Celestial Empire

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_Empire

Celestial Empire (Chinese: 天朝; pinyin: Tiāncháo; lit. 'heavenly dynasty') is an archaic name used to refer to China or the Chinese Empire, from a literary and poetic translation of the Chinese term, one of many names for China. The name was used in reference to the status of the Emperor of China as the Son of Heaven in the Sinosphere.

Accordingly, in the 19th century, the name "Celestial" was used to refer to Chinese people. Both terms were widely used in the English-language popular mass media of the day, but fell into disuse later on. Its usage has become popular again in the present day (2015), particularly among Chinese Internet users. It is used to refer to the current Communist regime, to imply either disapproval for its political suppression and arrogance or national pride in the country's emergence as a superpower in the 21st century, depending on the context.

In modern times it has mostly fallen into disuse, but the name "Celestial Empire" still appears in various media such as articles, stories, movies and television. It is a literal translation of Tiāncháo' into English as mentioned above. The origin of the name goes back to traditional Chinese religion, in which the sky is often considered the highest god, with emperors being Sons of Heaven (tianzi), born to govern the country. The emperors were also considered to be born of dragons. This was extremely significant in fostering Chinese nationalism and support for the emperor.

Background

In traditional Chinese history, the Chinese ruling class tended to perceive their country as a "great central kingdom." Such trends have helped create the concept of Celestial empire, and these ideas have had a great influence on their neutralization ideas so far from generation to generation after generation. The Central Kingdom Complex was based on the understanding of China as "everything under the sky." According to Chinese studies, this concept of Chinese thought does not merely mean a glorious and powerful civilization. For them, they recognized their country as the only true civilization in all respects, including geography. Furthermore, the concept began to converge with the" noble race" to create boundaries between Chinese thought and other things. For the emperors of the central kingdom of China, the world can be roughly divided into two broad and simple categories: civilization and non-civilization, which means the people who have accepted the emperor's supremacy, the Heavenly virtue and its principle, and the people who have not accepted it.

China's neighbors were obliged to pay their respects to the 'excellent' Chinese emperors within these boundaries on a regular basis. It can be said that this was the most important element of the East Asian order, which was implicit in the name of Celestial Empire in the past. Under this order of China, the trade of goods between Empire and other dynasties took place in the form of the payment of tributes from neighboring states and the receipt of return goods from China. And this trade was sometimes more beneficial to tributaries than to China. In general, the Qing dynasty received special products from the Foreign Affairs Bureau, and the Qing dynasty received books and silk. The Chinese emperor also exercised power over the surrounding dynasty under the name of Celestial Empire. Especially in the case of kings of ancient Korea, it was the subject of the Chinese emperor. The most representative dynasty of Korea, Joseon's aristocrats voluntarily used the term "Cheonjo," meaning Celestial Empire, in official diplomatic documents between the two countries for the Qing dynasty. It was in the same vein that they called China's army a heavenly soldier. Meanwhile, another Korean dynasty, Goryeo, internally referred to the Heavenly Kingdom. Wang Geon, who founded the kingdom of Goryeo, named the unit Cheongun, which means the army of heaven, for the battle of Ilichon. In addition, the Buddhist monk of Goryeo, Myocheong, named the rebel army Chen Gyeon-chungun, and wanted to establish the people who were kings of Goryeo as the emperor of the Great Powers. They also called the marriage between royal families 'cheonin' in the sense of heavenly ties. The amnesty decree of the Goryeo dynasty was believed to provide compassion to the entire world by the son of heaven.

Construction of Chinese nationalism

The sinocentric term that is ‘Celestial Empire’ had many implications for the construction of Chinese nationalism. That is, the euphemistic nature of term elevated social perception of the nation to a status of authoritative and commanding nature for citizens; thus, highlighting the terms significance in fostering Chinese nationalism during the rule of the Qing dynasty.

The presence of Western influences in China during the midst of the 19th century was noteworthy for both the formation and perception of Chinese nationalism as it eroded the traditional view of the concept of Celestial Empire; merging it with the concept of a modern statehood. The years of the mid- nineteenth century were instructive to the Celestial Empire's realization that it had lost its eminence as a prevailing world power. The defeats experienced by China within the Opium Wars (1840–1842, 1856–1860), impacted the perception of Chinese nationalism; therefore, encouraging the Qing dynasty to reconsider its nationalistic approach. Zhao Suisheng had placed an emphasis on the idea that the escalation of Chinese nationalism had an explicit correlation with the intellectual search for answers to the questions regarding China's setback due to defeat in the Opium wars. This then oversaw a complete transformation in the characterisation of the term ‘Celestial Empire’ as Chinese scholars and political leaders began to evaluate the impact of the Western world.

In 1864, prominent figures within the Qing government, including Prince Luanqi, Zhang Zhidong, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, Zeng Guofan and Feng Guifeng launched what was known as the ‘Self-Strengthening Movement’ in order to redefine the Celestial Empire.

The Self-Strengthening Movement was then moulded through the slogans that were: “‘Learn advanced technology from the barbarians to defeat the barbarians’, ‘Self-strengthening’, as well as ‘Seek Wealth’.”

A dominant issue for the leaders of the Self-Strengthening Movement was attempting to determine the internal catalyst for the weakness of the Celestial Empire. Political leader Feng Guifeng suggested that the failure of the Celestial Empire was due to the absence of economic, political, cultural, as well as social development in China. In order to overcome the shortcomings of the Celestial Empire, Feng Guifeng prompted the insertion of Western technology to redefine Chinese nationalism. The leaders of the Self-Strengthening Movement then introduced a vital sub-movement of modernization in order to promote industry, military force, commerce, agriculture and education. This modernization measure was reflective of the strengths found within the Western world. Modern factories and schools were introduced, and Chinese students were prompted to be sent abroad to study. Western technologies were therefore introduced to China in order to redefine the Celestial Empire; therefore, uplifting Chinese nationalism.

