In 1748, the Scottish philosopher David Hume made a clear statement about the origins of national character in his collection of moral and political essays. He argued that the character of a nation depended solely upon socio-political and moral factors. His essay ‘Of National Characters’ was a fierce attack on the widely held climate theory that attributed the differences between peoples to the influence of the climatological circumstances in which they lived. According to this theory, southern peoples like the Spanish and the Italians were wittier and more inclined to warfare than northern peoples whose mental state was determined by greater humidity. Hume objected to this theory by giving nine examples where it failed. One of his decisive arguments was that even though Spanish, English, French and Dutch people travelled across the entire globe, they were still distinguishable. Instead, Hume foregrounded other elements which defined national character, such as cultural habits, a shared language, a common religion and being subject to the same government.

Hume's essay is part of a long tradition of texts about national stereotypes and character that can be traced back to the Middle Ages. The way he reflects upon ‘nation’ and ‘national character’ reveals that these terms had become ingrained in common speech, but were historically charged and contested. Hume refuted the idea that differences in the manners and customs of people could be related to climatological factors and promoted the idea of differences in ‘national cultures’, in other words: the idea that national identity was primarily defined along cultural lines.