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Entry: National Consciousness And Nationalism Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/national_consciousness_and_nationalism#25478 Post contents: Nationalism didn't come from nothing, but it had catalysts in certain historical circumstances and was heavily influenced by post-1789 trends in European culture. On the whole I think imputing nationalism as such to early modernity is a real stretch. As for Orthodox in the Balkans, they were aware of linguistic and ethnic differences among them, and the language of the liturgy and the ethnicity of bishops were important matters that were cause for controversy (and which could create cleavages that later contributed to the rise of nationalist movements--see the Exarchate), but they had still not made the nationalist move of privileging nationality over religion (or fusing the two together) to the degree that many did later. The Romanians did eventually rebel against the Phanariots, when the Phanariots were perceived as foreign and alien to Romania because they were of at least partly Greek descent. The intermarriage between Romanians and Greeks in the aristocracy of the principalities was considerable, and Bucharest was a major center of Greek culture...prior to the emergence of Romanian nationalism. There is no question about the rebellions, but the causes and timing of those rebellions are what interest me, and I think we will find that you did not see really nationalist rebellions prior to the 19th century. That leaves quite a long time when you had national feelings and no nationalism, which suggests that it is possible to have one without the other. Sent at: 2008 07 24