Curmudgeon
default setting: sarcastic prick
Originally when humankind was divided due to migration nationalism made sense, because obviously things were so insecure you wanted a large group to be safer. Nowadays, because of the progress of humanity it is no longer necessary, therefore I do not support it.
you're conflating ethnicity, nationality, and nationalism. they're very different things.
What you're describing is ethnicity. as the forerunners of modern homo sapiens migrated first out of Africa, and then to all corners of the earth. By the end of the Pleistocene into the Holocene, separation, isolation, and geography combined to produce a myriad of varying genetic diversity.
The entire concept of nationality is relatively new. Even as late as the 19th century, most people did not see themselves as from a specific country, but often a city or other small political region (even in the United States, it was more common to identify yourself by state of origin well after the Civil War ended). The modern nation state, from which nationality is derived, only really emerged in the early modern period around 1400-1600. ancient empires did not foster this ideal - rather the despotic structures promoted a very different relationship between rulers and ruled. There was no sense of national ownership among the non-elite, whose only connection to the greater national apparatus was via forced taxation and military service. Nationality and ethnicity are often tied together (see modern China), though are distinctly separate concepts - it should be noted that the various non-Chinese ethnic groups are expected to fall in line with national expectations (see also: The Soviet Union)
Modern nationalism (as we understand it) is the bastard lovechild of Romanticism and the French Revolution. Its inception was originally political - the French had good reason to spread the idea that component nationalities of polygot empires in central and eastern europe should band together and fight for their ethnic liberty - 'nation' and 'ethnicity' were interchangeable terms before the twentieth century as national pride was ethnic pride - vastly different from the indifferent imperial model they persisted under. The Germans, Bosnians, Maygars, Poles, etc were to pursue their own independence and break away from their oppressive controllers (and thereby weaken them for French conquest). Like most -isms, nationalism took on a life of its own beyond the driving force of political diversification into modern times.
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