What is the earliest example of nationalism?

Answer 1

Probably the earliest example of a group of people defining themselves as unique and desirous of self-rule in their own homeland would be the Jewish Zealots in the Roman Period, nearly 2000 years ago. However, nationalism as a modern political philosophy arguing for a uniform national identity first came to the fore in Britain and was an artifact of the Articles of Union of 1707, which brought the Kingdoms of Scotland and England into a new United Kingdom. This kind of nationalism was replicated in the American and French Revolutions. If nationalism is restricted to the concept of ethnic self-sovereignty, as it first appeared in the 1800s, then the Modern Greeks were the first group to assert the right to rule themselves under ethnic self-sovereignty through the Greek War of Independence.