National consciousness
A national consciousness is a shared sense of national identity;[1] that is, a shared understanding that a people group shares a common ethnic/linguistic/cultural background. Historically, a rise in national consciousness has been the first step towards the creation of a nation.
Nationalism requires first a national consciousness, the awareness of national communality of a group of people, or nation.[2]
National identities in Europe and the Americas developed along with the idea of political sovereignty invested in the people of the state. In Eastern Europe, it was also often linked to ethnicity and culture.[1]
An awakening of national consciousness is frequently ascribed to national heroes and is associated with national symbols, and was part of the dissolution of Yugoslavia,[3] Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014 was credited with increasing Ukraine's national consciousness.[4]