It's 1680 in Würzburg. I ask a man what country he lives in. What does he respond?

by HayRoss

What would the average person in the Holy Roman Empire say what country they lived in is? Would he say "The Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg", "Würzburg", "Germany", "The Holy Roman Empire", or "I don't know"? What did the average man know about the separate states of the Holy Roman Empire?

Cassiterite

I would guess that the term "country" didn't have precisely the same meaning then as it does today. So, followup question: how are the semantics of what was and what wasn't considered a country in 1680 different compared to our modern understanding of the term?

Ithuraen

I imagine pre-nationalism identities would be more focused on villages, loosely defined rural areas or cities (or subsections of cities). If pressed further he might describe the larger area as owned by a Bishop but the ever-changing political landscape of the HRE is:

a) hard to keep track of

And

b) of no consequence to the average man living in it

Which direction the army marches is more important to modern historians than to a Würzburger cobbler.