Thinking about nationalism may raise expressions like patriotism"and it often has a neutral or rather negative meaning. But it is far more than that!.
There is not just one type of nationalism. It can be distinguished between political, cultural, religious or even economic nationalism. They all have in common that a certain group of people (= a nation for example) separates itself from other groups, because of different languages or religions (just to mention two examples).
The Oxford Dictionary defines nationalism as follows: "Nationalism is the desire of a group of people who share the same race, culture, language, etc, to form an independent country. Or it may be a feeling of love or pride for your own country; a feeling that your country is better than any other."" .
Nationalism was (or is) frequently used by a government (which not rare consists of one single person) for convincing the public of intentions. The purpose is to make people feel that they belong together (they should see themselves as one united item) and that they second to none. From this attitude arises that nationalism was often used as a means to motivate or abet folk to distribute their believes and to persuade others of their opinions. And what is the means to achieve expansion of their ideas? War is one, of course!.
Furthermore, People are more motivated to accomplish the commands of their leader if they think they fight in the mission for their country. Sometimes, their encouragement goes that far, that they are proud to die in a war.( martyr).
Why did the German princes oppose the nationalist movement in the German states after 1815?.
It results from the definition of nationalism that a nationalistic feeling in the German states wouldn't have been possible! Although the "Germans- shared the same language, there wasn't any kind of "we--thinking. The German states were ruled by the kings and obviously, they wanted to keep their power.
