How did technology play a role in nation building?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Technology played the most significant role in advancing military prowess, most notably in Germany when Bismarck staged the Franco-Prussian and the Austrian wars in his efforts at German unification. However, technology also played a significant role in the development of a modern economic infrastructure that helped put England and Germany in a competitive position and subordinated the other countries to inferior positions. On a more personal level, propaganda for nationalist movements could be spread through the use of the vernacular to regions of minorities within a multiethnic empire, and the vernacular could be used to disseminate official and underground information in broad newspapers and pamphlets. Conversely, as efforts were made to promote a national language, the official organs of the new state could promote their agendas in the chosen official language, thus serving to undermine local dialects. Railroads increased the ease of transportation and fostered a sense of nationality, and thus reduced the sense of isolation and provincialism. Governments took advantage of mass media to spread official and unofficial propaganda, such as the Russian government patronizing the daily Belgian newspaper Le Nord. Press censorship was another means for governments to suppress objectionable material.