ABSTRACT
The famous phrase of John Stuart Mill that “it is in general a necessary condition of free institutions that the boundaries of governments should coincide in the main with those of nationalities” is only a sober way of stating that which Byron and Swinburne, Meredith and Browning, hymned in passionate song. The science of the nineteenth century industrialized civilization; it annihilated the distances of the world. Continents ceased to be separated from one another; Buenos Aires became neighbour to London. Economic exploitation proceeded upon a scale which required whole continents for its satisfaction. The nation-state is a sovereign state; it therefore knows no will higher than its own. It is the final judge of its own purposes; within the realm of law, it is answerable to no one for its acts. The nationalism of Western Europe sought to organize all Asia for its economic profit; and the result has been a widespread and conscious revolt of Asia against European domination.
