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established impressive civilizations long before the
advent of Europeans to the New World, the oldest
buildings Americans see in their homeland are less
than four centuries old, and on the West Coast they are
barely 150 years old. In contrast, Europeans daily
walk past cathedrals erected IO centuries or more ago.
European perceptions are of a national continuity with
the forebears who constructed those buildings, even
though the national identities to which they adhere are
products primarily of the 19th century.
Overlapping Patterns of States and Nations
Lack of coincidence between the patterns of states and
nations is a principal driving force in world affairs.
Present configurations are a consequence of historical
processes and events unique to each area. In many
cases, including that of the Japanese and the Portu-
guese, the nation is clearly a product of an ancient
state and coincides closely with it. In other instances,
such as that of the Croatians or Belarusians, the nation
emerged despite strong efforts at suppression by state
authorities. '
Although the vast majority of states feature single
dominant nations, most also contain inconvenient
other national groups. In many cases this asymmetry
is the result of past state-building when petty units
were melded together with no ‘thought given to cul-
tural characteristics of inhabitants. A degree of homo-
geneity resulted from imposition of the ruler’s
religion, although language resisted assimilation. In
other instances, the intermixture of groups in frontier
zones between culture areas made impossible the
drawing of boundary lines between new nation-states
that did not include minorities, Thus, all the states
formed in the East European “shatter zone” after
World War I encompassed minorities approaching 20
percent or more. Similarly, no ideal line could be
drawn between Muslims and Hindus when indepen-
dence came to India and Pakistan and tragedy
resulted—and continues in Kashmir—when a line was
established. v
In surveying minority nations, “a meaningful distinc-
tion rests between those that are self-contained and
those that are “irredentist.” The latter term is derived
from an appellation applied by Italians to their “unre-
deemed” fellow nationals who lived outside the King-
dom of Italy. The concept has become a universal one
applied to members of nations living outside the
boundaries of a state dominated by people like them-
selves. Irredentist minorities pose particular problems
to world peace because their causes may elicit active
support from adjacent states govemed by members of
their nations.
World Patterns of Nations and States
The pattern of nation-and-state combinations differs
from region to region around the world. Only a few
states may be classed as pure nation-states lacking
minority nations that seek autonomy or separation.
Interestingly, France, which often is held out as the
archetype of the nation-state, is not one of these. It
embraces at least four minority nations that increas-
ingly seek recognition of their distinctive status and
territories: the Corsicans, Bretons, Basques, and Occi-
tanians.
More than three-quarters of the states of Europe are
multinational, although this percentage has decreased
in recent years with the divisions of Yugoslavia and
Czechoslovakia. However, newly independent Mace-
donia must deal with a 20-percent minority of Alba-
nians, and Slovakia must accommodate 10 percent of
its citizens who are Magyars and 7 percent who are
Ruthenians.
The former Soviet Union held the dubious distinction
of being the most diverse state in the world, with at
least 30 groups that could be termed nations and more
than 70 other peoples inhabiting its land space. The
dominant Russians numbered barely half its total pop-
ulation. Despite the USSR’s fragmentation, few of the
Soviet successor countries can be termed nation-
states, as witnessed by Azerbaijan’s problems with
Armenians and Georgia’s difficulties with Abkhazians
and Ossetes.
Despite the seeming homogeneity in religion and lan-
guage of the Middle East and North Africa, virtually
none of the region’s states are without minority prob-
lems. Several, including Lebanon, Turkey, Iran, and
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