ABSTRACT
Most scholars have seen the origins of modern nationalism in the French Revolution of 1789. They have been wrong. The French Revolution was a universal and imperial rather than a national venture. It sought to make all Europe French continue a trend already evident in the pre-revolutionary period. Revolts against such French attempts were carried out not in the name of a modern conception of nationhood but in the name of religion and traditional dynastic loyalty. Only in Germany did Gallophobia reach new heights but not sufficiently to call for a German state.
