad Ali in Egypt

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and also this guy.

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Nationalism was seen in the
British Dominions,

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as Canada, Australia and New Zealand

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became federated states between
1860 and 1901.

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I would say independent states
instead of federated states,

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but you guys still have a queen.
[and royal Corgies]

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It’s also seen in the Balkans, where
Greece gained its independence in 1832

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and Christian principalities fought
a war against the Ottomans in 1878,

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[Christians hate foot wrests?

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in India where a political party,
the Indian National Congress,

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was founded in 1885,

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and even in China, where nationalism ran
up against the dynastic system

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that had lasted more than 2000 years.

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And then of course there are these guys,

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who in many ways represent
the worst of nationalism,

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the nationalism that tries to deny or
eliminate difference in the efforts

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to create a homogeneous
mythologized unitary polity.

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We’ll get to them later,

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but it’s helpful to bring them up now

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just so we don’t get
too excited about nationalism.

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Okay, so,

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before we launch into the history,
let’s define the modern nation state.

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Definitions are slippery
but for our purposes,

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a nation state involves a
centralized government

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that can claim and exercise
authority over a distinctive territory.

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That’s the state part.

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It also involves a certain degree of
linguistic and cultural homogeneity.

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That’s the nation part.

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Mr. Green, Mr. Green!

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By that definition,

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wouldn’t China have been nation state

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as early as, like, the Han dynasty?

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Dude, Me from the Past,

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you’re getting smart.

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Yeah, it could be,

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and some historians argue that it was.

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Nationhood is really hard to define.

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Like, in James Joyce’s Ulysses,

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the character Bloom famously says that

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a nation is the same people
living in the same place.

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But, then, he remembers the Irish and
Jewish diasporas, and adds,

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or also living in different places.

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But let’s ignore diasporas for the moment

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and focus on territorially bound
groups with a common heritage.

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Same people, same place.

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So how do you become a nation?

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Well, some argue it’s an organic process

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involving culturally similar people
wanting to formalize their connections.

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Others argue that nationalism is
constructed by governments,

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building a sense of patriotism through
compulsory military service and

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statues of national heroes.

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Public education is often seen
as part of this nationalizing project.

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Schools and textbooks allow countries to
share their nationalizing narratives.

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Which is why

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the once and possibly future
independent nation of Texas

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issues textbooks literally
whitewashing early American history.

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Still other historians argue
that nationalism was

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an outgrowth of urbanization
and industrialization,

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since new urbanites were the

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most likely people to want to see
themselves as part of a nation.

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For instance,

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Prague’s population rose from 157,000 to
514,000 between 1850 and 1900,

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at the same time that the Czechs
were beginning to see themselves as

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separate from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

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Which is a cool idea,

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but it doesn’t explain why other,
less industrialized places

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like India also saw a lot of nationalism.

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The actual business of nationalization
involves creating bureaucracies,

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new systems of education,

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building a large military,

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and, often,

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using that military to fight other
nation states,

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since nations often construct themselves
in opposition to an idea of otherness.

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A big part of being Irish, for instance,

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is not being English.

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So emerging nations had
a lot of conflicts,

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including:

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The Napoleonic wars,

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which helped the French become the French.

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The Indian Rebellion of 1857,

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which helped Indians to identify
themselves as a homogeneous people.

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The American Civil War.

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I mean, before the Civil War,

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many Americans thought of themselves
not as Americans

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but as Virginians

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or New Yorkers

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or Pennsylvanians.

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I mean,

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our antebellum nation was usually called

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“these united states,”

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after it became “the United States.”

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So,

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in the US,
nationalism pulled a nation together,

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but often,

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nationalism was a destabilizing force
for multi-ethnic land-based empires.

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This was especially the case
in the Ottoman empire,

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which started falling apart in the
19th century as first the Greeks,

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then the Serbs,

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Romanians and Bulgarians,

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all predominantly Christian people,

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began clamoring for and, in some cases,

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winning independence.