Another component of the self-strengthening movement which was vital in redefining the Celestial empire was the application of Western training techniques to the Chinese military. The leaders of the movement appointed Foreign military officers in order train Chinese soldiers and acquaint them with Western training techniques. Military drills that were largely influenced by both Swedish and German gymnastic techniques had been integrated by the Chinese Army. Within the Xiang Army, which was commanded by Zeng Guofan, who was one of the founding leaders of the self-strengthening movement; soldiers were obligated to exercise gymnastics at least twice a day as a requirement. Li Hongzhang, another leader of the movement and the commander of the Huai Army, saw that Western military generals were hired to train Chinese soldiers to be well acquainted modern military drills and exercises.

Through the application of Western military physical exercises and techniques to improve the strength of Chinese armies, political elites and leaders of the self-strengthening movement then began to focus their attention to the promotion of Chinese people's physical strength. By promoting the physical strength of the Chinese people, the government would then be able to strengthen Chinese nationalism through this notion of ‘Celestial Empire’.

Zhang Zhidong, a significant leader of the Self-Strengthening Movement, explained the importance of enforcing Western training techniques on all Chinese civilians for the elevation of nationalism: ‘Gymnastics concerns the future of the country. If everyone is as strong as soldiers, China will be a powerful country." The introduction of Western sports and training techniques to the Chinese populace was therefore vital in the creation of a strong ‘Celestial Empire’.

The Self-Strengthening Movement served as a significant symbol to the escalation of an embryonic nationalism across China which was dedicated to reconstructing the strength of the ‘Celestial Empire’ to contest against Western powers. In the century following the introduction of the self-strengthening movement, the overarching theme of Chinese nationalism was inspired by this notion. Through the authority of this concept of embryonic nationalism, China's utilisation of advanced Western technology and skill served as a medium for the government to enhance the military power of the nation.

History

China's history, which was not completely politically unified and was divided into several feudal states (the Warring States period of 476~221 BC or the Three Kingdoms period of 220~264 AD), had a great influence on the creation of the concept of Celestial Empire. Ironically, the idea of the Central Kingdom originated in the Zhou dynasty, when China had a nominal central government but was, in fact, a collection of feudal states along the Yellow River. In addition, even if China was politically unified, its territory and power declined, and during the heyday, the early days of the Han, Tang, and Qing, and the North and South Song periods, almost the smallest of the countries, during the period of the North and South Song, the territory and power declined even during the course of modern pre-modern history.

Especially during the Qing dynasty, China was ruled by the Manchurian people, a people across the border. The Manchurians sought to rule the vast Chinese territory by integrating China's traditional bureaucracy and the tribal structure of Manchuria and Mongolia. The administrative posts were open to everyone in principle, but at the top of the central bureaucracy were held by two officials whose ministries were Chinese and Manchurian. The rulers, at the same time, aimed at portraying themselves as legitimate successors following the will of heaven in the tradition of the Chinese dynasty, have developed the Chinese ideology, which serves as the basis for the Celestial Empire, not forgetting their separate ethnic identity. During the era of Celestial Empire, people were able to interact with their past by collecting calligraphy, paintings and cultural artifacts. For many, traveling to the empire was an opportunity to see various places of historical significance. Information about written traditions also greatly influenced people's lives. Young people preparing for government posts studied philosophy, history and poetry. The study of historical figures, for example, allowed candidates to reflect on past choices. Only through this tradition could they leave their own footprints in history.

By the end of the eighteenth century China's Tianxia was still safe, but it was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that China, Celestial Empire, began to realize that they were no longer the dominant forces in the world. China's defeat in the Opium War (1840–1842, 1856–1860) forced them to reassess their opponents. At this time, at the same time, Tianxia was redefined, and China's political circles and scholars began to study the outside world where they had drawn boundaries.

Since the arrival of the Western colonial power in the mid-19th century during the advent of the Celestial Empire as a modern country, sports have generally spurred and contributed to the creation of nationalism and the construction of national consciousness, which became the machine for the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912. In the turn of the 20th century, the relationship between sports and Chinese nationalism is close, and sports creates modern China in a historical context. The history of the late Qing and early republics clearly showed the close relationship between sports, nationalism and politics, reflecting the changes in Chinese society, the identity and mindset of the Chinese people. Sports had great importance not only in cultivating China's nationalism and national consciousness, but also in ultimately transforming China from heaven into a modern state. It played an important role in the strategy of restoring state power by Chinese nationalists.

The Qing dynasty

The term ‘Celestial Empire’ was officially expressed and utilized by Chinese political powers under the rule of China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). The Qing dynasty exercised control over an enormous, multi-ethnic and cultural empire, which consisted of numerous ethnic groups, including the Manchus, Han Chinese, the Mongols, Uyghurs, as well as the Tibetans. Both the customs, as well as the cultural traditions of these diverse ethnic groups living under the dynasty were often assimilated into Chinese society as the dynasty expanded into new regions across China.

As the Qing rule was of predominantly Manchu descent, an ethnic minority, the notion of ‘Celestial Empire’ was familiarised in order to consolidate and affirm their power. In order to consolidate and reaffirm the legitimacy of the Manchu descended Qing, the government enforced regulations regarding hair and clothing standards in order to construct a notion of unity within the empire; becoming a part of Chinese culture. This was due to the Manchu ethnic group being viewed as foreigners to the Han Chinese ethnic groups. Under the concept of Celestial Empire, the Qing rule introduced a banner system, which was originally created as a military function, however it then became the fundamental structural framework of society under the Qing rule. This system then further allowed the Qing rule to consolidate their political power, while also becoming a staple political tool used throughout the eighteenth century to uphold the status and conceptualisation of the Celestial Empire. Chinese society under the three centuries of Qing rule oversaw a great increase in population; growing from a populace of approximately 150 million in the year 1700 to over 300 million people by the mid-19th century. The expansion of regional trade under the Qing rule saw an increase in the mass of the urban population.

Advertisement for the American clipper ship Celestial Empire

The duration of the reign of the Qing dynasty saw the production of a multitude of different creative mediums and art forms under the concept of Celestial Empire. This concept saw the creative advancement of poetry and literature, calligraphy, paintings, as well as other cultural relics which assisted Chinese citizens living under the Qing dynasty to engage with their countries history and culture. The production of these different creative mediums offered those who travelled around the empire, an opportunity to appreciate Chinese sites of historical significance celebrated in literature produced through the Celestial empire.

