This work departs from the notion of national identity as a fixed concept, assuming all collective identities as palphetic processes. In the nineteenth century, commercial, population control and national planning projects were important incentives for the formation of these identities. During the design of legislation, economy, power distribution, and place in the global market, the creation of a national identity became essential for state designers. The forces of territorial expansion, urbanisation, immigration, Indigenous removal, civil wars, emancipation of slaves, and subversion of the patriarchy were smoothly intertwined to continuously create and modify national, regional, gender and ethnic identities. As a result of these exchanges, different groups built national memories and experiences in different ways. Sometimes, communities were stripped of a national feeling and adopted another relatively agile. Others strengthened the ties that enabled them to maintain their group identity more or less stable until today despite physical relocation, the dispersion of the group, and the incorporation of an additional national identity. In all cases, these processes were – and continue to be – negotiated and rewritten.