From Empire to Nation-State: The Nation in Europe Since 1789

In the context of the expansion of the European Union, the relinquishing of state sovereignty has become a basic – if contentious -- assumption of European politics; at the same time, within this “United States of Europe” we see the acceleration of nationalist movements that, in the extreme cases, move towards secession and the creation of new countries based on the national principle (Kosovo, e.g.). This course seeks to better understand this aspect of contemporary European politics through an excursus into the history of the nation-state and its evolution since the French Revolution in 1789. In the process, we explore the issue of the extent to which present-day international relations within Europe reflect historical legacies, among others the effects of the disintegration of four multi-national empires after World War I and the creation of dozens of new nation-states in its aftermath.