Celestial Land System

The term "Celestial Land System" (天朝田畝制度) means a series of systems covering land, politics, society, and military as a whole (1853) announced by the Celestial empire, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom after occupying Nanjing and setting up the capital here. The system is rich in values that Chinese Celestial emperors have pursued in history.

The land system is called Cheonjojeonmu system separately, or the entire system announced by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in 1853 is also called Cheonjojeonmu system. The land system is represented by the Cheonjojeonmu system as mentioned earlier. The principle of this system is that all land should be divided equally as needed in accordance with the principle of gender equality. As a result, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom completely denied the old landlord protection system, and at the same time refused to recognize the ownership of the land, it decided to distribute a certain amount of land to farmers free of charge. Such a move by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, of course, caused fierce opposition from the former Qing dynasty's ruling class and the landlord class, and caused the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to retreat from its original purpose.

The social system is represented by the Yangsama system. The Yangsama system is an active reflection of the Chinese people's idea of the Zhou dynasty as the most ideal period. Twenty-five families were set up as one group and a higher group was assigned to control one group. He was responsible for various tasks such as administration, production, distribution, religion, judicial, education, reward and punishment, past examination, and recommendation. In the Yangsama system, the government marriage system, the support of the elderly, the elderly and the child widows were all defined as social and common responsibilities based on the traditional homily. It was the first attempt by the Taiping Heaven to embody the idea of Daedong, an ideal society where China's traditional great road is realized.

The military system is represented by the single system of military and agricultural rule. In wartime, it was a system that allowed soldiers to return to the peasantry, and had the advantage of very cheap defense. By completing this system as a social system, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom tried to build an ideal society where land was shared as much as needed, the rich and the poor did not exist, and the socially disadvantaged were protected. However, due to the resistance of the vested interests, the lack of will to implement the system, and the lack of leadership, these systems gradually become distant from the original purpose of establishment. As the kingdom of Taepyeong grew further away from its original ideal, farmers withdrew their support for the kingdom, providing a decisive cause for the collapse of the kingdom.

Cultural features

When one discusses China's Celestial Empire, the map produced during the Qing dynasty, which is chosen as the most representative dynasty, serves as an indicator of the understanding and order of territory. Examples of Western teaching techniques could be seen in the Qing dynasty, but this had a considerable limited impact on traditional Chinese teaching. In their maps, geographical or artificial structures and forms were expressed in pictures, which show the influence of painting techniques. Text was also an integral part of map interpretation, which remains on the map of the entire empire based on the works of Huang Qianren 黃千人 (1694–1771).

The printing culture of the Qing dynasty inherited some of the achievements made by former Celestial emperors, but the format was not the same. Some of the finest examples of Qing printing were destroyed at the beginning of the dynasty. Landscape portrayals were also their targets, with Cheng's officials able to travel to a wide range of areas while performing their duties, and to appear in historical records, taking the opportunity to visit historic sites throughout the empire represented by poetry and prose.

These exquisite print works contrast sharply with the crude examples of printing used for mass consumption. Popular religious print works can show considerable quality and elegance, while almanacs and cheap educational prints have limited and low quality.

Exceptionalism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exceptionalism

Exceptionalism is the perception or belief that a species, country, society, institution, movement, individual, or time period is "exceptional" (i.e., unusual or extraordinary). The term carries the implication, whether or not specified, that the referent is superior in some way.

Although the idea appears to have developed with respect to an era, today it is particularly applied with respect to particular nations or regions.

Other uses of the term include medical and genetic exceptionalism.

History

Further information: Historic recurrence

The German romantic philosopher-historians, especially Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) and Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814), dwelt on the theme of uniqueness in the late 18th century. They de-emphasized the political state and instead emphasized the uniqueness of the Volk, comprising the whole people, their languages and traditions. Each nation, considered as a cultural entity with its own distinctive history, possessed a "national spirit", or "soul of the people" (in German: Volksgeist). This idea had a strong influence in the growth of nationalism in 19th-century European lands—especially in ones ruled by élites from somewhere else.

Claims of exceptionality have been made for many countries, including the United States, Australia (especially in South Australia), China, France, Germany, Greece, Pakistan, Imperial Japan, Iran, Serbia, Israel, North Korea, South Africa, Spain, the UK, the USSR, Thailand and Lebanon. Historians have added many other cases, including historic empires such as China, the Ottoman Empire, ancient Rome, and ancient India, along with a wide range of minor kingdoms in history.

Criticism

Belief in exceptionalism can represent erroneous thought analogous to historicism in that it overemphasizes peculiarities in an analysis and ignores or downplays meaningful comparisons.^{[citation needed]} A group may assert exceptionalism in order to exaggerate the appearance of difference, to invoke a wider latitude of action, and to avoid recognition of similarities that would reduce perceived justifications. This can be an example of special pleading, a form of spurious argumentation that ignores relevant bases for meaningful comparisons. Exceptionalism is often based on poor historical knowledge.

Separateness

J. Bradford DeLong has used the term "exceptionalism" to describe the economic growth of post-World War II Western Europe.

Exceptionalism can represent an error analogous to historicism in assuming that only peculiarities are relevant to analysis, while overlooking meaningful comparisons. Political scientist Noritada Matsuda writes, "[W]hat is seemingly exceptional in one country may be found in other countries."

In ideologically-driven debates, a group may assert exceptionalism, with or without the term, in order to exaggerate the appearance of difference, perhaps to create an atmosphere permissive of a wider latitude of action, and to avoid recognition of similarities that would reduce perceived justifications. If unwarranted, this represents an example of special pleading, a form of spurious argumentation that ignores relevant bases for meaningful comparison.

The term "exceptionalism" can imply criticism of a tendency to remain separate from others. For example, the reluctance of the United States government to join various international treaties is sometimes called "exceptionalist".

