...The populace was extremely nationalistic...
...Before 1934 this was never more than the thoughts of some weirdos...
Hardly. The majority of Europeans during the age of empire were typically nationalistic. By the end of the 19th century the nations in Europe that still had significant power to back up their nationalism was down to Germany (Prussia) and Britain. A few others could arguably be added to that list, but they were nations that had pretty much ceased their imperial expansion.
My use of the term "Aryan" was in the traditional sense, that is
"...people supposed to have lived in prehistoric times, in Central Asia, east of the Caspian Sea, and north of the Hindoo Koosh and Paropamisan Mountains, and to have been the stock from which sprang the Hindu, Persian, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, and other races; one of that ethnological division of mankind called also Indo-European or Indo-Germanic." (source: http://dict.die.net/aryan/ )
The concept of an inherent superiority of the typical European people, especially over the natives of the Americas, Africa and Asia, was very a commonly held belief, and some twits -er- people believe it even today. Other nations have parallel beliefs, for example, when it was determined by genetic comparison that the Japanese had descended from the Koreans, there was absolute denial by many in Japan.
-rcv-
...Before 1934 this was never more than the thoughts of some weirdos...
Hardly. The majority of Europeans during the age of empire were typically nationalistic. By the end of the 19th century the nations in Europe that still had significant power to back up their nationalism was down to Germany (Prussia) and Britain. A few others could arguably be added to that list, but they were nations that had pretty much ceased their imperial expansion.
My use of the term "Aryan" was in the traditional sense, that is
"...people supposed to have lived in prehistoric times, in Central Asia, east of the Caspian Sea, and north of the Hindoo Koosh and Paropamisan Mountains, and to have been the stock from which sprang the Hindu, Persian, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, and other races; one of that ethnological division of mankind called also Indo-European or Indo-Germanic." (source: http://dict.die.net/aryan/ )
The concept of an inherent superiority of the typical European people, especially over the natives of the Americas, Africa and Asia, was very a commonly held belief, and some twits -er- people believe it even today. Other nations have parallel beliefs, for example, when it was determined by genetic comparison that the Japanese had descended from the Koreans, there was absolute denial by many in Japan.
-rcv-