Nationalism in Literature and Technology

Study Notes

Printing presses were controlled by the Spanish Crown and Church, limiting the spread of information.
Independent newspapers were tied to the market and did not circulate across cities, hindering the creation of a shared national identity.
The British colonies, due to their smaller size and clustered cities, fostered a sense of shared identity and nationalism.
The distinct "imagined communities" emerging in each American colony due to limited technology and information flow led to diverse independence movements.

A Tagalog novel written in the Philippines demonstrates an oral tone and a lack of direct address to the reader, reflecting a different cultural context.
The Mexican novel "El Periquillo Sarniento" critiques Spanish colonial rule by following a man who experiences government failures across the country.
The Indonesian novel "Semarang Hitam" portrays the city as "a world of plurals" and highlights the anger of a young man at the colonial government after reading a newspaper about a vagrant’s death.

Newspapers, by compiling news from diverse regions on the same page, create a sense of simultaneous events and a shared community among readers.
The newspaper is seen as a “remarkable confidence of community in anonymity,” a key element of modern nations.
The newspaper, a product of industrial capitalism, is considered an "extreme form" of the book, emphasizing its role in shaping shared experiences and creating a sense of belonging.

Anderson argues that the shift from a religious view of time to a separation of cosmology and history was crucial in paving the way for nationalism.
"Print-capitalism" played a significant role in this shift, challenging traditional power structures and fostering new ways of understanding the world.

Elite groups led the independence movements in the Americas, driven by economic interests and European Enlightenment ideas.
These elites were concerned about uprisings from the masses, including enslaved and indigenous populations.
The development of independent republics modeled after the US and France was influenced by European philosophical ideas and the desire to escape strict Spanish regulations.
The economic hardships faced by creole elites after independence highlight the complex social changes and uneven consequences of the independence movements.

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