Medical exceptionalism

Use of the term "HIV exceptionalism" implies that AIDS is a contagious disease that is or should be treated differently from other contagions or entails benefits not available to those suffering from other diseases.

Nativism (politics)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativism_(politics)

Nativism is the political policy of promoting or protecting the interests of native-born or indigenous people over those of immigrants, including the support of anti-immigration and immigration-restriction measures.

Definition

According to Cas Mudde, a University of Georgia professor, nativism is a largely American notion that is rarely debated in Western Europe or Canada; the word originated with mid-19th-century political parties in the United States, most notably the Know Nothing party, which saw Catholic immigration from nations such as Germany and Ireland as a serious threat to native-born Protestant Americans.^[4] In the United States, nativism does not refer to a movement led by Native Americans, also referred to as American Indians.

Causes

Main article: Opposition to immigration

According to Joel S. Fetzer, opposition to immigration commonly arises in many countries because of issues of national, cultural, and religious identity. The phenomenon has especially been studied in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as in continental Europe. Thus, nativism has become a general term for opposition to immigration which is based on fears that immigrants will "distort or spoil" existing cultural values. In situations where immigrants greatly outnumber the original inhabitants, nativists seek to prevent cultural change.

Beliefs that contribute to anti-immigration sentiment include:

• Economic
  • Employment: The belief that immigrants acquire jobs that would have otherwise been available to native citizens, limiting native employment, and the belief that immigrants also create a surplus of labor that results in lowered wages.
  • Government expense: The belief that immigrants do not pay enough taxes to cover the cost of the services they require.
  • Welfare: The belief that immigrants make heavy use of the social welfare systems.
  • Housing: The belief that immigrants reduce vacancies, causing rent increases.
• Cultural
  • Language: The belief that immigrants isolate themselves in their own communities and refuse to learn the local language.
  • Culture: The belief that immigrants will outnumber the native population and replace its culture with theirs.
  • Crime: The belief that immigrants are more prone to crime than the native population.
  • Patriotism: The belief that immigrants damage a nation's sense of community based on ethnicity and nationality.
• Environmental
  • Environment: The belief that immigrants increase the consumption of limited resources.
  • Overpopulation: The belief that immigration contributes to overpopulation.
• Decolonization: The belief immigrants are colonizing those considered native or indigenous people.

Hans-Georg Betz examines three facets of nativism: economic, welfare, and symbolic. Economic nativism preaches that good jobs ought to be reserved for native citizens. Welfare nativism insists that native citizens should have absolute priority in access to governmental benefits. Symbolic nativism calls on the society and government to defend and promote the nation's cultural heritage. Betz argues that economic and welfare themes were historically dominant, but that since the 1990s symbolic nativism has become the focus of radical right-wing populist mobilization.

By country and region

Asia-Pacific

Australia

Main article: White Australia policy

Many Australians opposed the influx of Chinese immigrants at time of the nineteenth-century gold rushes. When the separate Australian colonies formed the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, the new nation adopted "White Australia" as one of its founding principles. Under the White Australia policy, entry of Chinese and other Asians remained controversial until well after World War II, although the country remained home to many long-established Chinese families dating from before the adoption of White Australia. By contrast, most Pacific Islanders were deported soon after the policy was adopted, while the remainder were forced out of the canefields where they had worked for decades.

Antipathy of native-born white Australians toward British and Irish immigrants in the late 19th century was manifested in a new party, the Australian Natives' Association.

Since early 2000, opposition has mounted to asylum seekers arriving in boats from Indonesia.

South Korea

The Democratic Party of Korea has been described as nativist by scholars due to its support for Korean nationalism and opposition to immigration.

Pakistan

Further information: Sindhudesh

The Pakistani province of Sindh has seen nativist movements, promoting control for the Sindhi people over their homeland. After the 1947 Partition of India, large numbers of Muhajir people migrating from India entered the province, becoming a majority in the provincial capital city of Karachi, which formerly had an ethnically Sindhi majority. Sindhis have also voiced opposition to the promotion of Urdu, as opposed to their native tongue, Sindhi.

These nativist movements are expressed through Sindhi nationalism and the Sindhudesh separatist movement. Nativist and nationalist sentiments increased greatly after the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971.

Taiwan

Taiwan nativist literature (鄉土文學) is a genre of Taiwanese literature that was born in the 1920s, the Taiwan under Japanese rule. Taiwan nativist literature was suppressed by the rise of Japanese fascism in 1937, and after the surrender of Japan, it was suppressed by the White Terror of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) and began to gain attention again in the 1970s.

After the Chinese Civil War, Taiwan became a sanctuary for Chinese nationalists who followed a Western ideology, fleeing from communists. The new arrivals governed through the Kuomintang until the 1970s. Taiwanese identity constructed through literature in the post-civil war period led to the gradual acceptance of Taiwan's unique political destiny. This led to a peaceful transition of power from the Kuomintang to the Democratic Progressive Party in the 2000s. A-chin Hsiau (Author of Politics and Cultural Nativism) claims the origins of Taiwanese national identity to the 1970s, when youth activism transformed society, politics and culture which some are still present.

Americas

Brazil

Main article: Race and ethnicity in Brazil

Further information: Portuguese colonization of the Americas and Slavery in Brazil

The Brazilian elite desired the racial whitening of the country, similarly to Argentina and Uruguay. The country encouraged European immigration, but non-white immigration always faced considerable backlash. On 28 July 1921, representatives Andrade Bezerra and Cincinato Braga proposed a law whose Article 1 provided: "The immigration of individuals from the black race to Brazil is prohibited." On 22 October 1923, representative Fidélis Reis produced another bill on the entry of immigrants, whose fifth article was as follows: "The entry of settlers from the black race into Brazil is prohibited. For Asian [immigrants] there will be allowed each year a number equal to 5% of those residing in the country.(...)".

In the 19th and 20th centuries, there were negative feelings toward the communities of German, Italian, Japanese, and Jewish immigrants, who conserved their languages and cultures instead of adopting Portuguese and Brazilian habits (so that nowadays, Brazil has the most communities in the Americas of Venetian speakers, and the second-most of German), and were seen as particularly likely to form ghettos and to have high rates of endogamy (in Brazil, it is regarded as usual for people of different backgrounds to marry), among other concerns.

