WILSON'S ADDRESS TO CONGRESS

Coming to a close in favor of Allied & Associated powers President Wilson laid down the conditions of peace known as the 'Fourteen Points' in an address to the congress on January 8, 1918, Historical importance attaches to theses points since it was on their  basis that Germany agreed to surrender. These points may briefly be described as such: 

1.  Open Covenants of peace openly arrived at.
2. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas outside territorial water alike in peace & in war.
3. The removal of all economic barriers & the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all nations.
4. Adequate guarantees given & taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety. 
5. A free open-minded & absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims.
6. Belgium must be evacuated & restored.
7. All French territory should be freed & restored Germans should give back Alsace & Lorraine to France.
8. Russian territory should be evacuated & restored.
9. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected among clearly recognizable line of nationality.
10. The people of Austria & Hungary should be accorded the freest opportunity of autonomous development.
11. Romania, Serbia & Montenegro should be evacuated.
12. The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secured sovereignty. The Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships & commerce of all nations under international guarantees.
13. An independent polish state should be erected.
14. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence & territorial integrity to great & small states alike.

NATIONALISM

Nationalism is a universal phenomenon. Nationalism basically means the people of homogeneous origin. Nationalism is the latest concept in the study of International Law. It is a product of the modern state. Nationalism is also a supreme group feeling of a people. To quot Hans Kohl, Nationalism is a state of mind , permeating the large majority of the people and claiming to formulate for all its member. It recognize the nation-state as an ideal form of political organisation.....the supreme loyalty of man is, therefore, due to his nationality.

Of late, nationalism has lead to the coincidence of political boundaries with ethnographic, linguistic & cultural frontiers. Nationalism always glorified the nation-state.

NATIONALITY

Nation and nationality differ in their meaning although they were used interchangeably . A nation is a people having a sense of oneness among them and who are politically independent, In the case of nationality , it implies a psychological feeling of unity among a people, but also a sense of oneness among them. The sense of unity might be an account of the people having common history and culture . But nationality largely requires the element of political independence either achieved or aspired.

Secondly, a nation must have a political organisation or passionate desire for such an organisation. But a nationality is a political, culture, spiritual & unified community of a people.
According to Bryce a nationality signifies a group of people who are emotionally  psychologically and culturally bound by certainties. It is said by Hayes that a nationality becomes nation by acquiring unity and sovereignty. A nationality similarly may be regarded as a nation in the making.

NATION, NATIONALITY & NATIONALISM

In Political science, the terms, NATION NATIONALITY & NATIONALISM  frequently occur. I the study of International Law, nationality & nationalism occupy predominant place. With the growth of International Law, the theories of Nationalism assumed greater importance.

Let us discuss these concept in detail.

Nation :

The word nation refers to a people of a common genus. The word Nation is derived from a Latin route NATUS OR NATIO which mean birth or born. Therefore, nation implies homogeneous population or the people who are organised & blood-related. Today the word Nation is used in a wider sense.

Burgess defines the nation as " a population of an ethnic . unity, inhabiting a territory of geographic unity " . After the First World War , the word Nation is used deliberately in a political sense. In the words of Lord Bryce, a nation is " a nationality which is organised itself in a political body either independent or desiring to be independent.

A nation, strictly speaking symbolizes the people of a state bound by an emotional or psychological & political forces. otherwise call nationalism. Nation is formed if a people feel themselves to be a nation or when a people of a definite territory feel that they are all one. Therefore the feeling of oneness among the people of the state is the primary condition of a nation.


Zimmerin aptly defines that a nation as " a body of people united by a corporate sentiment of peculiar intimacy, intensity & dignity related to definite home country.

The united state of America is the best example of a nation. The Americans originally belonged to different languages & races but later come together & united as they felt that they were one. of late today nation does not only mean a people having oneness among them but also means a people who feel that they are united, free and desire to be independent.