Research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world

Past Event
Seminar

Imperial Rule and the Politics of Nationalism

Open to the Public

When do people living under imperial rule participate in nationalist movements? Why did nationalist resistance erupt earlier in some places and later in others? 

Drawing on evidence from the French Empire and from a sub-national study of Morocco, the speaker illustrates the problems with some of the most common explanations for nationalist mobilization and argues instead that disruptions in imperial authority provided opportunities for political opponents to act and prompted nationalist mobilization in favor of independent statehood.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

Date: Time: - Location: Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369
A jeep of the Algerian Liberation Front (FLN) is surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd in Algiers, Algeria, in July 1962. On July 5, 1962, the treaties of independence were signed and Algeria gained independence from France.

About

Nationalism is frequently described as a “wave” that swept the colonized world in the wake of WWII, a ubiquitous force that characterized politics and identity in places ruled by empires.  The resonance of nationalism in the context of imperial rule is often taken for granted, yet nationalist mobilization in the colonial world was not omnipresent, nor was it particularly easy to organize given the existence of a powerful imperial state. This project advances a theory to explain why nationalist mobilization erupted in specific times and places. When do people living under imperial rule participate in nationalist movements? Why did nationalist resistance erupt earlier in some places and later in others? 

Drawing on evidence from the French Empire and from a sub-national study of Morocco, the speaker illustrates the problems with some of the most common explanations for nationalist mobilization and argues instead that disruptions in imperial authority provided opportunities for political opponents to act and prompted nationalist mobilization in favor of independent statehood.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.