It affected the Japanese more harshly, because they were Asian, and thus seen as an obstacle to the whitening of Brazil. Oliveira Viana, a Brazilian jurist, historian and sociologist described the Japanese immigrants as follows: "They (Japanese) are like sulfur: insoluble". The Brazilian magazine O Malho in its edition of December 5, 1908 issued criticised the Japanese immigrants in the following quote: "The government of São Paulo is stubborn. After the failure of the first Japanese immigration, it contracted 3,000 yellow people. It insists on giving Brazil a race diametrically opposite to ours". In 1941 the Brazilian minister of justice, Francisco Campos, defended the ban on the admission of 400 Japanese immigrants into São Paulo writing: "their despicable standard of living is a brutal competition with the country's worker; their selfishness, their bad faith, their refractory character, make them a huge ethnic and cultural cyst located in the richest regions of Brazil".

Years before World War II, the government of President Getúlio Vargas initiated a process of forced assimilation of people of immigrant origin in Brazil. In 1933, a constitutional amendment was approved by a large majority and established immigration quotas without mentioning race or nationality and prohibited the population concentration of immigrants. According to the text, Brazil could not receive more than 2% of the total number of entrants of each nationality that had been received in the last 50 years. Only the Portuguese were excluded. The measures did not affect the immigration of Europeans such as Italians and Spaniards, who had already entered in large numbers and whose migratory flow was downward. However, immigration quotas, which remained in force until the 1980s, restricted Japanese immigration, as well as Korean and Chinese immigration.

During World War II they were seen as more loyal to their countries of origin than to Brazil. In fact, there were violent revolts in the Japanese community of the states of São Paulo and Paraná when Emperor Hirohito declared the Japanese surrender and stated that he was not really a deity, which news was seen as a conspiracy perpetrated in order to hurt Japanese honour and strength. Nevertheless, it followed hostility from the government. The Japanese Brazilian community was strongly marked by restrictive measures when Brazil declared war against Japan in August 1942. Japanese Brazilians could not travel the country without safe conduct issued by the police; over 200 Japanese schools were closed and radio equipment was seized to prevent transmissions on short wave from Japan. The goods of Japanese companies were confiscated and several companies of Japanese origin suffered restrictions, including the use of the newly founded Banco América do Sul. Japanese Brazilians were prohibited from driving motor vehicles (even if they were taxi drivers), buses or trucks on their property. The drivers employed by Japanese had to have permission from the police. Thousands of Japanese immigrants were arrested or expelled from Brazil on suspicion of espionage. There were many anonymous denunciations because of "activities against national security" arising from disagreements between neighbours, recovery of debts and even fights between children. Japanese Brazilians were arrested for "suspicious activity" when they were in artistic meetings or picnics. On July 10, 1943, approximately 10,000 Japanese and German immigrants who lived in Santos had 24 hours to close their homes and businesses and move away from the Brazilian coast. The police acted without any notice. About 90% of people displaced were Japanese. To reside in Baixada Santista, the Japanese had to have a safe conduct. In 1942, the Japanese community who introduced the cultivation of pepper in Tomé-Açu, in Pará, was virtually turned into a "concentration camp" (expression of the time) from which no Japanese could leave. This time, the Brazilian ambassador in Washington, D.C., Carlos Martins Pereira e Sousa, encouraged the government of Brazil to transfer all the Japanese Brazilians to "internment camps" without the need for legal support, in the same manner as was done with the Japanese residents in the United States. No single suspicion of activities of Japanese against "national security" was confirmed.

Nowadays, nativism in Brazil affects primarily migrants from elsewhere in the Third World, such as the new wave of Levantine Arabs (this time, mostly Muslims from Palestine instead of overwhelmingly Christian from Syria and Lebanon), South and East Asians (primarily Mainland Chinese), Spanish-speakers and Amerindians from neighbouring South American countries and, especially, West Africans and Haitians. Following the 2010 Haiti earthquake and considerable illegal immigration to northern Brazil and São Paulo, a subsequent debate in the population was concerned with the reasons why Brazil has such lax laws and enforcement concerning illegal immigration.

According to the 1988's Brazilian Constitution, it is an unbailable crime to address someone in an offensive racist way, and it is illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of his or her race, skin colour, national or regional origin or nationality; thus, nativism and opposition to multiculturalism would be too much of a polemic and delicate topic to be openly discussed as a basic ideology for even the most right-leaning modern political parties.

Canada

Further information: Racism in Canada

Throughout the 19th century, well into the 20th, the Orange Order in Canada attacked and tried to politically defeat the Irish Catholics. In the British Empire, traditions of anti-Catholicism in Britain led to fears that Catholics were a threat to the national (British) values. In Canada, the Orange Order campaigned vigorously against the Catholics throughout the 19th century, often with violent confrontations. Both sides were immigrants from Ireland and neither side claimed loyalty to Canada.

The Ku Klux Klan spread in the mid-1920s from the U.S. to parts of Canada, especially Saskatchewan, where it helped topple the Liberal government. The Klan creed was, historian Martin Robin argues, in the mainstream of Protestant Canadian sentiment, for it was based on "Protestantism, separation of Church and State, pure patriotism, restrictive and selective immigration, one national public school, one flag and one language—English."

In World War I, Canadian naturalized citizens of German or Austrian origins were stripped of their right to vote, and tens of thousands of Ukrainians (who were born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire) were rounded up and put in internment camps.

Hostility to the Chinese and other Asians was intense, and involved provincial laws that hindered immigration of Chinese and Japanese and blocked their economic mobility. In 1942 Japanese Canadians were forced into detention camps in response to Japanese aggression in World War II.

Hostility of native-born Canadians to competition from English immigrants in the early 20th century was expressed in signs that read, "No English Need Apply!" The resentment came because the immigrants identified more with England than with Canada.

