The concept of dividing the world into a collection of independent states is recent. Prior to the 1800s, Earth’s surface was organized in other ways, such as into city-states, empires, kingdoms, and small land areas controlled by a hereditary class of nobles.
Key Issue 2: Why Are States Challenging to Create?
Evolution of States The first states developed in Southwest Asia and North Africa. Until modern times, much of the Earth’s land area remained unorganized territory.
Ancient States The first states developed in the Fertile Crescent. The first states to develop were city states. A city-state is a sovereign state comprised of a town and the surrounding countryside. Walls clearly delineated the boundaries of the city. The city controlled the agricultural land surrounding the city that produced food for the urban residents. The countryside also provided the city with an outer line of defense against attack by other city-states. One city may gain military dominance over the others and form an empire. The region was organized into a succession of empires.
Roman Empire to Medieval States Then Roman Empire controlled most of Europe, North Africa, and Southwest Asia. At its largest extent, the empire comprised 38 provinces, each using the same set of laws that had been created in Rome. The Roman Empire eventually collapsed in the fifth century. The European portion of the empire was fragmented into many estates owned by competing kings, dukes, barons, and other nobles. Around 1100, a handful of powerful kings emerged as rulers over many of these European estates. The consolidation of neighboring estates under the unified control of a king formed the basis for the development of modern European states.
Nation-States A state is an area organized into a political union. A nation is a large group of people who are united by common cultural characteristics, such as language and ethnicity or by shared history. A nation-state is a state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity. Self-determination is the right of a people to govern themselves.
Nation-States in Europe The concept of nation states first developed in Europe. After World War I the Allied leaders sought to create nation-states by using language as the main criterion for identification of ethnic groups. New states were created and borders of existing states adjusted to conform to territory occupied by the various linguistic groups. During the 1930s Nazis claimed that all German-speaking parts of Europe constituted one nationality and should be unified into one state under their control. After the Nazis invaded Poland (clearly not a German-speaking country) France and the United Kingdom declared war. After Germany was defeated in World War II, Germany was divided into two states, existing from 1949 until 1990. The borders of present-day state of Germany bear little resemblance to the territory occupied by the German speaking people.
Reorganizing Europe’s Nation-States In the twenty-first century ethnic identity has regained its importance in Europe. The multinational states of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union broke into their constituent parts. Czechoslovakia peacefully became two-nation states—Czechia and Slovakia in 1993. In contrast, the break-up of Yugoslavia involved ethnic cleansing and armed military conflict in this attempt to create nation-states.
Ethnic Diversity Within States There is no perfect nation-state because the territory occupied by an ethnicity never corresponds to the boundaries of the country. However, some states, such as Japan, are excellent examples of a nation-state. The ethnic make-up of Japan is 98.5 percent Japanese, 0.5 percent Korean, 0.4 percent Chinese, and 0.6 percent other. Many states with low ethnic diversity are in Europe, while the most ethnically diverse states are located in Africa.
Nation-States in the Former Soviet Union The Soviet Union consisted of 15 republics, based on its 15 largest ethnicities. Estimates of ethnic groups within the Soviet Union before its breakup include Russians (51 percent), Ukrainians (15 percent), Uzbeks (6 percent), with the remaining 28 percent divided among 100 ethnicities that had been recognized by the Soviet Union. In 1991, the 15 former Soviet republics became independent countries. The states are categorized as follows: Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), European states (Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine), Central Asian states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), Caucasian states (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia), and Russia.
Armenia & Azerbaijan When the Soviets controlled the three countries in the Caucasus Mountains, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, they were able to quell disputes among ethnicities. Even though Azerbaijan and Armenia are both statistically good examples of nation-states, they have fought over the boundaries between them.
Armenia Armenia, a Christian state since 303 C.E., was once ruled by Turkish Muslims. A century ago, an estimated one million ethnic Armenians were killed in what most observers now classify a genocide. Following World War I, the Allies created the independent state of Armenia, although it was soon divided between Turkey and the Soviet Union in 1921. Today 98 percent of the Armenian population is comprised of ethnic Armenians, making it the most ethnically homogenous country in the area. Armenia is bordered by Azerbaijan on both its eastern and western sides.
Azerbaijan Azerbaijanis trace their roots to the Turkish invaders who migrated from Central Asia in the eighth and ninth centuries and merged with the existing Persian population. Azerbaijan is divided into an eastern and western part (Nakhichevan), separated by Armenia. Armenians and Azerbaijanis have contested the boundaries between their countries, fighting specifically over an Azerbaijani enclave called Nagorno- Karabakh inhabited primarily by Armenians and located within eastern Azerbaijan. While Nagorno-Karabakh is still technically a part of Azerbaijan as a result of a 1994 cease-fire agreement, it acts as an independent republic (known as Artsakh).
Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania Located on the Baltic Sea, the countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were independent between 1918 and 1940. They were annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 under an agreement with Nazi Germany. All three have distinct cultural differences and historical traditions. Most Lithuanians are Roman Catholic, whereas Estonians and Latvians are predominantly Lutheran. Lithuanians and Latvians speak a language in the Baltic group of the Indo-European family, while Estonian is an Uralic language.
Belarus and Moldova Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine are bordered by Russia to the east and European democracies to the west. Belarus has made a peaceful transition from a Soviet republic to an independent country. Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Russians all speak similar East Slavic languages although through time they developed into distinct ethnicities. Moldovans are ethnically indistinguishable from Romanians and speak a language belonging to the Romance language group. After independence from the Soviet Union, one group in Moldova sought to reunify with Romania, However, when Moldova was a Soviet republic, it was ceded lands from Ukraine on the Dniester River, containing ethnic Ukrainians and Russians. Opposition from these groups have prevented Moldova’s reunification with Romania.
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan & Uzbekistan Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are relatively stable nation-states. However, Tajikistan has experienced a civil war between former communist Tajiks and an alliance of Muslim fundamentalists and Western-oriented intellectuals.
Multinational States in the Former Soviet Union A multinational state is a state that contains more than one nation. In some multinational states as the United States, ethnicities all contribute cultural features to the formation of a single nationality. The new states in the former Soviet Union are a mixed collection of nationstates and multinational states.
Russia the Largest Multinational State Russia is the world’s largest multinational state. The predominant ethnic group is Russian (81 percent) with another 185 ethnicities comprising the rest. Non-Russian ethnic groups are clustered in three main areas: central Russia between the Volga River and Ural Mountains (Tatar, Bashkir, Chuvash); the southwest, along the border with Georgia and Azerbaijan (a mix of Caucasian, Turkic, and Indo-European ethnic groups); and along the southern border with Kazakhstan and Mongolia (Kazakh, Tuvan, and Buryat). Some of the numerous ethnicities have been granted autonomy over local affairs and permitted to designate their ethnic language as official.
Ukraine Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, prospects for a stable nation-state were favorable in independent Ukraine because it possessed economic assets, such as coal deposits, a steel industry, and proximity to the wealthy countries of Western Europe. In 2014 Russia invaded Crimea, an autonomous republic in independent Ukraine, claiming support of the Russians living in eastern Ukraine. Nearly every other country in the world continues to recognize Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea.
Georgia Georgia is more ethnically diverse than Armenia and Azerbaijan. Ethnicities in Georgia include: Georgians (71 percent), Armenians (8 percent), Azeri and Russian (6 percent each), Ossetian (3 percent), and Abkhazians and Greeks (2 percent each) and other ethnicities. Ossetians (2008) and Abkhazians (1990s) declared their independence from Georgia. These republics, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, are only recognized by a handful of states.
Kazakhstan & Kyrgyzstan Kazakhstan is a relatively peaceful multinational state in which Muslim, Turkic language speaking Kazakhs comprise only 67 percent of the population. Similarly, the Kyrgyz comprise only 69 percent of the population, Kyrgyzstan has experienced ethnic conflict between the Kyrgyz and Uzbeks including accusations of ethnic cleansing against the Uzbeks in 2010.
Colonies A colony is a territory that is legally tied to a sovereign state rather than being completely independent. In some instances, a sovereign state manages the colony’s military and foreign affairs. In others, it also manages the colony’s internal affairs.
Current Colonies The United Nations has classified 17 places in the world as “non-self-governing territories.” Western Sahara, French Polynesia, and New Caledonia are all examples of this type of territory. The U.N. does not include territories that are uninhabited or those that they consider having considerable autonomy in self-government such as Puerto Rico, Greenland, Hong Kong, and Macao.
Colonialism is an attempt by one country to establish settlements and impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another territory. European states established colonies for three basic reasons: to promote Christianity, to obtain resources and secure markets, and to establish world power through the number of colonies claimed. European states started establishing colonies in the Western Hemisphere in the 1400s. The European colonial era ended in the Western Hemisphere by 1824. European states then started to establish colonies in Africa and Asia. In 1884 at the Berlin Conference European states divided Africa among themselves. The United Kingdom had the largest colonial empire, and France the second largest. Japan was the principal colonial power in Asia at the beginning of the twentieth century. Most African and Asian colonies gained their independence after World War II.
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Separatist movement A group advocating for independence for a nation inside a state