ABSTRACT
Nationalisms, like nations, are not constructed ex nihilo. The rise and mobilization of national collective identity-aiming at the politicization of that identity and, ultimately, the building or rebuilding of a “nation-state”—is based on a number of cultural and symbolic elements or ethnosymbols, among which the following are most frequently listed: religion, territory and the collective memory of major events (Smith 2001:23).