Cartoon from Puck, August 9, 1899, by J. S. Pughe. Angry Uncle Sam sees hyphenated voters (including an Irish-American, a German-American, a French-American, an Italian-American, and a Hungarian-American) and demands, "Why should I let these freaks cast whole votes when they are only half Americans?"

United States

Main article: Nativism in United States politics

According to the American historian John Higham, nativism is:

an intense opposition to an internal minority on the grounds of its foreign (i.e., "un-American") connections. Specific nativist antagonisms may and do, vary widely in response to the changing character of minority irritants and the shifting conditions of the day; but through each separate hostility runs the connecting, energizing force of modern nationalism. While drawing on much broader cultural antipathies and ethnocentric judgments, nativism translates them into zeal to destroy the enemies of a distinctively American way of life.

Colonial era

There was nativism in the colonial era shown by English colonists against the Palatine German immigrants in the Pennsylvania Colony. Benjamin Franklin questioned about allowing Palatine refugees to settle in Pennsylvania. He was concerned about the potential consequences of their arrival, particularly regarding the preservation of Pennsylvania's English identity and heritage. He questioned whether it was prudent for a colony established by English settlers to be overwhelmed by newcomers who might not integrate into English culture and language.

Early republic

Nativism was a political factor in the 1790s and in the 1830s–1850s. Nativism became a major issue in the late 1790s, when the Federalist Party expressed its strong opposition to the French Revolution by trying to strictly limit immigration, and stretching the time to 14 years for citizenship. At the time of the Quasi-War with the French First Republic in 1798, the Federalists and Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, including the Alien Act, the Naturalization Act and the Sedition Act. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison fought against the new laws by drafting the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. In 1800, Jefferson was elected president, and removed most of the anti-immigrant legislation.

1830–1860

Guardians of Liberty, an anti-Catholic caricature by the Ku Klux Klan-affiliate Alma White (1943), founder and bishop of the Pillar of Fire Church

The term "nativism" was first used by 1844: "Thousands were Naturalized expressly to oppose Nativism, and voted the Polk ticket mainly to that end." Nativism gained its name from the "Native American" parties of the 1840s and 1850s. In this context "Native" does not mean Indigenous Americans or American Indians but rather descendants of the inhabitants of the original Thirteen Colonies. It impacted politics in the mid-19th century because of the large inflows of immigrants after 1845 from cultures that were different from the existing American culture. Nativists objected primarily to Irish Roman Catholics because of their loyalty to the Pope and also because of their supposed rejection of republicanism as an American ideal.

Nativist movements included the Know Nothing or "American Party" of the 1850s, the Immigration Restriction League of the 1890s, the anti-Asian movements in the Western states, resulting in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the "Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907", by which the government of Imperial Japan stopped emigration to the United States. Labor unions were strong supporters of Chinese exclusion and limits on immigration, because of fears that they would lower wages and make it harder for workers to organize unions.

Nativist outbursts occurred in the Northeast from the 1830s to the 1850s, primarily in response to a surge of Irish Catholic immigration. In 1836, Samuel Morse ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of New York City on a nativist ticket, receiving 1,496 votes. In New York City, an Order of United Americans was founded as a nativist fraternity, following the Philadelphia Nativist Riots of the preceding spring and summer, in December 1844. The American historian Eric Kaufmann has suggested that American nativism has been explained primarily in psychological and economic terms due to the neglect of a crucial cultural and ethnic dimension. Furthermore, Kauffman claims that American nativism cannot be understood without reference to an American ethnic group which took shape prior to the large-scale immigration of the mid-19th century.

The nativists went public in 1854 when they formed the "American Party", which was especially hostile to the immigration of Irish Catholics, and campaigned for laws to require longer wait time between immigration and naturalization; these laws never passed. It was at this time that the term "nativist" first appeared, as their opponents denounced them as "bigoted nativists". Former President Millard Fillmore ran on the American Party ticket for the presidency in 1856. Henry Winter Davis, an active Know-Nothing, was elected on the American Party ticket to Congress from Maryland. He told Congress the un-American Irish Catholic immigrants were to blame for the recent election of Democrat James Buchanan as president, stating:

The recent election has developed in an aggravated form every evil against which the American party protested. Foreign allies have decided the government of the country -- men naturalized in thousands on the eve of the election. Again in the fierce struggle for supremacy, men have forgotten the ban which the Republic puts on the intrusion of religious influence on the political arena. These influences have brought vast multitudes of foreign-born citizens to the polls, ignorant of American interests, without American feelings, influenced by foreign sympathies, to vote on American affairs; and those votes have, in point of fact, accomplished the present result.

The American Party also included many former Whigs who ignored nativism, and included (in the South) a few Roman Catholics whose families had long lived in North America. Conversely, much of the opposition to Roman Catholics came from Protestant Irish immigrants and German Lutheran immigrants, who were not native at all and can hardly be called "nativists."

This form of American nationalism is often identified with xenophobia and anti-Catholic sentiment. In Charlestown, Massachusetts, a nativist mob attacked and burned down a Roman Catholic convent in 1834 (no one was injured). In the 1840s, small scale riots between Roman Catholics and nativists took place in several American cities. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1844, for example, a series of nativist assaults on Roman Catholic churches and community centers resulted in the loss of lives and the professionalization of the police force. In Louisville, Kentucky, election-day rioters killed at least 22 people in attacks on German and Irish Catholics on 6 August 1855, in what became known as "Bloody Monday."

The new Republican Party kept its nativist element quiet during the 1860s, since immigrants were urgently needed for the Union Army. European immigrants from England, Scotland, and Scandinavia favored the Republicans during the Third Party System (1854–1896), while others especially Irish Catholics and Germans, were usually Democratic. Hostility toward Asians was very strong in the Western region from the 1860s to the 1940s. Anti-Catholicism experienced a revival in the 1890s in the American Protective Association. It was led by Protestant Irish immigrants hostile to the Irish Catholics.

Anti-German nativism

See also: German Americans § World War I anti-German sentiment

From the 1840s to the 1920s, German Americans were often distrusted because of their separatist social structure, their German-language schools, their attachment to their native tongue over English, and their neutrality during World War I.

