ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The chapter discusses the textual development of the Balfour Declaration through a detailed discussion of all ten drafts, as well as the final document itself. The chapter shows how the gendered stereotypes reinforced assumptions that inform decisions about the Declaration. The chapter explores how the embedded qualities of racial definitions and sentiments accounted for the working out of the definition of nation. The chapter examines how 'national status' and 'legitimacy' were understood by the late 1910s. The chapter shows how events in the nineteenth century created the idea of the 'nation', and how this idea in turn inspired anti-imperialism or local imperial endeavors and new forms of self-identification. By the end of the nineteenth century, a scramble was underway among European powers to assert cultural superiority, solidify control of imperial possessions, and sustain the precarious balance of power in Europe.
