The primary aim of the project is to systematically analyse resistance to foreign rulers and thus the effects of foreign rule in the high and late Middle Ages by means of a comprehensive comparison of individual conflicts and to identify the conditions under which foreign rule productively promoted the formation of new identities. On this basis, it will be examined to what extent the threat from outside contributed to the formation of ethnic or national identifications in the Middle Ages. By making the conflicts triggered by the establishment of a new ruler the starting point of the analysis, the effect of concrete conflicts on the formation of identity and, conversely, the influence of identity formation on the course of the conflict will also be traced. The Sicilian Vespers (1282), the Flemish revolt against the French King Philip IV (1296-1305) and the first phase of the Scottish War of Independence (1297-1327) will be analysed.