Chapter 8 Key Issue 2

Why are Nation-states Difficult to Create?

• nation-states are difficult to create because it’s near impossible to only have a singular ethnicity in a state
• in multinational states
  • ethnicities can coexist peacefully, while remaining different
  • a singular ethnicity could try to dominate another

Nation-states and Multinational States

multiethnic state: a state that contains more than one ethnicity

multinational state: a country that contains more than one ethnicity with traditions of self-determination

Nation-states in Europe

Denmark

• 90% of population are ethnic Danes
  • have a strong sense of unity from shared cultural characteristics and attitudes from hundreds of years ago
  • nearly all speak Danish
• other 10% are ethnic minorities
  • guest workers from Turkey
  • refugees from ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia
• Denmark controls 2 territories where few Danes live
  • Faeroe Islands
  • speak Faeroese
  • Greenland
  • only 12% are Danish
  • the rest are native-born Greenlanders, mainly Inuit

Slovenia

• became an independent country after Yugoslavia
• 83% are Slovenes
  • holds nearly all the world’s 2 million Slovenes
• migrants are attracted to Slovenia
• boundary changes have caused Slovenes living in Italy and Italians living in Slovenia

Nation-states and Ethnic Identity

• Europeans thought ethnicity was left behind as an insignificant relic
• in the 2000s, ethnic identity has become important in the creation of nation-states in Europe once again
• breakup of Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia has given oppotunities to organize nation-states
• less-numerous ethnicites found themselves living as minorities
• Communist leaders in Europe used centripetal forces to discourage ethnicities from having cultural uniquness
• “social realism” emphasized Communist economic and political values
  • Russian was heavily promoted
  • role of religion was minimized
• Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Cezchoslovakia fell because minority ethnicities fought back and wanted their own nation-states

Independent Nation-States in Former Soviet Republics

• Soviet Union had consisted of 15 republics, based on its 15 largest ethnicites, consisting of five groups
  • 3 Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
  • 3 European states: Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine
  • 5 Central Asian states: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzebkistan
  • 3 Caucasus states: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia
  • Russia
• decent examples of nation-states appeared out of the Baltic, European, and Central Asian states
• Caucasus states and Russia have not been formed into peaceful nation-states
  • Russia is an example of a state struggling with keeping all its ethnicities contented
• less-numerous ethnicities are divided among these new states

Baltic States

• were independent countries between the end of WWI (in 1918 and 1940), when Soviet Union annexed them under an agreement with Nazi Germany
• Lithuania
  • most closely fits the definition of a nation-state
  • ethnic Lithuanians are 85% of population
  • most are Roman Catholic
  • most speak a language of the Baltic group in the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European family
• Estonia
  • ethnic Estonians comprise 69% of population
  • more are Protestant (Lutheran)
  • speak a Uralic language related to Finnish
• Latvians
  • ethnic Latvians are 59% of population
  • most are Protestant (Lutheran)
  • Roman Catholic minority
  • speak a language of the Baltic group

European States

• Belarusians comprise 81% of the population of Belarus
• Moldovans comprise 78% of the population of Moldova
• Ukrainians comprise 78% of the population in Ukraine
• distinction between the 3 are blurred
  • speak similar East Slavic languages
  • predominantly Orthodox Christians
• Belarus and Ukraine
  • became distinct because they were isolated from Russians
  • because of Mongolian invasions and conquests by Poles and Lithuanians
• Moldova
  • indistinguishable from Romanians
  • Moldova had been a part of Romania
  • wanted to reunify with Romania after the Soviet Union collapsed
  • the Ukrainians and Russians in Trans-Dniestria oppose the reunification

Central Asian States

• Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
  • 85% Turkmen in Turkmenistan
  • split between Turkmenistan and Russia
  • 80% Uzbek in Uzbekistan
  • split between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan
  • both are Muslims who speak an Altaic language
• Kyrgyzstan
  • 69% Kyrgyz
  • Muslims
  • speak an Altaic language
  • resent Russians for taking their best farmland
  • 15% Uzbek
  • 9% Russian
• Kazakhstan
  • Kazakhs are 67%
  • Muslims
  • speak an Altaic language similar to Turkish
  • Russians are 18%
  • Orthodox Christians
  • speak and Indo-European language
  • tensions exist but it’s been peaceful because it has a decent economy
• Tajikistan
  • 80% Tajik
  • Muslims
  • speak a language in the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European languages
  • 15% Uzeb
  • 1% Russian
  • civil war between Tajiks (former Communists) and Muslim fundamentalists and Western-oriented intellecturals
  • 15% of population is homeless because of the war

