Editing Nation (section)

== Nations in History ==
=== The existence of earlier nations ===
{{See also|Nationalism in Antiquity|Nationalism in the Middle Ages}}
The broad consensus amongst [[Nationalism studies|scholars of nationalism]] is that nations are a recent phenomenon.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Mylonas |first1=Harris |last2=Tudor |first2=Maya |date=2023 |title=Varieties of Nationalism: Communities, Narratives, Identities |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/varieties-of-nationalism/479019877D9D7F0504AD64F6D9AF102B |journal=Cambridge University Press |language=en |doi=10.1017/9781108973298 |isbn=9781108973298 |s2cid=259646325 |quote=a broad scholarly consensus that the nation is a recent and imagined identity dominates political science}}</ref> However, some historians argue that their existence can be traced to the medieval period, or a minority believe even to antiquity.

[[Adrian Hastings]] argued that nations and nationalism are predominantly Christian phenomena, with Jews being the sole exception. He viewed them as the "true proto-nation" that provided the original model of nationhood through the foundational example of [[ancient Israel]] in the [[Hebrew Bible]], despite losing their political sovereignty for nearly two millennia. The Jews, however, maintained a cohesive national identity throughout this period, which ultimately culminated in the emergence of [[Zionism]] and the establishment of modern lsrael.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hastings |first=Adrian |title=The Construction of Nationhood: Ethnicity, Religion and Nationalism |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1997 |isbn=0-521-59391-3 |location=Cambridge |pages=186-187}}</ref> [[Anthony D. Smith]] wrote that the Jews of the late [[Second Temple period]] provide "a closer approximation to the ideal type of the nation ... perhaps anywhere else in the ancient world."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Anthony D. |title=National Identity |date=1993 |publisher=University of Nevada Press |isbn=978-0-87417-204-1 |edition=Reprint |series=Ethnonationalism in comparative perspective |location=Reno Las Vegas |pages=48-50}}</ref>

[[Susan Reynolds]] has argued that many European medieval kingdoms were nations in the modern sense, except that political participation in nationalism was available only to a limited prosperous and literate class,<ref>{{cite book |first=Susan |last=Reynolds |author-link=Susan Reynolds |title=Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe 900–1300 |location=Oxford |date=1997}}</ref> while Hastings claims England's Anglo-Saxon kings mobilized mass nationalism in their struggle to repel Norse invasions. He argues that [[Alfred the Great]], in particular, drew on biblical language in his law code and that during his reign selected books of the Bible were translated into [[Old English]] to inspire Englishmen to fight to turn back the Norse invaders. Hastings argues for a strong renewal of English nationalism (following a hiatus after the [[Norman conquest]]) beginning with the [[Wycliffe's Bible|translation of the complete bible into English by the Wycliffe circle in the 1380s]], positing that the frequency and consistency in usage of the word nation from the early fourteenth century onward strongly suggest [[English nationalism]] and the English nation have been continuous since that time.<ref>{{cite book |first=Adrian |last=Hastings |author-link=Adrian Hastings |title=The Construction of Nationhood: Ethnicity, Religion and Nationalism |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=1997}}</ref>

However, [[John Breuilly]] criticizes Hastings's assumption that continued usage of a term such as 'English' means continuity in its meaning.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Özkirimli |first1=Umut |title=Theories of Nationalism: A Critical Introduction |date=2010 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=London |pages=78 |edition=2nd}}</ref> [[Patrick J. Geary]] agrees, arguing names were adapted to different circumstances by different powers and could convince people of continuity, even if radical discontinuity was the lived reality.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Özkirimli |first1=Umut |title=Theories of Nationalism: A Critical Introduction |date=2010 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=London |pages=77 |edition=2nd}}</ref>

