Religious influence on nationalism

A religious group could be patriotic about their religion if some authority threatens to oppress their religion. This religious nationalism could fuel a religious rebellion. In the case of Catholicism, though, the Catholics were worried about loosing their control so when Spain established colonies in Latin America one of the focuses was on converting the natives to Catholicism. In countries such as Germany after unification on the other hand Catholicism was seen as a source of allegiance outside the state and was therefore repressed.  As time went on Nationalism lead people to increasingly separate their allegiance to state vs Church with a person's allegiance expected to be to his state first.