In Satrapi's graphic memoir Persepolis: A Story of a Childhood, there is a constant theme of the exploitation of heroic concepts to legitimize political movements. The Shah's dissidents resorted to martyrdom, even exploiting a man who died of cancer, claiming that it was a political assassination by the government. The Islamic regime has mobilized religious fundamentalism to legitimize the closure of schools and the purge of Western culture and thought. However, while fundamentalism and martyrdom were often used to achieve domestic political goals, it was nationalism that was used in a way that shaped relations between Iran and foreign states, mobilized first in the novel by the Shah installed by the British, and then by the Islamic regime in its war effort against Iraq. Understanding Global Conflict and Cooperation defines nationalism as “A celebration or affirmation of national identity that commonly finds political expression in the claim of a right to self-determination or self-government.” Throughout history this concept has fueled ethnic violence, civil war and countless revolutions, but in Persepolis Satrapi investigates the ways in which nationalism was exploited for British imperialist purposes and as a form of propaganda to fuel the Iranian government's war effort against Iraq. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Europe's international politics were governed by ideals of balance-of-power relationships, in which redistribution of territory among the great powers were used to prevent any single state from becoming too powerful . This would then lead to a new wave of 19th and 20th century imperialism, from which the British Empire would benefit greatly from both royal colonies and puppet governments around the world. One of these puppet governments became Iran when the British government took advantage of a soldier trying to stage a coup and replace the emperor with a republic, helping to install him as the next Shah despite his republican sentiments. Satrapi acknowledged this imperialist takeover of his home country, depicting on a panel on page 21 a dubious-looking Englishman reassuring the future Shah that he should, "just give the oil to the English and they will take care of the rest ". This brief background to imperialism in Iran, framed by Satrapi in the form of her father refuting her naive childhood claim that she "loved the king, he was chosen by God", is later echoed by her grandmother who tells of nationalistic rule by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, son and successor of the Shah installed by Great Britain (Satrapi, 19). This is where the Shah exploits nationalism as a means to distract from British control of Iran's oil industry. Actions such as the Shah's visit to the tomb of Cyrus the Great (described by Satrapi on page 28 as glaring disapprovingly at the Shah) and a frivolous government celebration of 2,500 years of dynasty were two examples given by Satrapi of a celebration of Iranian national identity that was out of step with the political realities of Iranian autonomy. Ironically, the history of empires and the states they colonize is littered with various attempts to stifle nationalistic sentiments, such as by the Soviets deporting approximately 6 million people across various Soviet satellite states to remove ethnic and national ties ( Finlayson, 73). The history of international relationssuggests that British imperialists should have opposed acts such as the Shah's visit to the tomb of Cyrus the Great and should have instead eliminated nationalistic sentiments in the country. Instead, since Britain was only involved to benefit from Iran's oil industry, they felt that the mobilization of nationalism by leaders friendly to British interests actually served to their advantage. Their hopes were that this would succeed. The pro-British Shah's most popular idea was not particularly successful and would distract the Iranian people by strengthening their national identity while simultaneously exploiting their oil industry. Although the Shah's government is overthrown by the Islamic revolution in Iran at the beginning of the novel, the theme of the exploitation of nationalism to influence international affairs continues, this time by the Islamic government to support the war effort with Iraq. Satrapi's memoir, Persepolis, serves both as a historical account of the Islamic revolution in Iran and as a bildungsroman or “coming of age” story. Part of Satrapi's development as a character is her changing view of the Iranian government, becoming increasingly skeptical and left-leaning as the story develops. While she has certainly grown out of her blind acceptance of the king as divine ruler with the onset of the Iraq-Iran war, her response to the conflict shows how successful nationalistic appeals can be in persuading citizens to support international conflict. After hearing from his grandmother that Iranian fundamentalists had attempted to overthrow Saddam Hussein with the support of Iraqi Shiite Muslims, the same Islamic sect with which the Iranian government associates itself, he ignores the obvious provocation of Iraq undertaken by the Iranian government, and instead it stalls on the government's pretext for the war as a second Arab invasion. “The second invasion in 1400 years! My blood boiled. I was ready to defend my country from these Arabs who kept attacking us. I wanted to fight,” we read in the final box on page 79, which outlines Satrapi's thoughts on the news. The irony of the first Arab invasion being what brought Islam to the region, and the justification of the war with a 1400 year old event may seem almost funny to the reader, but it is not even up to date how people react when nationalism plays a significant role in conflict. During the war, the links with nationalism became even more evident: at school the students presented reports on the war and had to participate in self-study sessions twice a day. -flagellation to mourn the dead. Satrapi even described beating each other as “one of the country's rituals”. However, it is with the change in view of war that Satrapi realizes the sinister reality of the exploitative nature of nationalistic conflict. “Iraq proposed a deal and Saudi Arabia was willing to pay for reconstruction to bring peace to the area,” says Satrapi, older and wiser, “but our government was against it.” It turns out that the reason the Iranian government opposed peace is because they “eventually admitted that the survival of the regime depended on war.” The very idea of ​​a bloody conflict with a foreign state as a means of nationalist propaganda is disgustingly backward, and with it we should learn a great truth about the ugliness that can sometimes occur when nationalism is exploited as a means of justification for violence or 'oppression. The history of nationalist movements is checkered at best. If used correctly, as a movement of self-determination of and by a group.