The Shifting Parameters of Nationality
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Ideas of citizenship were already visible in the permanent settlements following the Neolithic revolution, especially as these settlements created (hierarchically)
organised communities and the development of duties and tasks towards the community.17 Another noticeable stage concerns the city-states or the polis of ancient
Greece, which had clearly defined, and restricted citizenship, with noticeable differences between Sparta and Athene in terms of the distribution of that citizenship. As
the Roman empire had an altogether different size again, this had implications not
only for the multi-ethnicity of its citizenship but also, relatedly, for the need for the
notion of citizenship to be unifying.18
Since the state—in social science lingo often ‘the nation-state’—is still the central reference point for discussions about citizenship, it is relevant to look into the
history of state formation, more particularly the transition from feudalism in the
Middle Ages to the modern nation-state.19 Typical for feudalism was the lack of centralized power, notwithstanding the pyramid structure that feudalism entailed. The
land one obtained in lieu for fealty was rather conceived as private property, and the
basis for the exercise of full powers. Furthermore, these lands were not connected
to a particular national identity, and the lord-vassal structure was not determined by
ethnicity.
The transition to the modern state required (1) the determination and recognition of precise boundaries, and the related identification of bounded territories, (2)
sufficient centralization of these territories, reflected in centralized institutions, (3)
combined with a sense of nationhood, a sense that the people living in that territory
form a community. Two particular wars between the 14th and 17th century were
especially ‘formative’ in relation to the emergence of states as bounded territories,
wielding sovereignty over these territories, and the emergence of a sense of nationhood.20 The Hundred Years War between France and England 1337–1453 gave rise
to conceptions of the respective nation-hoods, and planted the seeds of what later
would develop into nationalism. The 30 Years War resulted in the adoption of the
watershed treaty on the Peace of Westphalia 1648, which basically codified the system of statehood as we know it today,21 heralding a state centric world order, composed of territorially based sovereign states.22 As Brubaker highlighted, with the
Peace of Westphalia the earth surface was divided into a set of mutually exclusive,
17
Scarre (2005), p. 186; Gebel (2002), pp. 313–224. Interestingly, the first settlements following this
Neolithic revolution occurred in South West Asia already 11000 BC, while in Europe only around 6500
BC.
18
See also infra on the interrelation between the definition of citizenship and the ensuing rights: Roman
citizenship was much thinner, in the sense that it yielded less entitlements, and protections (mostly a
judicial safeguard and the rule of law).
19
See also Diener (2017), pp. 37–45; Habib (1975), p. 15; Wimmer and Feinstein (2010).
20
See Rise of the Nation-State, http://blogs.spsk12.net/8576/files/2015/04/Day-.5-rise-of-nation-state
s-reading.pdf (accessed September 2018).
21
The Peace of Westphalia enshrined several foundational norms of international law, more particularly
states’ sovereign immunity, equality of states, and the doctrine of non-intervention.
22
Falk (2002) referring to the emergence of modern system of sovereign states and of a state centric
world order, composed of territorially based sovereign states, pp. 311–312. See also Insin and Turner
(2002), p. 6.
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