The Formation of National Elites (Comparative Studies on Governments and Non-Dominant Ethnic Groups in Europe, 1850-1940, Vol 6)

Following the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars the creation and consolidation of nation states became one of the overriding issues of European politics. It dominated the actions and aspirations of politicians and peoples throughout the 19th century and was a major cause of the increasingly disastrous conflicts towards the turn of the century, culminating in the First - and on a different scale - the Second World War. At the same time as large states were coming into being some, peoples and nations lost the degree of statehood they had enjoyed earlier in their history, some groups and minorities were neglected in the process of national self-affirmation, some territories and fragmented sections became an issue of dispute and conflict between neighbouring countries and some minorities and immigrant communities became detached from their home territory. This is one in a series of eight books, published in associatiion with the European Science Foundation, which looks at the problems assoiated with ethnic groups and minorities over a time span of a hundred years, from the middle of the 19th century to the beginning of the Second World War, ie the peak years for national conflicts in Europe.