The Bennett Law caused a political uproar in Wisconsin in 1890, as the state government passed a law that threatened to close down hundreds of German-language elementary schools. Catholic and Lutheran Germans rallied to defeat Governor William D. Hoard. Hoard attacked German American culture and religion:

"We must fight alienism and selfish ecclesiasticism.... The parents, the pastors and the church have entered into a conspiracy to darken the understanding of the children, who are denied by cupidity and bigotry the privilege of even the free schools of the state."

Hoard, a Republican, was defeated by the Democrats. A similar campaign in Illinois regarding the "Edwards Law" led to a Republican defeat there in 1890.

In 1917–1918, a wave of nativist sentiment due to American entry into World War I led to the suppression of German cultural activities in the United States, Canada, and Australia. There was little violence, but many places and streets had their names changed (The city of "Berlin" in Ontario was renamed "Kitchener" after a British hero), churches switched to English for their services, and German Americans were forced to buy war bonds to show their patriotism. In Australia thousands of Germans were put into internment camps.

Anti-Chinese nativism

See also: Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States

In the 1870s and 1880s in the Western states, ethnic White immigrants, especially Irish Americans and German Americans, targeted violence against Chinese workers, driving them out of smaller towns. Denis Kearney, an immigrant from Ireland, led a mass movement in San Francisco in the 1870s that incited attacks on the Chinese there and threatened public officials and railroad owners. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first of many nativist acts of Congress which attempted to limit the flow of immigrants into the U.S.. The Chinese responded to it by filing false claims of American birth, enabling thousands of them to immigrate to California. The exclusion of the Chinese caused the western railroads to begin importing Mexican railroad workers in greater numbers ("traqueros").

20th century

In the 1890s–1920s era, nativists and labor unions campaigned for immigration restriction following the waves of workers and families from Southern and Eastern Europe, including the Kingdom of Italy, the Balkans, Congress Poland, Austria-Hungary, and the Russian Empire. A favorite plan was the literacy test to exclude workers who could not read or write their own foreign language. Congress passed literacy tests, but presidents—responding to business needs for workers—vetoed them. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge argued the need for literacy tests, and described its implication on the new immigrants:

It is found, in the first place, that the illiteracy test will bear most heavily upon the Italians, Russians, Poles, Hungarians, Greeks, and Asiatics, and lightly, or not at all, upon English-speaking emigrants, or Germans, Scandinavians, and French. In other words, the races most affected by the illiteracy test are those whose emigration to this country has begun within the last twenty years and swelled rapidly to enormous proportions, races with which the English speaking people have never hitherto assimilated, and who are most alien to the great body of the people of the United States.

Responding to these demands, opponents of the literacy test called for the establishment of an immigration commission to focus on immigration as a whole. The United States Immigration Commission, also known as the Dillingham Commission, was created and tasked with studying immigration and its effect on the United States. The findings of the commission further influenced immigration policy and upheld the concerns of the nativist movement. Following World War I, nativists in the 1920s focused their attention on Southern and Eastern Europeans due to their Roman Catholic and Jewish faith, and realigned their beliefs behind racial and religious nativism.

Three Klansmen talking to PI reporter Robert Berman in Seattle, Washington (circa 1923). Photograph currently preserved by the Museum of History & Industry.

Between the 1920s and the 1930s, the Ku Klux Klan developed an explicitly nativist, pro-Anglo-Saxon Protestant, anti-Catholic, anti-Irish, anti-Italian, and anti-Jewish stance in relation to the growing political, economic, and social uncertainty related to the arrival of European immigrants on the American soil, predominantly composed of Irish people, Italians, and Eastern European Jews. The racial concern of the anti-immigration movement was linked closely to the eugenics movement that was sweeping in the United States during the same period. Led by Madison Grant's book, The Passing of the Great Race nativists grew more concerned with the racial purity of the United States. In his book, Grant argued that the American racial stock was being diluted by the influx of new immigrants from the Mediterranean, Ireland, the Balkans, and the ghettos. The Passing of the Great Race reached wide popularity among Americans and influenced immigration policy in the 1920s. In the 1920s, a wide national consensus sharply restricted the overall inflow of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. The Second Ku Klux Klan, which flourished in the United States during the 1920s, used strong nativist, anti-Catholic, and anti-Jewish rhetoric, but the Catholics led a counterattack, such as in Chicago in 1921, where ethnic Irish residents hanged a Klan member in front of 3,000 people.

After intense lobbying from the nativist movement, the United States Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act in 1921. This bill was the first to place numerical quotas on immigration. It capped the inflow of immigrations to 357,803 for those arriving outside of the western hemisphere. However, this bill was only temporary, as Congress began debating a more permanent bill. The Emergency Quota Act was followed with the Immigration Act of 1924, a more permanent resolution. This law reduced the number of immigrants able to arrive from 357,803, the number established in the Emergency Quota Act, to 164,687. Though this bill did not fully restrict immigration, it considerably curbed the flow of immigration into the United States, especially from Southern and Eastern Europe. During the late 1920s, an average of 270,000 immigrants were allowed to arrive, mainly because of the exemption of Canada and Latin American countries. Fear of low-skilled Southern and Eastern European immigrants flooding the labor market was an issue in the 1920s, the 1930s, and the first decade of the 21st century (focused on immigrants from Mexico and Central America).

An immigration reductionism movement formed in the 1970s and continues to the present day. Prominent members often press for massive, sometimes total, reductions in immigration levels. American nativist sentiment experienced a resurgence in the late 20th century, this time directed at undocumented workers, largely Mexican, resulting in the passage of new penalties against illegal immigration in 1996. Most immigration reductionists see illegal immigration, principally from across the United States–Mexico border, as the more pressing concern. Authors such as Samuel Huntington have also seen recent Hispanic immigration as creating a national identity crisis and presenting insurmountable problems for US social institutions.