[[Florin Curta]] cites Medieval [[Bulgarians|Bulgarian nation]] as another possible example. [[First Bulgarian Empire|Danubian Bulgaria]] was founded in 680-681 as a continuation of [[Old Great Bulgaria|Great Bulgaria]]. After the adoption of [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christianity]] in 864 it became one of the cultural centres of [[Slavs|Slavic]] Europe. Its leading cultural position was consolidated with the invention of the [[Cyrillic script]] in its capital [[Preslav]] on the eve of the 10th century.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YIAYMNOOe0YC&pg=PR1 |title=Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250, Cambridge Medieval Textbooks |first=Florin |last=Curta |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2006 |pages=221–222 |access-date=2015-02-11 |isbn=9780521815390 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Hugh Poulton argues the development of [[Old Church Slavonic]] literacy in the country had the effect of preventing the assimilation of the [[South Slavs]] into neighboring cultures and stimulated the development of a distinct ethnic identity.<ref name="Poulton2000">{{cite book |last=Poulton |first=Hugh |title=Who are the Macedonians? |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ppbuavUZKEwC&pg=PA19 |edition=2nd |year=2000 |publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers |isbn=978-1-85065-534-3 |pages=19–20 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> A symbiosis was carried out between the numerically weak Bulgars and the numerous Slavic tribes in that broad area from the Danube to the north, to the [[Aegean Sea]] to the south, and from the [[Adriatic Sea]] to the west, to the [[Black Sea]] to the east, who accepted the common ethnonym "''Bulgarians''".<ref>{{cite book |first=Vassil |last=Karloukovski |url=http://www.kroraina.com/macedon/mik_6_1.html |script-title=mk:Средновековни градови и тврдини во Македонија. Иван Микулчиќ (Скопје, Македонска цивилизација, 1996) |title=Srednovekovni gradovi i tvrdini vo Makedonija. Ivan Mikulčiḱ (Skopje, Makedonska civilizacija, 1996) |language=mk |trans-title=Medieval cities and fortresses in Macedonia. Ivan Mikulcic (Skopje, Macedonian Civilization, 1996) |isbn=978-9989756078 |page=72 |publisher=Kroraina.com |access-date=2015-02-11 |year=1996 |archive-date=15 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200915012207/http://www.kroraina.com/macedon/mik_6_1.html |url-status=live }}</ref> During the 10th century the Bulgarians established a form of national identity that was far from modern nationalism but helped them to survive as a distinct entity through the centuries.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MUVgsK_GfxYC&pg=PA11 |title=An Introduction to Post-Communist Bulgaria: Political, Economic and Social Transformations |first=Emil |last=Giatzidis |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |access-date=2015-02-11 |isbn=9780719060953 |year=2002 |via=[[Google Books]] |archive-date=15 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115223028/https://books.google.com/books?id=MUVgsK_GfxYC&pg=PA11 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0NBxG9Id58C&q=Thus+by+Peter%27s+reign+the+Bulgar+and+Slavic+elements+had+merged+to+form+a+Slavic |title=The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century |first=John V. A. Jr. |last=Fine |publisher=[[University of Michigan]] |year=1991 |page=165 |access-date=2015-02-11 |isbn=978-0472081493 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>{{Clarify|reason=If it's "far from modern nationalism" explain how this fits into the discussion|date=August 2023}}

[[Anthony Kaldellis]] asserts in ''Hellenism in Byzantium'' (2008) that what is called the [[Byzantine Empire]] was the Roman Empire transformed into a [[nation-state]] in the [[Middle Ages]].{{Page needed|date=August 2022}}

Azar Gat also argues [[China]], [[Korea]] and [[Japan]] were nations by the time of the [[European Middle Ages]].<ref>Azar Gat, ''Nations: The Long History and Deep Roots of Political Ethnicity and Nationalism'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2013, China, p. 93 Korea, p. 104 and Japan p., 105.</ref>

=== Criticisms ===
In contrast, Geary rejects the conflation of early medieval and contemporary group identities as a myth, arguing it is a mistake to conclude continuity based on the recurrence of names. He criticizes historians for failing to recognize the differences between earlier ways of perceiving group identities and more contemporary attitudes, stating they are "trapped in the very historical process we are attempting to study".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Özkirimli |first1=Umut |title=Theories of Nationalism: A Critical Introduction |date=2010 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=London |pages=77–78 |edition=2nd}}</ref>

Similarly, [[Sami Zubaida]] notes that many states and empires in history ruled over ethnically diverse populations, and "shared ethnicity between ruler and ruled did not always constitute grounds for favour or mutual support". He goes on to argue ethnicity was never the primary basis of identification for the members of these multinational empires.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Özkirimli |first1=Umut |title=Theories of Nationalism: A Critical Introduction |date=2010 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=London |pages=77–78 |edition=2nd}}</ref>

Paul Lawrence criticises Hastings's reading of [[Bede]]'s ''[[Ecclesiastical History of the English People]]'' as evidence of an early [[English national identity]], instead observing that those writing so-called 'national' histories may have "been working with a rather different notion of 'the nation' to those writing history in the modern period". Lawrence goes on to argue that such documents do not demonstrate how ordinary people identified themselves, pointing out that, while they serve as texts in which an elite defines itself, "their significance in relation to what the majority thought and felt was likely to have been minor".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lawrence|first1=Paul|editor1-last=Breuilly |editor1-first=John |title=The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-876820-3 |page=715 |chapter=Nationalism and Historical Writing}}</ref>

=== Use of term ''nationes'' by medieval universities and other medieval institutions ===
{{main article| Nation (university)}}
A significant early use of the term ''nation'', as ''natio'', occurred at [[medieval university|medieval universities]]<ref>''see: [[nation (university)]]''</ref> to describe the colleagues in a college or students, above all at the [[University of Paris]], who were all born within a ''pays'', spoke the same language and expected to be ruled by their own familiar law. In 1383 and 1384, while studying theology at Paris, [[Jean Gerson]] was elected twice as a procurator for the French ''natio''. The [[Charles University in Prague|University of Prague]] adopted the division of students into ''nationes'': from its opening in 1349 the ''[[studium generale]]'' which consisted of Bohemian, Bavarian, Saxon and Polish ''nations''.

In a similar way, the ''nationes'' were segregated by the [[Knights Hospitaller|Knights Hospitaller of Jerusalem]], who maintained at [[Rhodes]] the hostels from which they took their name "where foreigners eat and have their places of meeting, each nation apart from the others, and a Knight has charge of each one of these hostels, and provides for the necessities of the inmates according to their religion", as the Spanish traveller [[Pedro Tafur]] noted in 1436.<ref>Pedro Tafur, ''[http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/tafur.html#ch5 Andanças e viajes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629042823/http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/tafur.html#ch5 |date=29 June 2011 }}''.</ref>