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Egypt is another good example

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of nationalism serving both to create
a new state and to weaken an empire.

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Muhammad Ali

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[nope, not that one]

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(who was actually Albanian
and spoke Turkish, not Egyptian Arabic)

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and his ruling family

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encouraged the Egyptian people to imagine
themselves as a separate nationality.

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But okay,

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so nationalism was a global phenomenon
in the 19th century and

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we can’t talk about it everywhere.

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So, instead,
we’re going to focus on one case study.

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Japan.

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You thought I was going to say Germany,
didn’t you?

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Nope. You can bite me, Bismarck.
[fingers crossed for Freedonia, actually]

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Japan had been fragmented and
feudal until the late 16th century,

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when a series of warrior landowners
managed to consolidate power.

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Eventually

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power came to the Tokugawa family who
created a military government or bakufu.

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[gesundheit]

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The first Tokugawa to take power
was Iyeasu,

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who took over after the death of one of
the main unifiers of Japan,

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Tyotomi Hideyoshi,

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sometimes known as “the monkey,”

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although his wife called him,

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and this is true,

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“the bald rat.”

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[could've been worse, certainly]

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In 1603 Ieyasu convinced the emperor,
who was something of a figurehead,

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to grant him the title of “shogun.”

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And for the next 260 years or so,

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the Tokugawa bakufu was
the main government of Japan.

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The primary virtue of this government

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was not necessarily its efficiency
or its forward thinking policies,

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but its stability.

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Stability:
Most underrated of governmental virtues.

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Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.

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The Tokugawa bakufu
wasn’t much for centralization,

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as power was mainly in the hands
of local lords called daimyo.

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One odd feature of the Tokugawa era
was the presence of a class of warriors

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who by the 19th century
had become mostly bureaucrats.

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You may have heard of them, the samurai.

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[kinda like John McCain, John Kerry and
my favorite, Daniel Inouye, etc.]

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One of the things that made this
hereditary class so interesting

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was that each samurai was entitled to
an annual salary from the daimyo

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called a stipend.

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This privilege basically paid them off

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and assured that they didn’t become
restless warriors plaguing the countryside

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—that is, bandits.

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We tend to think of samurai
as noble and honorable,

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[or as John Belushi on old skool SNL]

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but urban samurai, according to Andrew
Gordon’s book A Modern History of Japan,

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"were a rough-and-tumble lot.

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Samurai gang wars – a West Side Story
in the shadows of Edo castle –

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were frequent in the early 1600s.”

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And you still say that history books
are boring.

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As with kings and lesser nobles anywhere,

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the central bakufu had trouble controlling
the more powerful daimyo,

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who were able to build
up their own strength

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because of their control
over local resources.

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[like on the Sopranos?]

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This poor control also made it
really difficult to collect taxes,

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so the Tokugawa were already
a bit on the ropes

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when two foreign events rocked Japan.

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First was China’s humiliating defeat
in the Opium Wars,

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after which Western nations
forced China to

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give Europeans special trade privileges.

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It was a wake up call to see the
dominant power in the region so humbled.

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[like when Andre the Giant was sadly
bested by Hulk Hogan]

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But even worse for the Tokugawa
was the arrival of Matthew Perry.

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No, Thought Bubble. Matthew Perry.

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Yes.

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That one.

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The tokugawa are somewhat famous

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for their not-so-friendly policy
toward foreigners—

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especially western, Christian ones—

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for whom the penalty for stepping foot
on Japanese soil was death.

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The tokugawa saw Christianity in much
the same way that the Romans had:

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as an unsettling threat to stability.

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And in the case of Matthew Perry,

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they had reason to be worried.

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Thanks, Thought Bubble.

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So the American naval commodore
arrived in Japan in 1853

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with a flotilla of ships and a
determination to open Japan’s markets.

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Just the threat of American
steam-powered warships

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was enough to convince the bakufu to
sign some humiliating trade treaties

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that weren’t unlike the ones that China
had signed after losing the Opium Wars.