Despite the fact that, Mexican people descend from actual natives to the region, when noting Mexican immigration in the Southwest, the European-American Cold-War diplomat George F. Kennan wrote in 2002 he saw "unmistakable evidences of a growing differentiation between the cultures, respectively, of large southern and southwestern regions of this country, on the one hand", and those of "some northern regions". In the former, he warned:

the very culture of the bulk of the population of these regions will tend to be primarily Latin-American in nature rather than what is inherited from earlier American traditions ... Could it really be that there was so little of merit [in America] that it deserves to be recklessly trashed in favor of a polyglot mix-mash?"

David Mayers argues that Kennan represented the "tradition of militant nativism" that resembled or even exceeded the Know Nothings of the 1850s.

21st century

By late 2014, the "Tea Party movement" had turned its focus away from economic issues, spending, and Obamacare, and towards President Barack Obama's immigration policies, which it saw as a threat to transform American society. It planned to defeat leading Republicans who supported immigration programs, such as Senator John McCain. A typical slogan appeared in the Tea Party Tribune: "Amnesty for Millions, Tyranny for All." The New York Times reported:

What started five years ago as a groundswell of conservatives committed to curtailing the reach of the federal government, cutting the deficit and countering the Wall Street wing of the Republican Party has become a movement largely against immigration overhaul. The politicians, intellectual leaders and activists who consider themselves part of the Tea Party have redirected their energy from fiscal austerity and small government to stopping any changes that would legitimize people who are here illegally, either through granting them citizenship or legal status.

Political scientist and pollster Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, argues nativism is the root cause of the early 21st century wave of populism.

[T]he jet fuel that’s really feeding the populist firestorm is nativism, the strong belief among an electorally important segment of the population that governments and other institutions should honour and protect the interests of their native-born citizens against the cultural changes being brought about by immigration. This, according to the populists, is about protecting the "Real America" (or "Real Britain" or "Real Poland" or "Real France" or "Real Hungary") from imported influences that are destroying the values and cultures that have made their countries great.

Importantly, it’s not just the nativists who are saying this is a battle over values and culture. Their strongest opponents believe this too, and they are not prepared to concede the high ground on what constitutes a "real citizen" to the populists. For them, this is a battle about the rule of law, inclusiveness, open borders, and global participation.

In his 2016 bid for the presidency, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was accused of introducing nativist themes via his controversial stances on temporarily banning foreign Muslims from six specific countries entering the United States, and erecting a substantial wall between the US-Mexico border to halt illegal immigration. Journalist John Cassidy wrote in The New Yorker that Trump was transforming the GOP into a populist, nativist party:

Trump has been drawing on a base of alienated white working-class and middle-class voters, seeking to remake the G.O.P. into a more populist, nativist, avowedly protectionist, and semi-isolationist party that is skeptical of immigration, free trade, and military interventionism.

Donald Brand, a professor of political science, argues:

Donald Trump's nativism is a fundamental corruption of the founding principles of the Republican Party. Nativists champion the purported interests of American citizens over those of immigrants, justifying their hostility to immigrants by the use of derogatory stereotypes: Mexicans are rapists; Muslims are terrorists.

Language

Sticker sold in Colorado

American nativists have promoted English and deprecated the use of German and Spanish. English Only proponents in the late 20th century proposed an English Language Amendment (ELA), a Constitutional Amendment making English the official language of the United States, but it received limited political support.

Europe

In recent decades distrust of immigrating populations and populism have become major themes in considering political tensions in Europe. Many observers see the post-1950s wave of immigration in Europe as fundamentally different to the pre-1914 patterns. They debate the role of cultural differences, ghettos, race, Muslim fundamentalism, poor education and poverty play in creating nativism among the hosts and a caste-type underclass, more similar to white-black tensions in the US. Sociologists Josip Kešić and Jan Willem Duyvendak define nativism as an intense opposition to an internal minority that is portrayed as a threat to the nation because of its different values and priorities. There are three subtypes: secularist nativism; racial nativism; and populist nativism that seeks to restore the historic power and prestige of indigenous elites.

France

Main articles: Racism in France and Antisemitism in France

Once Italian workers in France had understood the benefit of unionism, and French unions were willing to overcome their fear of Italians as strikebreakers, integration was open for most Italian immigrants. The French state, which was always more of an immigration state than other Western European nations, fostered and supported family-based immigration, and thus helped Italians on their immigration trajectory, with minimal nativism. Algerian migration to France has generated nativism, characterized by the prominence of Jean-Marie Le Pen and his National Front.

Since the 1990s France experienced rising levels of Islamic antisemitism and acts. By 2006, rising levels of antisemitism were recorded in French schools. Reports related to the tensions between the children of North African Muslim immigrants and North African Jewish children. In the first half of 2009, an estimated 631 recorded acts of antisemitism took place in France, more than the whole of 2008. Speaking to the World Jewish Congress in December 2009, the French Interior Minister Hortefeux described the acts of antisemitism as "a poison to our republic". He also announced that he would appoint a special coordinator for fighting racism and antisemitism.

Germany

Further information: Nazi Germany, Islamophobia in Germany, Antisemitism in Germany § Hitler, Poles in Germany, and Xenophobia in Germany

For the Poles in the mining districts of western Germany before 1914, nationalism (on both the German and the Polish sides) kept Polish workers, who had established an associational structure approaching institutional completeness (churches, voluntary associations, press, even unions), separate from the host German society. Lucassen found that religiosity and nationalism were more fundamental in generating nativism and inter-group hostility than the labor antagonism.

Nativism grew rapidly in the 1990s and since.

United Kingdom

The city of London became notorious for the prevalence of nativist viewpoints in the 16th century, and conditions worsened in the 1580s. Many European immigrants became disillusioned by routine threats of assault, numerous attempts at passing legislation calling for the expulsion of foreigners, and the great difficulty in acquiring English citizenship. Cities in the Dutch Republic often proved more hospitable, and many immigrants left London permanently. Nativism emerged in opposition to Irish and Jewish arrivals in the early 20th century. Irish immigrants in Great Britain during the 20th century became estranged from British society, something which Lucassen (2005) attributes to the deep religious divide between Irish Protestants and Catholics.