Abstract
In 1882 Ernest Renan declared: “a Nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things, which, in truth, are really one, constitute this soul, this spiritual principle. One is in the past, the other in the present. One is the possession in common of a rich legacy of memories, the other is the present day consent, the desire to live together… to have the glory of the past in common, a shared will in the present, to have done great deeds together, and want to do more of them, are the essential conditions for the constitution of a people.” To be not only a Nation, but a real Nation State, people must possess a permanent population, defined territory, government and capacity to enter into relations with other states. The lives of Western Europeans have been molded by this concept of Nation State for almost two hundred years. The French constitution of 26th August 1789 declared in its third article “Le principe de toute souveraineté réside essentiellement dans la Nation” (the principle of sovereignty essentially lies in Nation).
