Nationalism in Tamriel

So for the theme of the common folk, I thought about writing something about something that is close to the common people, which is a sense of a nation. Because of this, here is a piece about nationalism in Tamriel, and real world parallels to clarify

In our world, nationalism has been a big political philosophy ever since the 18th century, when public spheres (i.e. the 'realm' of contact between people) in Europe began to extent to the entire country. With the rise of an improved infrastructure, standardisation of language, and, in more recent times, a standard, country wide curriculum, national identities began to take shape.

While 'National Pride' had been a factor for longer (think of the French Revolutions, or the American war of independence), with the rise of universal suffrage, nationalism became an important player on the political stage.

Nationalism is a pretty controversial philosophy, both described as a country's blessing and curse. This is due to the many forms this philosophy can take.
On one side, nationalism can be used to unite a country, sometimes in the face of a common enemy (as happened with the United States). On the other hand, it can also be used to enforce a country's will on other countries, out of a false notion of supremacy (as happened with Nazi Germany).

To make an analysis of these movements, I will only discuss a few of the manifestations of this philosophy: Nationalism as a uniting factor, Nationalism as a drive for independence, and Nationalism as a tool for war.

Nationalism takes on different forms in Tamriel, due to the different social situation of the continent. Many nationalist ideologies used the idea of a ethnic unity to create a sense of unity. Whereas in our world the notion of 'race' is controversial at best, and ethnicity is almost impossible to prove in historically heavily populated areas, such as Western Europe, the TES universe does know a strong division between races (although the Reachmen and the Bretons somewhat cloud this distinction).

Still, nationalism does exist, and I will give examples according the forms I mentioned earlier.

NATIONALISM AS A UNITING FACTOR

A national identity can greatly unite an area, even if the difference can appear huge. A good real world example is Germany, which historically was distributed in many small city-states, king- and princedoms. Under Bismarck and the Prussian king Wilhelm I, many different territories, with almost unintelligible dialects and different religions were put together, and formed the German Empire (which was the ancestral state of the current Bundesrepublik).
The only way this new crafted, Prussian-led Empire could work, was with a sense of unity. Under the chancellorship of Bismarck, many changes were made to create a sense of nationalism under the people. This was done by multiple means, including writing more nationalist history, and making sure that catholic priests were educated by the state, and not the church.

Cyrodiil shows multiple parallels with the German Empire in this unifying of a nation. As most of you know, the notion of a unified Cyrodiil is relatively new, and can only really be used when talking about the times when Cyrodiil knew a strong Empire, be it under the Alessian emperors, the Remans, or the Septims.
Just like the many German states, Cyrodiil was divided initially under many small communities of the Ayeids, and in later years in the two cultural areas of Colovia and Nibenay. During the time of Tiber Septim, the Colovian warlords were all conquered under the banner of Cuhlecain, and he later also united Nibenay under his rule.

These areas, however, were in no way a unity in these days, and it was the work of the Empire to forge a sense of oneness. Like the German Empire, the Third Empire also made sure to have more religious influence and a nationalist-friendly history.
Religion was not so much an obstacle for the Empire, as the groundwork for a unified religion was already laid down by the Alessian Order, centuries before the birth of Tiber Septim. The Imperial cult did, however, eagerly adopt Tiber Septim as a symbol of the unity of men, and especially the Imperials.

The next obstacle was the creation of a unity. While the German Empire could already work with a weak notion of unity due to the individual states having been part of the Holy Roman Empire for so long, the Third Empire would have to dig deeper for a historical unity.
To create this history, and with it the sense of unity, the Imperial Geographical Society played an integral part. The IGS was responsible for many works, hailing the First and Second Empires as eras of peace and stability throughout the lands under her rule, and especially Cyrodiil as a whole. Furthermore, under the reign of the Third Empire, the name 'Imperial' became increasingly popular to use, as opposed to either Colovian or Nibenese. This was due to the IGS' work in depicting a common ancestry of the people of Cyrodiil (even though this ethnic background was clouded and barely documented under Ayleid rule).

With these two developments, Cyrodiil became a unity, for as long as the Empire held ground.

NATIONALISM AS A DRIVE FOR INDEPENDENCE

A sense of a cultural union has been the source of many wars of independence, and is still the source of many regional conflicts. Examples of this are many: the Flemish wanting nothing to do with the Wallonians, the Irish war of independence, or half of Spain. For this post, I will draw use the Basque Country as the real world analogue.

The Basque Country, situated in northern Spain and south western France, has long been a different cultural region in Europe, with its own kitchen, culture and language. This distinguished them from the other cultural regions within the current Spanish state.

