Until the time of the middle ages, there were few nations. With the fall of the Roman Empire, people were subject to invasion by a multitude of small armies, rouges, thieves, and the like. Sometime during the middle ages, the concept of nationalism arose. The rise of nationalism towards the end of the middle ages was caused by many factors including the loss of ecclesiastical power through the development of strong independent monarchies, the growth of trade, creation of literature in the vernacular, and perhaps most importantly, the development of the rule of law.

France and England had strong central governments that started to exhibit independence from the church, which contributed to the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire and the rise of nationalism. One of the first steps in this process was to make the kingships hereditary, instead of having an election...