The Largest Multinational State: Russia

• multinational states face challenges
  • maintaining unity
  • avoiding fragmentation
• Russia recognizes 39 ethnic groups as nationalities
  • many want independence
• 20% of population is non-Russian
• clusters
  • near Mongolia
  • Buryats and Tuvinian
  • near Azerbaijan and Georgia
  • Chechens, Dagestani, Kabardins, and Ossetians
  • between the Volga River basin and Ural Mountains
  • Bashkirs, Chuvash, Tatars, etc.
    • speak Altaic languages similar to Turkish
  • Mordvins and Udmurts
    • speak Uralic languages similar to Finnish
  • most groups were conquered by Ivan the Terrible
• Russia is less willing to suppress independence movements than the Soviet Union
• Chechens
  • Sunni Muslims
  • speak a Caucasian language
• Chechnya was part of the Soviet Union
• after the collapse it refused to join Russia and called itself independent
• Russia ignored its independence and sent its army to gain control
• Russia fought hard to keep Chechnya to prevent other ethnicities also trying to get independence
• Checnya had a lot of petroleum too

Turmoil in the Caucasus

• Caucasus region is between the Black and Caspian seas
• major ethnicities
  • Azeris
  • Armenians
  • Georgians
• other important ethnicities
  • Abkhazians
  • Chechens
  • Ingush
  • Ossetians
  • Kurds
  • Russians
• was part of the Soviet Union, which dispelled disputes between ethnicities by force if necessary
• once the Soviet Union broke up, ethnicities have begun to fight
• no ethnicity has fully achieved getting their own independent state

Azerbaijan

• Azeris trace roots to Turkish invaders from Central Asia who merged with the Persian population
• 1828 treaty gave northern Azeri to Russia and southern to Persia
• 1923, the Russian portion became the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic in the Soviet Union
• after the Soviet Union, it became an independent country
• the western part (Nakhichevan) is part of Armenia
• 7 million Azeris live in Azerbaijan (91% of its population)
• 16 million Azeris live in Iran (24% of its population)
  • hold positions of responsibility in government and economy
  • however, Iran restricts teaching of the Azeri language

Armenia

• more than 3,000 years ago, they controlled an independent kingdom
• then were converted to Christianity and lived as an isolated Chrisitian enclave under the Turkish Muslims
• Armenians were killed in massacres by the Turks, forcing some to migrate to Russia
• Russia got eastern Armenia in 1828
• the Allies created an independent state of Armenia after WWI, but it was swallowed by its neighbors
• Turkey and the Soviet Union divided Armenia between each other in 1921
• the Soviet portion became an independent country in 1991
• Armenians comprise 98% of the population
  • the most homogeneous country in the region
• Armenians and Azeris went to war over boundaries over Nagorno-Karabakh
  • it became a part of Azerbaijan, but acts as an independent republic called Artsakh

Georgia

• population
  • Georgians - 71%
  • Armenian - 8%
  • Azeri and Russian each - 6%
  • Ossetian - 3%
  • Abkhazian, Greek, and other ethnicities, each - 2%
• unrest between the Ossetians and Abkhazians
• Abkhazians fought for the northwestern portion and declared Abkhazia to be an independent state
• Ossetians fought a war with Georgians and declared the South Ossetia to be independent
• Russia and only a few other countries have recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia to be independent

Colonies

colony: a territory that is legally tied to a sovereign state rather than being completely independent

Colonialism

colonialism: an effort by one country to establish settlements in a terriroty and to impose its political, econmic, and cultural principles on that territory

• European states have established colonies to
  • promote Christianity (God)
  • extract useful resources and serve as captive markets for their products (gold)
  • establish relative power through the number of their colonies (glory)
• colonial era began in the 1400s when explorers sailed west for Asia but found the Western Hemisphere instead
• European states lost most of their colonies because of them gaining independence
• United Kingdom
  • planted colonies on every continent including
  • eastern and southern Africa
  • South Asia
  • Middle East
  • Australia
  • Canada
  • had the largest colonial empire (“sun never set”)
• France
  • second largest colonial empire
  • colonies in
  • West Africa
  • Southeast Asia
  • attempted to assimilate its colonies into French culture
  • after independence, most leaders still kept close ties with France
• most African and Asian colonies became independent after WWII
• only 15 of African and Asian states were members of the UN in 1945
• 106 of African and Asian states are in the UN in 2012

The Remaining Colonies

• US Department of State lists 68 places in the world that are colonies
  • 43 with indigenous populations
  • 25 with no permanent population
  • most are islands in Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea
• most populous is Peurto Rico
  • US’s
  • 4 million residents
  • an island of 8,870 square km (3,500 square miles)
  • are citizens of the US, but do not participate in US elections or have a voting member of Congress
• least-populated is Pitcairn Island
  • UK’s
  • 47 square km (18 square miles)
  • in the South Pacific
  • settled by British mutineers from the ship Bounty
  • 48 islanders
• US State Department does not include some inhabited islands considered by others to be colonies, but includes several entities to be colonies that others do not (Greenland, Hong Kong, and Macao)

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