What exactly is nationalism? If you flip through textbooks, you can find large and obscure texts, as well as various nouns surrounded by clouds, mountains and fog.

However, Xiao Letian's understanding of nationalism is very simple, and it also points directly to the core of the problem. The so-called rise of nationalism is actually a tool used by the state to compete for hegemony to concentrate manpower and material resources to unify people's hearts.

Human beings are very contradictory. On the one hand, human beings need to integrate into society and take their needs to keep warm. On the other hand, human beings are profit-seeking and are afraid that collectively they will harm their own property interests.

To give a more vivid example, humans are actually a group of hedgehogs in the cold winter. They need to hold each other together to keep warm but are afraid of hurting each other.

However, with the continuous evolution of human history and the gradual development of society, whether you like or not, you cannot deny that there are many people and great power, and unity is strength.

With a huge territory and a large population, we will work together to create a strong collective. This collective can not only provide protection and expansion to all personnel, but also forcibly deprive some of the private interests of every individual in the group.

This is a contradiction, an irreconcilable contradiction. People need a sense of security and the right to expand externally, and want to maintain their own selfish interests without losses. It is this conflict that has caused many chaos in society.

From the perspective of human nature, when will humans willingly contribute their own selfish interests? In fact, there are only the following situations.

The first person to enjoy self-interest is of course himself. This is human animal instinct. Needless to say, the second is family. Parents, wife and children share their own interests, and most people are also very happy to give.

The third level belongs to the clan, with the same bloodline and the same surname, and it is acceptable to suffer losses if you suffer.

The fourth level is the village party, with the same accent and the same living habits. They are not considered outsiders. The so-called village party is actually considered a national concept.

Going further up is the nation and the country. People have common beliefs, common languages, and common values. Because of their many commonalities, they can barely suppress the aggrieved mentality of damage to personal gain, so that this large group will not collapse.

The above is just a very narrow national view, while nationalism is a sublimation based on this concept. Some thinkers began to consciously sort out the national view, dig deeper, organize and form a set of theories, and then promote it within the same nation so that more people can accept it.

Why do we need nationalism? It is because we need a higher-level means of uniting humanity. How many people can be used to unite family and clan unity? One or two hundred people with a smaller clan, one or two thousand people will end up with the end. It may be possible to dominate a county, but can it still be controlled no matter how large the area is?

Use the village party to unite people? If you can unite hundreds of millions of people, it will be over. The tribal groups formed by regions in ancient times are actually a manifestation of this model.

What is more advanced than clans and village party? Of course it is the nation. The rise of Western nationalism is because many smart people have understood the laws and deeply explored the commonalities of the nation. Starting from religion, language, living customs, historical origins, etc., the base for unity can reach tens of millions or even hundreds of millions.

The combat power bursting out by such a collective human scale is quite terrifying. It can suppress all internal frictions internally and compete for more benefits externally to feed back to the nation.

This is the fundamental reason for the great rise of nationalism in the 19th century. Whoever shapes the national character in advance and completes the popularization of nationalist ideas will gain the right to speak in the game of world hegemony.

The deep-seated reason why Japan was able to defeat the Qing Dynasty during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 is that nationalism is against the backward clan party alliance.

One is the one who is united in a fist to hit people, and the other is the one who is shouting in a mess of people, but the one who is dispersed as soon as they move, the outcome is naturally self-evident.

For example, during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, including the later Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, although some people actively resisted, more people still watched numbly.

Even during the war, countless people from the Qing Dynasty provided logistical supplies to the invading army, let alone guiding the party, as long as they had money to make money, collect food and grass, transport supplies, or even directly participate in the war as mercenaries.

Don’t think that those people are forced to do anything under the enemy’s butcher knife. In fact, in real history, most Chinese people who cooperate with the invaders only want benefits. They make money and make a lot of money to help the invaders work. Not only do they have no money to work in the Qing Dynasty, they also have to be beaten and scolded. Fools know how to choose.

Later generations have no right to accuse them because those people have never received nationalist education and do not understand those principles. Their spiritual world can only understand the clan township party. They have never considered the deeper issues at all.

There is no national concept, nor does it mean the country concept. They just accept the control of habits very simply. Their subtext is only one, "I, my family, clan, or even older, my fellow villagers, don't be wronged. As for other people, there is nothing to do with me."

This is the thinking model of people in that era. How did they fight the advanced and backward? What exactly did they fight the so-called enlightenment of people? It is really adding, subtracting, multiplication and division. Do you know one or two thousand men?

Look at the Japanese ronin samurai who were competing for ship tickets in front of Xiao Letian. Two-thirds of them are literate and know how to write, and some even have learned mathematics.

These people are not illiterate, but they still fight for a ticket to Ryukyu. As long as Xiao Letian gives them the opportunity to make contributions and give them a channel for promotion, they can completely wield the sword against their compatriots of their own nation.

Do you think the Japanese ninja who poisoned Kanekogoro on the beam of the house? Will he feel guilty if he massacred the elite intellectuals of his own nation?

No, no, at all. At this time, Japan was as ignorant as the Qing Dynasty in his previous life. Nationalism and national concepts were not promoted. People only saw their lords and their own self-interests. What kind of guilt do they feel about killing people for their lords in exchange for military achievements?

Xiao Letian suddenly shook his feet and pulled his consciousness back from his deep thoughts. It turned out that the merchant ship he was on had slowly left the bridge and headed south.

"If the order is sent, the Z-character plan will be implemented at a faster pace. No one on the list before the New Year can stay! If someone needs to go to hell, then let me, Xiao Letian, recite it! But before I go to hell, I always have to build a paradise on earth..."
Chapter completed!