Summary of "What is a nation?"
This will be a short summary of the article ‘What is a nation?’(qu’est-ce qu’une nation?, 1882).
According to Ernest Renan, there was a problem with the definition of ‘nation”. Race, sovereignty, ethnographic, religious an linguistic groups were confused with the word ‘nation’. He ponders why Holland is considered a nation but Hanover is not, how Switzerland, despite having three languages, two religions and three or four races, is one nation, but Tuscany who is homogenous is not.
Renan says that the modern nation is a historical result brought about by a series of convergent facts.
Renan proceeds to discuss the terms he thinks to be confused with the word nation.
Renan makes the point that according to some political theorist, a nation is above all a dynasty. But he says that while this sometimes might be the case, this is not entirely true for the modern nations. As an example, the United States and Switzerland are brought up, these nations have formed themselves without a dynastic basis. It is argued that it must be admitted that a nation can exist without dynastic principles, and that when a nation is formed by dynastic principles, they can exist even when the principles cease to exist.
Then the concept of ‘race’ is discussed. “What is race?” is asked by Renan. He says that on the one hand ‘race’ is a term for anthropologist that shares meaning with the meaning of race in zoology. On the other hand, historians understand race as something hat is made and unmade.
The same can be said about language according to Renan. He claims that while language invites unity, it does not impose it. The example of Switzerland having three languages, but still being one nation is given. The example of two different nations can share the same language, e.g. the United States and England, without forming one single nation.
Religion is next upon the list. Religion can also not offer the adequate basis for a modern nation. Since there are no longer masses that believe in one religion. Religion has become an individual matter; and it depends on each individual person what they believe and practice.
A shared interest in the community is of importance according to Renan, but is does not suffice to make a nation.
The same is said about geography, it does have a certain influence, but it is not the thing that makes a nation.
After discussing each point, Renan gives his definition of a nation: “A nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things that, in truth, are but one constitute this soul, this spiritual principle. One is in the past, the other in the present. One is the possession in common of a rich legacy of memories; the other is present consent, the desire to live together, the will to perpetuate the value of the heritage that one has received in an undivided form. Gentlemen, man cannot be improvised. The nation, like the individual, is the culmination of a long past efforts, sacrifices, and devotion.”(Renan, 1882, 261)
The importance of the past is the former glory and regret that is shared. Renan claims that suffering unites more than joy does.
Renan points out that it is important to understand that nations are not eternal, since they had their beginnings, they will end.
At the end of the article Renan summarized everything he said shortly, which is what this summary will end on.
“To summarize, man is a slave neither to his race, nor to his language, nor to his religion, nor the course of rivers, nor to the direction of mountain chains. A large aggregate of men, healthy in mind and warm in heart, creates a moral consciousness that is called a nation. So long as this moral consciousness demonstrate its strength by the sacrifices that the abdication of the individual for the benefit of the community demands, it is legitimate, it has the right to exist.”(Renan, 1882, 262;263)
References
Renan, Ernest. 2018. ‘9. WHAT IS A NATION? (QU’EST-CE QU’UNE NATION?, 1882)’. In What Is a Nation? and Other Political Writings edited by M. F. N. Giglioli, 247–63. New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, 2018. https://doi.org/10.7312/rena17430-013.