When Politicians Rebrand Nations Themselves: How Germany, Italy, and Pennsylvania Rewrote Their Founding Stories.
Modern countries often present themselves as ancient, continuous civilizations with a single founder, a single origin moment, and a clean historical narrative. But when you look closely at the actual historical record as I’ve been revealed through the genealogical gift of the founders of most of Europe, you find something very different:
Nations routinely rebrand themselves. They change their legal definitions. They declare new founding dates. They replace original founders with new ones that fit the political needs of the moment.
And the most surprising part?
People accept these rebrandings without question.
To understand how strange this really is, we can look at three examples: Germany, Italy, and Pennsylvania. Each one shows how a modern identity can overwrite an older, more complex, and often more inclusive & revealing origin story.
1. Germany: From Otto the Great to a 19th Century Reboot
For nearly a thousand years, the political entity we call “Germany” was rooted in the medieval kingdom founded by ancestor:
Otto I “the Great” (crowned 962)
Founder of medieval Germany & the First Holy Roman Emperor of the German realm.
This Germany lasted from 962 to 1806, almost nine centuries.
But in 1871, Prussia unified the German states and declared a new entity:
The German Empire (1871)
A modern nation state with a new constitution, new borders, and a new political identity.
Suddenly, the founder of Germany became:
Otto von Bismarck
Architect of the 1871 unification. At least he kept the first name respectfully remembered…
The medieval founder was replaced by a modern one, not because the history changed, but because the definition of “Germany” changed.
It’s the equivalent of a company changing its name under new management and then claiming it was founded last week, or someone adding some new chapters to an original religious text, to claim itself a new religion.
2. Italy: From Charlemagne’s Kingdom to the 1861 Rebrand
The medieval Kingdom of Italy was founded in 774 when ancestor:
Charlemagne
King of the Lombards, Creator of the medieval Kingdom of Italy;
conquered the Lombard kingdom and established the Italian crown inside the Holy Roman Empire.
This medieval Italy existed for over 1,000 years.
But in 1861, the Kingdom of Sardinia unified the peninsula and declared:
Victor Emmanuel II
Founder of the modern Italian state First King of Italy “1861”
This new Italy was legally and politically different from the medieval one. Yet today, most people think Italy “began” in 1861 even though the older Italy had existed for a millennium.
It’s a national reboot, accepted as if it were the original.
3. Pennsylvania: The Forgotten Co Founder
Pennsylvania’s founding story is usually told like this:
William Penn
Founder of Pennsylvania “1681”
But this is only half the truth.
The original founding was a dual nation agreement between:
- William Penn, representing the English newcomers
- Ancestor Tamanend “St. Tammany,” representing the Lenape people
Their 1682 treaty created a shared political space built on peace, diplomacy, and mutual recognition.
Later governments, however, preferred a single founder narrative. The Indigenous co founder faded from official memory, even though early Pennsylvanians openly honored Tamanend as a symbol of peace and unity.
This is another example of a rebranding: a simplification of a more complex, inclusive origin.
Why Do These Rebrandings Get Accepted?
Across all three examples, the pattern is the same:
1. Political power defines the narrative.
Whoever controls the government controls the founding story.
2. People accept the present as the default.
Most citizens don’t study deep history; they accept the version taught in schools, even though two nations can teach vastly different histories of the same place & People as we find in Scandinavia.
3. Modern nationalism prefers clean origin stories.
One founder. One date. One identity. It’s easier to teach, easier to celebrate, and easier to unify around. Though that unification is often centered around the exclusion of another. Pennsylvania to the day of writing this, has a difficult time accepting the Lenape’s existence.
4. Medieval and Indigenous structures don’t fit modern categories.
Shared sovereignty, tribal diplomacy, imperial crowns, and multi ethnic kingdoms don’t map neatly onto modern nation states.
So the older stories get replaced with simpler ones.
Why This Matters
Understanding these rebrandings doesn’t diminish modern nations, it enriches them.
It reminds us that:
- Germany didn’t begin in 1871.
- Italy didn’t begin in 1861.
- Pennsylvania wasn’t founded by one man alone.
These places have multi cultural origins that deserve recognition & respectful remembrance and honor, or else the entire nation builds itself upon cognitive dissonance.
This is no mistake, the Divine Organizer gifting me with the original founders, as it’s the same pattern my Indigenous ancestors face that my European ancestors face. They even renamed Tamanend’s monument at the Naval Academy in Annapolis to Tecumseh for 100 years. How a leader of a nation could possibly think its right to claim themselves the new founder, rendering the previous irrelevant is beyond my moral imagination. It’s also not a mistake how the Messiah of the New Testament to most Christians today, took the light away from Cyrus unintentionally. I feel it’s best to honor the new and the old, as we cannot forgot our inspiration. It’s the perfect pattern for learning fully. Learning what inspired them, brings us closer to the full teaching. To learn Jesus is to Learn Cyrus. to learn Cyrus is to learn King David & Zoroastrianism. to learn Christianity, Islam, or Judaism is to learn Pharoah Akhenaten. It’s all grows, though let’s not let growth hide us from the roots.