This reading has made it obvious that nationalism cannot be forced. A conquered country cannot be expected to adopt the same patriotism or beliefs as people who are in the conquering nation have. People in conquering nations wanted to be on their own and resisted accepting their "new" country's beliefs. An example of this was when Russia tried to spread the russian language through out it's empire. The only thing that Russia succeeded in doing was pointing out how different the Polish, Ukrainian, and Finnish people were. This same thing happened to many other empires such as the Ottoman empire and the British empire.
I liked all of the arguments that Simon Bolivar brings up in The Jamaica Letter. He gives valid reasons for why the island deserves its autonomy. One is that they have created their own people which is a mix from the homeland and from the indigenous people on the island. The new people has combined the best of the two groups. Another reason is the homeland has changed and has gone from being helpful to being a curse. This puts the people on the island at a disadvantage.
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