ABSTRACT
It is more difficult to discuss the problem of nationalism in English or French than in Central and East European languages, because in both English and French ‘nationality’ means the same as ‘citizenship’, while ‘nation’ refers to all the citizens. The tacit assumption is that all citizens share a feeling of belonging together and form a collectivity sharing the wish for independence and unity. In modern history there have been three waves in the creation of new states. The first occurred in the Americas at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. The second occurred in Europe in the nineteenth and the early part of the twentieth centuries and can be divided into two parts. In all the peripheral new states people can observe a very strong tendency to imitate the centres of wealth, power and progress, which affects almost all aspects of life from political doctrine to fashion in dress.
