The first clear expression of nationalism came with the French Revolution in 1789.
- The Revolution led to the transfer of sovereignty from the monarchy to a body of French citizens. The revolution proclaimed that it was the people who would hence forth constitute the nation and shape its destiny.
- From the very beginning, the French revolutionaries introduced various measures and practices that could create a sense of collective identity amongst the French people.
- The ideas of la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen) emphasised the notion of a united community enjoying equal rights under a constitution. A new French flag, the tricolour, was chosen to replace the former royal standard.
- The Estates General was elected by the body of active citizens and renamed the National Assembly. New hymns were composed, oaths taken and martyrs commemorated,all in the name of the nation.
- Regional dialects were discouraged and French, as it was spoken and written in Paris, became the common language of the nation.
- The revolutionaries further declared that it was the mission and the destiny of the French nation to liberate the peoples of Europe from despotism, in other words to help other peoples of Europe to become nations.
