ABSTRACT
Representations of the national territory play a major role in definitions of national identity. Establishing the existence of authentic connections between the national community and the territory helps legitimize the political sovereignty of the nation-state. Nationalist relationships to the territory can take different forms in different historical and geographical contexts. In the past thirty years, French curricula have adopted an increasingly explicit approach to the relationship between the national territory and the community, consistent with their overall emphasis on national identity. Regarding historical presentations of the territory, multiculturalism and secularism have altered the founding myths somewhat, Textbooks now promote a narrative of the United States as emerging at the confluence of "three worlds", thus incorporating Native Americans and the pre-Columbian territory, as well as African Americans, into the national narrative in a way that the story of Columbus and nation-building beginning with the British colonies.
