The <i>countries</i> came into existence in the last 200 years. The <i>ethnicities</i> have been there for a while.<p>For instance, my country only started existing in 1991. But we have written records of people speaking our language and thinking of themselves as us going back to 800 AD. Germany can trace its origins straight back to The Holy Roman Empire, the ruling classes of which spoke German, thought of themselves as Germanic, had the same crest as Germany uses now, and started existing as a state in 962 AD.<p>And so on.<p>It&#x27;s less about genetics and more about language.