Medieval eastward settlement was economic, not nationalist, in motivation
Evidence
As Joachim Bahlcke notes, “nationalist viewpoints or ethnic belonging generally played no recognizable role among the settlers; around the year 1200, [forest] clearing, the development of the land and settlement were goals aimed at improving the economic bases throughout Europe.” 11 In 1175, the founding of Europe’s largest Cistercian monastery, Leubus [Lubi ąż ] on the Oder River, at the behest of the Piast duke Boles ł aw I, provided the i rst center for the colonization efforts that followed over the coming decades when the rulers of Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary invited Germans from Thuringia, Saxony, Bavaria, Swabia, and the Upper Palatinate to establish farming areas, mines, and cities on their lands. — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East, 260
Categorization
- XREF: Relevant to the reader’s core question: it suggests the original ‘manufactured enemy’ narratives (German eastward Drang) are retrospective nationalist constructs, echoing the invented-tradition literature on both sides. — connects to: European hegemony resulted from economic and imperial factors, not inherent Western superiority — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 103; European hegemony resulted from mercantile capitalism, not inherent cultural superiority; Early Anglo patronage of Muslims was economic, not religious or abolitionist (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- European hegemony resulted from mercantile capitalism, not inherent cultural superiority
#corroborates(0.80) - European global hegemony resulted from economic advantage, not cultural superiority.
#corroborates(0.80) - European economic and cultural backwardness, not superiority, preceded its hegemony
#corroborates(0.80) - European hegemony resulted from economic and imperial factors, not inherent Western superiority
#qualifies(0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 103 - Early Anglo patronage of Muslims was economic, not religious or abolitionist
#exemplifies(0.75)