Canaris wrote:Detail for me the ways in which Rome was not a nation state, please, I'd love to poke holes in your logic.
+1
Grelf wrote:
There is no nobility today where I live. So yeah, it is. The general population has a voice on politics, and warfare is not a mere sport of the nobles either.
There's
always a privileged elite class.
Or... Do you live in a communist state

?
Nationalism is basically identification with one's own country or political entity. Why is that important if people didn't identify themselves with their country and didn't dabble in politics?
Identification with one's own country is natural and given. Identification with a political entity is normal for civilized people. And it is natural for people to prefer a political entity which is native to their culture.
Nationalism is based on those things and is secondary to them.
If you study some more history you'll realize that lords swapped territory as often as people move to new homes today, and the lives of the people who lived there didn't change at all. And why would they identify themselves with every single random new territory they belong to, when matters such as war or politics don't even affect their lives?
Very odd assumption for a person who is trying to teach others history.
From one day to another people suddenly belonged to different kingdoms and empires, and it mattered not, because for commoners life outside of their villages or towns mattered very little. They could barely even know about what happened outside very well.
Yeah, like Roman villagers when Huns overrun half of their empire. Or those pure Ru... cough-cough... Chinese when Mongols came to burn their cities. Or those Scottish guys who never were aware of any Norman or English bullies waving axes here and there and having sex with their wives.
"People", "country" or "race" are concepts much different from nationalism.
Of course they are! Should I give you an award for you finally have got it?