French Revolution and Modern Europe - Empire and Nationstate -

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Taking over the results achieved by our previous work, Tadami CHIZUKA, Akira MATSUMOTO and Hirotaka TATEISHI, eds., French Revolution and Modern Europe, Dobunkan, 1996, we restarted to run this research project studying the unified theme, 'Empire and Nation-State', in order to reconsider modern Europe comprehensively. From 2000 to 2003 we organized many research activities, including several research meetings inviting some guest scholars, and a workshop at Barcelona in Spain, and could discover a variety of new points concerning this theme.Chief points which we have discussed for three years are as follows : 1) that it is indispensable to consider what are the original meanings of the key words, country, state, land, nation, people and race in German, English, and French, and what is the difference between these original meanings and what these words represent today, when we discuss this theme comparatively and historically. 2) that it is necessary to investigate how the concept of 'imperium' which has a long tradition from the Roman times has changed since the modern times and what relationships this concept has with the concept of Japanese 'teikoku (empire)'. 3) that it is very important to think of the connection and difference between the concepts of 'nation-state' and of 'modern state', which consists of three factors, sovereignty territory, and nation. 4) That it is essential to contemplate the relationship between state and war, in particular, during the total war in the twentieth century, which forced every member of the nation to 'die for the state'.Discussions on 'empire and nation-state' began to see a new stage because some translated publications of important books, including Lieven's Empire and Negri and Harts's Empires, were recently published. We understand this stage and hope to publish the results of our three years' studies and discussions in the near future.