When Classical Liberalism first gained prominence as a political movement in Europe and the Western Hemisphere in general, the ideology was closely tied to national struggles for independence against large empires. Aside from the liberal nature of the American Revolution, the wars of independence fought by the nations of Latin America against the Spanish Empire, unsuccessful wars for Polish independence against Russia and the Greek war of independence against the Ottomans were all led both intellectually and militarily by men dedicated to liberalism. The avatar of this channel is a portrait of Lord Byron, a British liberal poet who fought and died for Greek Independence and a celebrated national hero of Greece.
At Springtime of Nations we seek to revive this spirit of national self determination, for several reasons. While “Nationalism” as understood today can include a number of anti-liberal or anti-libertarian ideas and can even be a barrier to self determination as properly understood, the concept of national sovereignty in the 18th and 19th century was in fact a decentralizing, libertarian concept. The ideal of liberal nationalists was to create a polity with as much consent of the governed as possible. The people, they believed, were a natural social organization that deserved their own say in their own governance. This was in contrast to the form of governance common before the Enlightenment, where multiple peoples were forced together through conquest and the marriages of different nobles. This revolution in conception of governance introduces the idea that at least some government is inherently illegitimate, and that rebelling against these governments is justified or even morally obligated.
