Territorial nationalism describes a form ofnationalism based on the belief that all inhabitants of a particularterritory should share a commonnational identity, regardless of their ethnic, linguistic, religious, cultural and other differences. Depending on the political or administrative status of a particular territory,territorial nationalism can be manifested on two basic levels, as territorial nationalism of distinctivesovereign states, or territorial nationalism of distinctive sub-sovereignregions (regional nationalism).[1]
Within sovereignnation states, territorial nationalism is manifested as a belief that all inhabitants of thatnation owe allegiance to their country of birth or adoption.[2] According to territorial nationalism, every individual must belong to a nation, but can choose which one to join.[3] A sacred quality is sought in this nation and in the popular memories it evokes.[4] Citizenship is idealized by a territorial nationalist.[4] A criterion of a territorial nationalism is the establishment of a mass, public culture based on common values and traditions of the population.[3][4]Legal equality is essential for territorial nationalism.[3]
Becausecitizenship rather than ethnicity is idealized by territorial nationalism, it is argued byAthena S. Leoussi andAnthony D. Smith (in 2001) that theFrench Revolution was a territorial nationalistic uprising.[4]
Territorial nationalism is also connected to the concepts ofLebensraum,forced expulsion,ethnic cleansing and sometimes evengenocide when one nation claims a certain imaginary territory and wants to get rid of other nations living on it. These territorial aspirations are part of the goal of an ethnically pure nation-state.[5] This also sometimes leads toirredentism, since some nationalists demand that the state and nation are incomplete if an entire nation is not included into one single state, and thus aims to include members of its nations from a neighboring country. This thus often leads toethnic conflict.Thomas Ambrosio argues: "If the leader of state A sends material support and/or actual troops into state B in the hopes of detaching state A's diaspora from state B, this would clearly be an indication of ethno-territorial nationalism".[6]
In Western Europe national identity tends to be more based on where a person is born than inCentral and Eastern Europe.[7] Scholars have argued this might be explained by the fact that states in the latter two emerged fromimperial states.[8] Thecommunist regimes in theEastern Bloc actively suppressed what they described as "bourgeois nationalism"[8] and considered nationalism abourgeois ideology.[9] In theSoviet Union this led toRussification and other attempts to replace the othercultures of the Soviet Union with theRussian culture,[8] even while, at the same time the Soviet Union promoted certain forms of nationalism that it considered compatible with Soviet interests.[10]Yugoslavia was different from the other European Communist states, whereYugoslavism was promoted.[8]
Although territorial nationalism is in contrast with the universality ofIslam,[11] especiallyEgypt andTunisia had territorial nationalistic policies after gaining independence.[2] This was gradually replaced byPan-Arabism in the 1950s, but Pan-Arabism declined by the mid-1970s.[11][12]
In Africa, the prime examples of territorial nationalism are the overlappingirredentist concepts ofGreater Morocco andGreater Mauritania.[13] While Mauritania has since relinquished any claims to territories outside its internationally recognized borders, Morocco continues to occupy lands south of Morocco, referred to as its "Southern Provinces".
Just as inWestern Europe, national identity tends to be more based on where a person is born thanethnicity.[7]