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And, this only further motivated
the daimyo and the samurai

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who were ready to give the
Tokugawa the boot.

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Within a few years, they would.

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So what does have to do with nationalism?

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Well, plenty.

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First off,

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even though the Americans and the Japanese
didn’t go to war (yet),

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the perceived threat provided
an impetus for Japanese to

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start thinking about itself differently.

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It also resulted in the Japanese
being convinced that

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if they wanted to maintain
their independence,

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they would have to re-constitute their
country as a modern nation state.

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This looks a lot like what was happening
in Egypt or even in Germany,

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with external pressures leading to
calls for greater national consolidation.

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So, the Tokugawa didn’t give up w
ithout a fight,

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but the civil war between
the stronger daimyo and the bakufu

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eventually led to the end
of the shogunate.

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And in 1868,

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the rebels got the newly enthroned
Emperor Meiji to abolish the bakufu

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and proclaim a restoration
of the imperial throne.

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Now,

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the Emperor didn’t have much real power,

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but he became a symbolic figure,

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a representative of a mythical past

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around whom modernizers could
build a sense of national pride.

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And in place of bakufu,

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Japan created one of the most
modern nation states in the world.

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After some trial and error, the Meiji leaders
created a

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European style cabinet system
of government with a prime minister

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and, in 1889,

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promulgated a constitution that even
contained a deliberative assembly,

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the Diet,

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although the cabinet ministers
weren’t responsible to it.

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Samurai were incorporated into
this system as bureaucrats

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and their stipends were
gradually taken away.

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And soon,

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the Japanese government developed into,

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like,

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something of a meritocracy.

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Japan also created a new conscript army.

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Beginning in 1873,

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all Japanese men were required
to spend 3 years in the military.

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The program was initially very unpopular—
[shocker]

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there were more than a dozen riots
in 1873 and 1874

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in which crowds attacked
military registration centers.

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But eventually,

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serving in the army created
a patriotic spirit

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and a loyalty to the Japanese emperor.

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The Meiji leaders also instituted
compulsory education in 1872,

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requiring both boys and girls to attend
four years of elementary school.

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Oh,

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it’s time for the Open Letter?

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00:09:21,047 --> 00:09:24,889
[Apparently the chair's back. Replaced it
with an evil twin, did you, Stan?]

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An Open Letter to Public Education.

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But first,

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let’s see what’s in
the secret compartment today.

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00:09:29,209 --> 00:09:32,087
Oh, it’s a graduation hat.

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Thanks, Meredith the Intern,
for letting me borrow your graduation hat.

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Dear Public Education,

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When you were introduced in Japan,

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you were very unpopular because
you were funded by a new property tax.

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In fact,

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you were so unpopular that at least 2,000
schools were destroyed by rioters,

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primarily through arson.

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00:09:48,036 --> 00:09:48,006
Stan,

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00:09:48,006 --> 00:09:50,022
it doesn’t look good when you bring it
in close like that.

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I look like a 90-year-old swimmer.

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[you do call speedos 'casual wear' @ work]

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And even though public education has
proved extremely successful,

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lots of people still complain about
having to pay taxes for it,

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so let me explain something.
[time to fuel an internet flame war…]

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Public education does not exist for
the benefit of students

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or for the benefit of their parents.

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It exists for the benefit of
the social order.

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00:10:05,139 --> 00:10:09,042
We have discovered as a species that it is
useful to have an educated population.

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You do not need to be a student

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00:10:10,529 --> 00:10:11,091
or have a child who is a student

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00:10:11,091 --> 00:10:13,093
to benefit from public education.

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00:10:13,093 --> 00:10:16,003
Every second of every day of your life,

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00:10:16,003 --> 00:10:17,589
you benefit from public education.

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00:10:17,589 --> 00:10:17,097
So,

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00:10:17,097 --> 00:10:20,639
let me explain why I like to
pay taxes for schools

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even though I don’t personally
have a kid in school.

