Official nationalism redirected resentment onto imported ethnic minorities

Evidence

Wachirawut, his son and successor (r. 1910–1925), had to pick up the pieces, modelling himself this time on the self-naturalizing dynasts of Europe. Although – and because – he was educated in late Victorian England, he dramatized himself as his country’s ‘first nationalist.’ The target of this nationalism, however, was neither the United Kingdom, which controlled 90 per cent of Siam’s trade, nor France, which had recently made off with easterly segments of the old realm: it was the Chinese whom his father had so recently and blithely imported. The style of his anti-Chinese stance is suggested by the titles of two of his most famous pamphlets: The Jews of the Orient (1914), and Clogs on Our Wheels (1915). — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 382

Categorization

• XREF: Directly scaffolds Islamophobia readings: the mechanism of scapegoating an internal minority instead of the dominant external power echoes contemporary anti-Muslim framing aimed away from Western sponsors. — connects to: Migration and foreign labor eroded the nation-state’s prestige; Minority treaties alienated both minorities and the new states meant to protect them; Resurgent nationalism fuses invented tradition with narcissistic minor-difference resentment. (+11 more)

Related

• Resurgent nationalism fuses invented tradition with narcissistic minor-difference resentment. (similarity 0.86)
• Migration and foreign labor eroded the nation-state’s prestige (similarity 0.85)
• Siam’s first nationalism targeted imported Chinese, not colonizing Europeans (similarity 0.84)
• Minority treaties alienated both minorities and the new states meant to protect them (similarity 0.82)
• Immigrant communities serve as scapegoats for national change (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Official nationalism invited colonized peoples to assimilate but barred full inclusion #expands (0.85) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 401