[Marulus]

There is always identity. European peoples have had a variety of identities over ages. Many of today's nations' identities can be traced back to the Middle Ages. Although that identity wasn't the same as that of the nineteenth century's, there is some continuity that can be traced.

It is a changing concept, it is not something static. In fact, human beings have always felt the need to be part of a larger group of people with "shared destiny", whether it be Greek city states (and Hellenism as a meta-ethinic concept), Asian nomadic tribes, belonging to some wider statal-civilizational construction (the Chinese Empire), or a community defined by sharing a religious belief (the Islamic ummah).

I would say that nation-states are a typical European way of expressing identity. Most of them arose out of medieval kingdoms and duchies, but later on many other elements were added up to their definitions as nations.