The Relation between Imperialism and Nationalism in the German Empire and its Aftermath: A Bourdieusian Field Theoretical Perspective

Abstract

In this article I explore the relation between empire and nationalism in the late German Empire and its aftermath. I argue, from the perspective of Bourdieusian field theory and the political field, that the transformation of the relation between empire and nationalism was connected to colonial expansion that prompted political actors to formulate ‘imperial policies’ aimed at subverting dominant power. The rise of national self‐determination following the First World War (WWI) thwarted this development by confining the political field into a national framework and separating nationalism from empire. This was the emergence of what Bourdieu called national metacapital that has the capacity to regulate and define other forms of capital and their exchange in an ideal‐type nation‐state, in contrast to imperial symbolic capital that mediates and connects other forms of capital.