How did nationalism contribute to the growth of racism in the nineteenth century?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The deliberate fostering of a sense of cultural commonality among the nation-states left little room for individual expressions of competing cultures. Cultural self-identification was expected to take a secondary position to a national identity, and minorities were expected to assimilate if not shed their cultural identifications. The refusal to do so, as advocated by Herzl, for example, targeted specific groups for harassment and discrimination. Anti-Semitism, although certainly not new in Europe, was seen as a divisive force within Europe and Jews were actively persecuted in eastern Europe as being contrary to the interests of a nation-state. Roman Dmowski, for instance, demanded that Jews assimilate or leave Poland. This approach was also common in France, which highlighted the issue in the Dreyfus affair, as well as Austria. Russia initiated pogroms to purge Jews from the country in the late nineteenth century. Integral nationalism was an aggressive, nonliberal phenomenon that was decried by some, including the Catholic Church, but it came at a time that saw European domination of Africa and Asia in imperial conquests using racism to justify national expansion.