Conclusion

Alain Dieckhoff

Christophe Jaffrelot

pp. 254-271

in: Alain Dieckhoff, Christophe Jaffrelot (eds), Revisiting nationalism, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005

Abstract

The essays in this volume have all attempted, from different standpoints, to explain the birth, development and resilience of nationalism in the mo-dern era. Undoubtedly, as we hypothesised in the introduction, this "ism" has been a major phenomenon of the last two centuries. This is evident from the multiplication of nation-states all over the world. At the be-ginning of the nineteenth century there were about ten states—most of them European—in the world; today there are nearly two hundred. Such an increase testifies to the strength of the principle of self-determination, which proclaims the right of peoples to decide their own future.¹