According to what I’ve learnt in my AP European History class, this is what a nation is:

a group of people that are united by a common language, race/ethnic group, history, or culture.

(that is very simplified)

A state is simply a country where it has borders separating it from another country, and a government (also very simplified).

Therefore, a nation-state is a group of people that are united by a common language, race/ethnic group, history, or culture that are separated by borders from another nation-state and are unified by those traits and a centralized government. It is ONE group of people. So places like America are not nations, but they are states. And people like the Saami of Finland are nations, but not states. The closest to a nation-state we have today are probably Iceland or Japan, with their very ethnically homogeneous populations and their governments are the state.

I like the concept of a nation-state, but I dislike it as well.

I like it for the reason that a nation-state unites people together- it helps people find a common ground with people that think similar to them- people that have a similar mentalite.

I dislike it for the reason that it discourages diversity. It alienates people of different cultures from other people who don’t speak the same language, or aren’t from the same race, or who don’t share a common history.

Hetalia combines both.

Hetalia has nation-state personifications- the stereotype of the country they represent, even if the country isn’t a nation state. It presents them as a nation state. However, the countries aren’t alienated from each other. They’re able to speak to each other, interact, form friendships, regardless of whether or not they share common history or language or culture. It shows that all of the countries are filled with humans. They are nation-states, but they are nation-states that interact and hang out with and become brofriends and such with each other, which promotes diversity and togetherness as a whole, which is exactly what nation-states are not supposed to promote.

Hetalia, in that sense, is a paradox. It combines the concept of nation-states and nationalism with the concept of diversity and togetherness, to make nationalistic nation-states that cooperate with each other to promote world peace, even if it talks about wars and other horrible things that happened in history. It, therefore, presents the ultimate utopian desire- to have unique cultures and languages and nation-states become one united under one thing: that we are human, we have faults, and these faults are the things that help bring us all together to be a united people, even if we are separated by language or culture or race or religion or history.

and that is the conclusion of my ramble about nation-states and ap euro and hetalia and cultural diversity and everything <3

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