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)