The Victory of Nation State Over Empire

The world’s empires gradually gave way to nation states after World War II. The essay will illustrate the three cases of Russia, Eastern Europe and North Africa. The cases of Russia and Eastern Europe have much in common since they were both part of Soviet Union. For the two, the rise of nation state was a voluntary act without much fight against the empirical power. The emergence of the nation state was mainly because the tyrannical rule of Communist Party only deteriorated people’s life for the corruption or planned economy and it achieved nothing but military development. It’s also partly because of the “Peaceful Evolution” strategy, launched by the western world. On the contrary, it’s the total opposite situation of North Africa. They fought very hard to get their independence. The second World War left European empires very little power to control their North African colonies. In addition, the national consciousness began to spread all over the world, under which condition, North Africa also began to fight for their freedom. The essay will illustrate the cases from both outside and inside factors.

Eastern Europe desired to be an independent country more and more when the Soviet Union failed to offer them food and shelter. They expected a better life by joining the superpower of the Soviet Union. However, the Soviet Union focused only on its military development. Being the only one competitor of America, it spent most of its finance on researching and producing military weapons. The ruling party mistakenly thought that they would win over capitalist countries if they could defeat them with advanced weapons in the war. Winston Churchill said in his speech that“I am convinced that there is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for weakness, especially military weakness (Tusan 275)”. The Soviet Union paid very little attention to develop economy so as to improve people’s way of living. Havel, the President of the Czechoslovak Socialist claimed that “Entire branches of industry are producing goods that are of no interest to anyone, while we are lacking things we need(Tusan 277)”. As powerful as the Union seemed, the people were still lacking things they need. So they would rather be nation states. The corruption inside the ruling Communist Party was another important reason for the fall of the union. In the beginning, the leaders worked very hard to build the country and worked side by side with the common people. However, the longer they ruled the country, the more tyrannical they became. What they concerned was no longer the welfare of the people but their own interest. There were serious corruption problems inside the party. It was a party originally composed of workers, but the “workers” in power were no different from past rulers. “A state which calls itself a worker’s state humiliates and exploits workers(Tusan 277)”. When people were starving on the street without a roof over the head, they no longer wanted a communist party but a capitalist party which could provide them enough food and a place to stay. 

When all the other countries were trying to be free from empirical power, Russia was the only country which gave up its empirical power since it was the leading country in the Soviet Union. Besides the same reasons as stated in the case of Eastern Europe, I think the “Peaceful Evolution” theory played a very important role in Russia’s historical change. With the penetration of the ideas of democracy and freedom, even some of the Russian leaders took capitalism as the better way out for the country. The truth that planned economy couldn’t develop economy also made it certain that only capitalism could rescue the country. Eventually, Russia became the biggest power to disintegrate the Soviet Union and adopted the option of an nation state.

North Africa began huge-scale fights for liberation from European empires’ control since 1960s. World War II took many lives away from European countries, especially France and Britain. Their economy was also shattered. So after the war, the colonizers’ first and foremost task was to restore their own country. Keeping the colonies in North Africa meant huge financial cost and abundant human resources(Tusan Decolonizing after World Wars page 9). On the one hand, they didn’t have enough power to operate the colonies. On the other hand, they didn’t have enough strength to fight against the colonies in nationalist wars. The weakness of the empires was the direct cause for North Africa’s becoming nation states. However, I think the essential factor is their own awakening on getting total independence. With the foundation of the United Nations, the ideas of democracy, equality and freedom became more and more well-known in the world. Harold Macmillan said in his“Wind of Change” that “In the twentieth century, and especially since the end of the war, the processes which gave birth to the nation states of Europe have been repeated all over the world....The most striking of all the impressions I have formed since I left London a month ago is of the strength of this African national consciousness(Tusan 286)”. 

Either for a country like Russia or areas of Eastern Europe and North Africa, there are both inside and outside factors for the victory of nation state over empire. Intrinsically, the rise of nation state is what the people ask for and the ultimate solution for a country’s development. Extrinsically, empire itself has serious problems in the aspects of developing economy and ruling the country, either because of wars or attacks from competitors. For my part, the rise of nation state is an inevitable trend for a country’s development. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the world has entered a multilateral pattern where all the states are independent from each other. No one should rely on a certain superpower so that it can survive in the world. Besides, with the development of democracy, countries are endowed with much more equality and freedom regardless of their size and power. Only with nation state can the countries enjoy more equality and independence.