The Basque country has long strived for independence. While the relations had long been tense with the (Castilian) Spanish crown, and exploded during the Carlist wars in the 18th century. These wars were fought over the rights of the Carlist lands, like Catalonia and the Basque country, which had been mostly autonomous. The Spanish Crown was employing an increasing amount of political force on the individual regions, which the regions weren't so keen on. Eventually, after the third Carlist war, and the Spanish civil war years later, all these lands were firmly under the rule of Madrid. While most of these regions are autonomous again (including the Basque Country), a strive for independence is still very much present. While this is mostly peaceful, in the past, terrorism had been employed. Officially under a ceasefire since 2011, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque for Basque Homeland and Freedom) was in the past responsible for multiple car bombings and assassinations. While eventually unproductive in the strive for independence, the ETA had a long active history.

In the TES Universe, a similar form of nationalism is present in the Reach. This area, historically contested between High Rock and Skyrim, is home to the Reachmen, a group which is distinct from others in Tamriel, having their own customs, pantheon, culture, and being of a different race altogether. Just like the Basques, the Reachmen lost their own state many centuries ago, to the First Nordic Empire. While peaceful for a long time, most likely due to the military dominance of Skyrim and later the Empire. This changed when the Empire crippled following the Oblivion Crisis and the Great War, and some Reachmen, calling themselves the Forsworn, saw their chance to retake Markarth, which had in the past been Reachmen territory. This led to armed conflict with Skyrim, and eventually the Forsworn lost the city again.
The Forsworn changed from a militant force to what we would consider a terrorist force. The Forsworn now employ assassinations to increase their leverage in the Reach, in the hopes of once reclaiming it.

Both the Basques and the Reachmen now a strong sense of identity. Due to their unique traits (the Basque language is completely unrelated to any other language, and the Reachmen are ethnically distinct from the other races), they consider themselves separate, and as such want their own territory. In both cases, the groups had already previously ruled over the respective areas, and lived there long before any 'foreign' claim.

The Reachmen are a perfect example of nationalism as a drive for independence. Even though they have been ruled for long by an external force, they still consider themselves the only true owners of their lands.

NATIONALISM AS A TOOL OF WAR

While the first two examples of nationalism were predominantly positive, nationalism also knows a darker side. Because of the idea of national pride, it is easy to fall into a sense of supremacy. Historically, many real world states have employed this feeling of supremacy to legitimise wars, with the well known example of Nazi Germany. Because any comparison with Nazi Germany will be driven faster in the ground than an American oil drill in the Middle East, I will drop this example.

Instead, I will take the example of the British Empire. Ever since the 16th century, European states had been expanding their borders with overseas territories. While the exact form of government differed per nation (for instance: the Dutch colonies only became state property well into the 18th century, and were before that private property of either the United East Indian Companies (VOC) or the West Indian Company (WIC)), the British were one of the earliest states to employ imperialisation. The main difference between colonialism and imperialism lies in the cultural influence a state exerts over their overseas territories. Colonisation is normally only confined to port towns, and is mainly focussed on trade. Imperialisation is expressively focussed on the transmission of the culture and language of the Homeland (most of the time with the motive of creating a new market for own products).

Since Imperialisation expands over an entire foreign cultural region, it led to aggressive expansion wars, with the Boer Wars and the Zulu war in South Africa as notable examples. These were both extremely bloody wars, and led to deaths well in the thousands.

In the United Kingdom itself, these wars were justified by notion of cultural supremacy. The British were there to bring culture to the 'savages' (note: this excuse was not used for the Boers wars, as this was against another European (or 'White') group), giving them the wonders of modern technology and Christianity. In most cases, this was enough to convince the British populace in supporting the imperialisation of their colonies.

The British were successful in the imperialisation, until the aftermath of the Second World War. Due to the crippling blow of the war effort, no European state was able to maintain their full colonial empire for much longer. In some cases the decolonisation happened relatively peaceful, as with Mali and Nigeria, but in some cases this was met with wars of attrition, like the decolonisation of Indonesia and Vietnam. Even though most countries no longer have colonies, some overseas territories still exist, like the Antilles (the Netherlands) and French Guiana (France)

In the TES universe, overseas colonialism has never been truly achieved, and even the Akaviri Potentates operated without support from Akavir itself. Still, Imperialism is present, and the best example of this is the expansionist effort of the Third Empire.

After Tiber Septim secured the Ruby Throne and the support of High Rock and Skyrim, he began his campaign to unite Tamriel. While this was internally explained as reclamation of past glory of the Empire, a lot of Imperial traders were very happy with a larger market. While the Imperial imperialisation wasn't as aggressive as the British one (religions and cultures were mainly left untouched), the Septims did make sure to have every political institution firmly under their control, to give all Imperial traders the freedom to trade throughout the Empire, and to institute one language to unite the Empire. While some provinces were pretty quick to unify under the Dragon Standard, like Skyrim and High Rock, others fought very bloody wars with the Empire, like Hammerfell and the Summerset Isles. Like with the British Empire, these war efforts were fuelled by the idea that Imperials were overall superior to the other nations, due to their long history of influential Empires.

Also like the British Empire, Cyrodiil was quick to lose its territories after the damage of the Oblivion Crisis, and lost even more after the Great War. While strong efforts were made to impose the own culture on external lands, it was ultimately in fain.

And with this I will conclude my post. I hope you all enjoy it.