[Theobald]

- First I think we should refer to "Patrie" (in French, Fatherland), that is "Fathers' land", the heritage we got from our ancestrors (material, spiritual, moral), the soil, the territory, the land. A Patrie is a land where successive human generations have cultivated fields, exploited mines, built houses, castels, universities, roads, factories, law courts, cemeteries, churches and cathedrals.
According to Maurras : "What is a Fatherland ? Fields, walls, towers and houses, churches, cemeteries and tombs . Nothing is more concret." Fatherland is therefore a product of History and a people.

- A Nation can't be defined without this heritage. It is the whole of its heirs, those who were born on this land. A Nation is the living community of the heirs, dead, currently alive or to come. The idea of Nation also implies a community of fate and a solidarity in time and space.
A Fatherland is rather a heritage whereas a Nation is a community of the heirs of this heritage. Then there are many other things : a common language, a common culture, common habits and way of life, common interests, a common history, a common ethnical background, common heroes and glorious historical events.
To end, I would say self-identification is a very important thing - perhaps the most important element - since for people to express nationalism it is first necessary for them to identify themselves as belonging to a Nation.

- Some definitions from important French Nationalist leaders :

According to Maurice Barrès, national identity is "la Terre et les Morts" (i.e. "one's land, soil and the deads, those who died to defend it, one's ancestrors) : Blood & Soil, and also "a common way to feel and act".

According to Charles Maurras, a Nation "is not a dense cloud, it is the abstract representation of a strong reality. It is the largest existing community, solide and complet." He also shared the idea that the Nation is more important than all other groups - and that the Nation's interests shall be more important than anything else.

According to Le Pen : "The Nation is a community of language, interests, race, memory and culture where a man can 'bloom'. He is linked to the Nation with his roots, his ancestrors, his past, his heredity and his heritage. What the Nation gives him at his birth has already an inestimable worth."

- Codreanu's definition of the Nation is also very interesting :

"When we speak of the Rumanian nation, we refer not only to the Rumanians currently living on the same territory, with the same past and same future, the same habits, the same language, the same interests. When we speak of the Rumanian nation we refer to all Rumanians, dead or alive, who have lived on this land of ours from the beginnings of history and will live on it also in the future.

The nation includes:

1. All Rumanians currently alive.
2. The souls and tombs of the dead and of our ancestors.
3. All who will be born Rumanian.

The nation possesses:
1. A physical, biological patrimony: the flesh and the blood.
2. A material patrimony: the country's soil and its wealth.
3. A spiritual patrimony, which includes:

A. Its concept of God, people, and life. This concept constitutes a possession, a spiritual patrimony.
B. Its honor
C. Its culture: the fruit of its life, the product of its own efforts in thought and art."

- Finally Nationalism is :

- 1 - The belief that one's primary duty and loyalty is to the Nation, the will to glorify national virtues and the concern with national self-interest first and above all other interests

- 2 - The will to preserve and secure what makes a Nation (cultural, "racial", ... identity)

- 3 - The will to defend the independence and sovereignty of one's Nation (against supra-national organizations such as EU for instance)

- 4 - The will to maintain the unity of one's Nation (against separatism, individualism or foreign agressions)

And...

Originally Posted by Mynydd

Italy is another example of a state, though the differences are not as big in the case of Italy as they are in the case of France, and a self-styled confederation is a possibility there.

The opinion of a Spaniard - or of any foreigner - in French and Italian internal affairs is of zero importance. Hence ...

5 -The reject of any foreign influence in one's Nation (whether it be Jewish, American, Free-masonic or from a hostile neighbouring country).