2021/08/26 by Daniel Mattingly, Ting Chen · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies #Religion and Society Interactions #Asian Studies and History #Nationalism #Politics #China #Democracy #Political science #Mobilization #Nationalist Movement #Gender studies #Power (physics) #Political economy #Sociology #Law
paper · doi:10.1086/716972
openalex publication_date 2021/08/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
What explains the origins of nationalism? In this article, we trace the origins of an important early twentieth-century nationalist movement to Christian missionary activity. A growing literature credits missionaries with spreading schooling and democracy. Yet missionary activity often led to a political backlash and to antiforeign, nationalist mobilization. Drawing on evidence from China, we show how missionary activity sparked nationalist mobilization in the early 1900s. We gather new data on early nationalist secret societies, missionary activity, and antimissionary violence. Qualitative and quantitative evidence shows how missionaries threatened the political power of local elites, who responded by mobilizing violent antiforeign protests and participating in nationalist political societies. The findings challenge the idea that Christian missionaries influenced long-run political development primarily because they spread schooling and literacy. Instead, we show that missionaries also sparked early nationalist mobilization.