Believing that his empire was a divine gift and trust to be preserved, the Habsburgs monarch of Austria-Hungary Franz Josef I annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina to make up for the territories lost earlier and, along with other maniacs, participated in insanities that lead to WW-1. His claim was neither new nor unique. Monarchs have laid similar claims more than often and almost everywhere. An example of this is the concept of Bharta/Bharat, the land which, according to Hinduism, needs to be preserved and includes modern day’s Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, precisely the extent of Maurya empire.
Rigveda, the earliest Hindu text was compiled in what is now Punjab and KPK provinces of Pakistan about 1000 BC and refers to this land as Sapta Sindhu, the land of seven rivers. Five rivers of Punjab, river Beas and river Swat. Rigveda is filled with hymns of praise for it almost making what is now Pakistan a holy land. But it does not have anything about the concept of Bharat in the sense later additions into Hinduism like Puranas propound.
My point is, this concept was concocted during Maurya Empire as neither before nor after that empire, this region remained as a single unit. The empire soon disintegrated and sub-continent remained divided into tens of smaller kingdoms which were not only independent but often hostile to each other. Mughals joined this region after 2000 years and after them, Bharat mata was resurrected.