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It’s because I don’t like
living in a country with

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a bunch of stupid people.

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00:10:26,003 --> 00:10:26,091
[and that's Jenga]

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Best Wishes,
John Green

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In Japan,

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nationalism meant modernization,

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00:10:31,001 --> 00:10:34,529
largely inspired by and
in competition with the West.

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00:10:34,529 --> 00:10:36,085
So the Meiji government established
a functioning tax system,

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00:10:36,085 --> 00:10:40,119
they built public infrastructure
like harbors and telegraph lines,

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00:10:40,119 --> 00:10:41,689
invested heavily in railroads,

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00:10:41,689 --> 00:10:43,819
and created a uniform national currency.

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00:10:43,819 --> 00:10:46,519
But the dark side of nationalism
began to appear early on.

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In 1869,

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the Meiji rulers expanded Japan’s borders
to include the island of Hokkaido.

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00:10:50,309 --> 00:10:51,449
[you know, where the transport
apparatus was built in "Contact"]

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00:10:51,449 --> 00:10:51,008
And in 1879,

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00:10:51,008 --> 00:10:54,055
they acquired Okinawa after
forcing its king to abdicate.

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00:10:54,055 --> 00:10:55,559
In 1874,

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Japan even invaded Taiwan with
an eye towards colonizing it,

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00:10:58,319 --> 00:10:59,022
although they weren’t successful.

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And,

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00:10:59,049 --> 00:11:02,279
in these early actions we already see
that nationalism has a habit

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00:11:02,279 --> 00:11:04,022
of thriving on conflict.

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00:11:04,022 --> 00:11:06,079
And often the project of
creating a nation state

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00:11:06,079 --> 00:11:09,041
goes hand in hand with preventing o
thers from doing the same.

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00:11:09,041 --> 00:11:09,086
This failure to

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00:11:09,086 --> 00:11:11,949
imagine the other complexly
[i see what you did there]

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00:11:11,949 --> 00:11:13,999
isn’t new, but it’s about to
get a lot more problematic

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00:11:13,999 --> 00:11:16,097
as we’ll see next week when
we discuss European imperialism.

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00:11:16,097 --> 00:11:18,339
Thanks for watching.

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00:11:18,339 --> 00:11:18,939
Crash Course is

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00:11:18,939 --> 00:11:20,839
produced and directed
by Stan Muller,

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00:11:20,839 --> 00:11:22,529
our script supervisor is
[danica johnson]

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00:11:22,529 --> 00:11:24,619
We’re ably interned by
Meredith Danko,

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00:11:24,619 --> 00:11:26,023
and our graphics team is
Thought Bubble

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00:11:26,023 --> 00:11:26,689
Also,

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00:11:26,689 --> 00:11:28,459
the show was written
by my high school history student

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00:11:28,459 --> 00:11:32,041
John Green and myself, Raoul Meyer.
[the man, the myth, the educator]

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00:11:32,041 --> 00:11:32,619
Last week’s phrase of the week was

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00:11:32,619 --> 00:11:32,619
"Bearded Marxist"

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00:11:32,619 --> 00:11:34,018
If you’d like to guess at
this week’s phrase of the week

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00:11:34,018 --> 00:11:36,499
or suggest future ones,
you can do so in comments,

350
00:11:36,499 --> 00:11:38,009
where you can also ask questions
about today’s video

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00:11:38,009 --> 00:11:40,019
that will be answered by our
team of historians.

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00:11:40,019 --> 00:11:41,209
Thanks for watching Crash Course,

353
00:11:41,209 --> 00:11:42,011
and as we say in my hometown,

354
00:11:42,011 --> 00:11:43,329
Don’t Forget to Break up with
your fake high school girlfriend.

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00:11:43,329 --> 00:11:43,439
[outro]

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00:11:43,439 --> 99:59:59,999
[outro]