are you implying that germans, the french and the english did not consider themselves primarily as members of their own ethnic groups?  "the ignorance of our people on questions of foreign politics is clearly demonstrated by the reports in the daily press which talk about "friendship towards germany" on the part of one or the other foreign statesman, whereby this professed friendship is taken as a special guarantee that such persons will champion a policy that will be advantageous to our people. that kind of talk is absurd to an incredible degree. it means speculating on the unparalleled simplicity of the average german philistine when he comes to talking politics. there is not any british, american, or italian statesman who could ever be described as 'pro-german'. every englishman must naturally be british first of all. the same is true of every american. and no italian statesman would be prepared to adopt a policy that was not pro-italian. therefore, anyone who expects to form alliances with foreign nations on the basis of a pro-german feeling among the statesmen of other countries is either an ass or a deceiver. the necessary condition for linking together the destinies of nations is never mutual esteem or mutual sympathy, but rather the prospect of advantages accruing to the contracting parties. it is true that a british statesman will always follow a pro-british and not a pro-german policy; but it is also true that certain definite interests involved in this pro-british policy may coincide on various grounds with german interests. naturally that can be so only to a certain degree and the situation may one day be completely reversed. but the art of statesmanship is shown when at certain periods there is question of reaching a certain end and when allies are found who must take the same road in order to defend their own interests" -ah
United Kingdom