How do La Marseillaise and war volunteers show a new idea of nation in France?

Correct answer: Citizens began to see themselves as responsible for national defence

The governing concept is civic nationalism: the nation is understood as a community of citizens rather than as the private possession of a king. La Marseillaise became a powerful revolutionary song, and volunteers joined the army in the name of the French nation. Their participation showed that ordinary citizens could claim responsibility for defending the homeland and its political ideals. Option A is correct because it expresses this active, collective idea of national citizenship. Option B preserves the old dynastic view, while options C and D wrongly replace or exclude the citizen body that revolutionary nationalism sought to mobilise.