The source of this ideology is the nationalist ideology that emerged in Western Europe, especially in France. The Ottoman Empire’s dissolution process under the effect of nationalist movements can be divided into three nationalist movements, namely Balkan nationalism, Turkish nationalism and Arab nationalism. When we look at the Muslim world in general, Kurdish nationalism can be viewed as a “delayed nationalism.”The first signs of mobilization of nationalist movements and formations in the West can be traced back to a much earlier data, namely to the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. One of the main aspects of the treaty signed in the Westphalia area of Germany was that it confirmed the sovereignty of nation states. In this way, for the first time in the history of humankind, political organizations within the nation and national form became a nation state. Another critical item in the treaty was the elimination of sectarian wars. According to the treaty, sects would agree to abide by the principle of territorial integrity, and imperialist countries such as England, the Netherlands, Portugal and France would sign a gentleman’s agreement.
When we look at the economic conditions under which nation states emerged there are three particular points that stand out: 1) The accumulation of capital after overseas trade, non-Western natural resources, gold and silver and a significant amount of wealth flowed to the West. 2) The discovery of free labor with slave trade and colonialism. 3) Interest and banknotes Jewish moneylenders and merchants introduced to the economy. When these three factors came together, capitalist development began. Along with capitalism came new capitalist geographic regions and cities, and over time a bourgeoisie formed. The bourgeoisie needs competition. That is because it wants to save capital. If we were to describe capitalism in one sentence we could say it is “an order of accumulating unlimited capital.” Certainly the bourgeoisie needs a protective power when competing, and the state is the only one that can provide this.
A state also means land and borders. A state has three major components: Land, people and sovereignty. A state is created when these three components come together. Thus, the bourgeoisie first needs a piece of land, then it needs to draw borders around this land and then it needs protection from the state (army).
Contrary to claims, capitalism did not develop within a true liberal order or within the effective rules of a free market. There were protective powers from the very beginning and these protective powers -- lobbies, companies, classes, state, police force, army -- still exist today. After drawing a border around land, establishing sovereignty and having a state and army, the ideology of the bourgeoisie starting to emerge. This is how the first nationalist ideology developed, and it also caused community structures, families, guilds and structures related to the church, traditions and history to be reorganized and redefined within the national form.
The French Revolution introduced the notion of political friendship, and Napoleon used this as a driving force. With this political ideology, he wreaked havoc on Europe in a very short period. It marked the entrance to a period that was almost impossible to return from. After France, all countries started adopting this ideology. In this way, nationalism became the ideology of modernizing societies.
When nationalism took over Europe, everyone wanted to develop a nation state based on a particular root, ethnicity or founding ideology. This in return had a huge impact on the Ottoman Empire. The first major upheavals in the Ottoman Empire happened in the Balkans. The Greek and Bulgarian revolts happened followed by the Albanian rebellion. After Russia in the north and the great powers we call the Düvel-i Muazzama in the West triggered this process, the Ottoman Empire started losing land. The problem for Turkey was that it did not have a bourgeoisie like that in the West.
