The answer is Europe
The idea of a 'nation-state' is actually a modern idea not more than 400 years old.
The post-Renaissance Europe, saw a rise in opposition to Royal families, wars and poverty.
Among this, grew the idea of a 'home land' and a place which one can call home.
Similar to what the Jews believed to be their home in Israel, the land came to define the people, instead of the people defining the land.
Eventually, this thought gave rise to subsequent countries we see today
