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> The nation state does not exist because it describes the places where different ethnic groups live. It comes very close a lot of the time, or decays to that.
by rbecker 6y ago
> The nation state does not exist because it describes the places where different ethnic groups live.
It comes very close a lot of the time, or decays to that. See the 92% Han China, or the split of Czecho-Slovakia and Yugoslavia along ethnic lines. A split of you're lucky, genocide if you're not: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history
- emteycz 6y agoAbout Czechoslovakia... You know there was a numerous ethnic minority of Germans before the aftermath of second world war, right? We pushed them out because of nation state ideology, which gained prominence after first and then especially second world war. Before then, people were Bohemians, and they spoke like and culturally were Germans, Austrians, Moravians, Czechs, Silesians, Slovaks, etc.
- rbecker 6y ago"It comes very close a lot of the time" doesn't imply the fit is perfect, so minorities are to be expected. And your implication that before WWI, different ethnic groups coexisting peacefully in shared states was the norm, couldn't be more wrong. Even in antiquity, there's examples of one ethnic group banding together to vanquish another, such as the ancient Hebrew genocides of Amalekites [1] and Canaanites [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalek#Amalekites_in_the_Hebrew_Bible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalek#Amalekites_in_the_Hebre... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaan#Hebrew_Bible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaan#Hebrew_Bible
- emteycz 6y agoWhat I was saying is that the 'closely matching borders' are a completely artificial thing. Not even 'more or less', it was completely off until the nation state ideology-fueled expulsion. It closely matched a different thing.