One culture-one state
Topic: Nationalism and National Self-determination · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 7 "Nationalism"
Meaning
One culture–one state is the 19th-century European idea that every culture should have its own state. It is linked with the Italian thinker Mazzini. US President Wilson's Fourteen Points (January 1918) made self-determination popular. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) then used the idea to redraw Europe's borders after World War I. It matters because it showed the high cost of trying to match every state to a single culture.
Example
Versailles created new states such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. But not every demand could be met. Millions were forced out of homes their families had held for generations, and many died in communal violence. The new states still held minorities, such as the Sudeten Germans, who were often disadvantaged. The only real gain was political recognition for groups that saw themselves as nations.
Don't confuse with
- Pluralism: one culture–one state gives each culture its own state. Pluralism drops that idea and lets many cultures live and thrive inside one state.