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In Western Europe, during the Long Nineteenth Century and the Age of Nationalism, states needed to find a way to create loyal, national citizens who would fit a certain ideal. One of the ways that states tried to answer this problem was by educationalizing the making of “future citizens” - socializing children through mass education and a national curriculum. What we intend to do in our paper, is to analyze and compare how two different cases, Austria and Sweden, used national historical narratives to instill a certain sense of historical consciousness that would create the desired citizen while also uniting society at the national level (Friedrich, 2010). The Austrian case analyzes the writing of recent history (in their case, the Austro-Prussian “German” War of 1866 and its aftereffects) in history textbooks published from 1869 until the Interwar Period. This timeframe in particular encompasses the decades during which Austria was coming to terms with its ousting from the German Confederation and subsequent exclusion from a united Germany, as well as the time after which Austria had officially reached nation-state status (after the conclusion of the First World War in 1918). In perusing these textbooks, the role of the national historical narrative as it concerned Austria’s national identity is reconstructed. This is compared, in turn, with the Swedish case which analyzes the writing of a national historical narrative concerning the 18th century (the so called “Age of Liberty” and the reign of Gustav III) in history textbooks published from 1870 until the Interwar Period. The 18th century in Sweden was characterized by disruptions and subversions on several fronts. The national narrative concerning this period will serve as an example of how the Swedish State grappled with the issue of depicting a diverse and complex historical period while at the same time keeping education aimed at national unification and loyalty to the nation-state (Berg & Edquist 2015). The paper will elaborate on how the historical narratives in textbooks became tools purposed with shaping students into the ideal national citizens in these two different aspiring nation-states which were both trying to develop into independent, unified nations after separating from long intertwined histories with their neighbors. This will be done through the theoretical perspectives of socialization and educationalization (Smeyers & Depaepe, 2008; Tröhler, 2011).