Nationalism developed through culture in Europe:
(i) Culture played an important role in creating the idea of the nation, art, and poetry, stories and music helped to express and shape nationalist feelings.
(ii) Romanticism, a cultural movement which sought to develop a particular form of nationalist sentiment. Romantic artists and poets generally criticized the glorification of reason and science and focussed instead on emotions, intuition and mystical feelings.
(iii) ** philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder claimed that true ** culture was to be discovered among the common people- das Volk. It was through folk songs, folk poetry and folk dances that the true spirit of a nation was popularised.
(iv) The emphasis on vernacular language and the collection of local folklore was used to carry the modern nationalist message to large audiences who
were mostly illiterates.
