Secession
Secession (independence) usually means when part of one country declares its independence and breaks away or leaves that country to start a new country.[1]
Constitutions of countries may include articles that either legally forbid or allow secession of part of the country.[1] Most national constitutions, which have articles about secession, forbid it, but a few constitutions, such as the constitutions of the former Soviet Union, the former Yugoslavia, and Ethiopia allow the secession of their republics.[1]
A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful.[1]
Violent examples include the secession of the 11 southern states, which formed the Confederate States, from the United States and led to the failed American Civil War, and the Bangladesh Liberation War of East Pakistan (Bangladesh), which succeeded against West Pakistan.
Peaceful examples include the secession of the Soviet republics from the Soviet Union, which led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Threats of secession can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals such autonomy or more devolved powers from the national government of the country.[2]
Examples of giving more delvolved powers to prevent their secession include Quebec, Scotland and Flanders.[2]
Secession Media
Hashim Thaçi (left) and then-US Vice President Joe Biden with the Declaration of Independence of Kosovo
- Grenspost
September 1999 demonstration for independence from Indonesia
Map showing the shrinking territory of Gran Colombia from 1824 to 1890 (red line). Panama separated from Colombia in 1903.
The Territorial evolution of Mexico after independence, noting losses to the US (red, white and orange) and the secession of Central America (purple)
Changes in national boundaries in Eurasia in the decades following the end of the Cold War
- Mural, Falls Road, Belfast (7) - geograph.org.uk - 802538.jpg
A republican mural in Belfast showing solidarity with the Basque nationalism
Donetsk status referendum organized by pro-Russian separatists. A line to enter a polling place, 11 May 2014.
A mural in Belfast depicting the Easter Rising of 1916
_-_Carta_XI_-_Divisi%C3%B3n_pol%C3%ADtica_de_Colombia,_1824.jpg)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Pavkovic, Aleksandar; Radan, Peter (2007). Creating New States: Theory and Practice of Secession. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing. p. 6. ISBN 9780754671633.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Allen Buchanan, "Secession", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2007.
