Originally posted by PF Tinmore
US history starts before there was a US.
But the two formative elements of the palestinian national consciousness appeared after 1880:
1 - The first incipient manifestations of arab nationalism.
2 - The Zionist movement.
Before that the region's inhabitants had other loci of identity:
1 - Ottoman
2 - Arab
3 - Muslim, Christian and Jew
4 - The arab clan the individual belonged to
The palestinian identity was practically non-existent.