Ethnicity and Warfare

THEMODELS

Ethnicities clash for two main reasons:

Competition to dominate national identity

The division of an ethnicity into a minority in multiple states

Clashes will often occur along border regions.

DOMINATION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

Sub-Saharan Africa has been host to a number of ethnic

clashes.

The Horn of Africa and Central Africa have especially seen

heavy conflict.

Ethiopia and EritreaEritrea became an Italian colony in 1890 and Ethiopia in the 1930s.

After WWII, Ethiopia regained independence and the UN gave Eritrea to Ethiopia.

Ethiopia then dissolved the Eritrean legislature and banned the use of Eritrea’s language.

Eritreans rebelled and began an 30 year civil war in 1961.

1993, Eritrea became an independent state, but in 1998 war broke out again in a border dispute.

In 2000, Ethiopia won and took control of the disputed region.

Eritrea is split between Christian Tigrinyas and Muslim Tigres but a strong sense of national identity in the face of the Ethiopian threat has unified them.

Ethiopia is a complex multiethnic state. Christian Amharas (27%) had long dominated, but recently Muslim Oromos (34%) took power after being supressed by the Amharas.

DOMINATION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

Sub-Saharan Africa has been host to a number of ethnic

clashes.

The Horn of Africa and Central Africa have especially seen

heavy conflict.

SudanEthnic conflicts have raged in Sudan since the 1980s between Arab Muslims in the north who dominate the government and other ethnicities in the:

SOUTH: Black African Christians and Animists•Resisted Government attempts to transform the multiethnic state into a single nationality governed by Muslim traditions.

•Civil war from 1983 to 2005 resulted in the death of nearly 2 million Sudanese. South Sudan became in independent state in 2011.

WEST: Black African Muslims•Groups in the Darfur regionfought against the government beginning in 2003.

•Nearly 400,000 died and 2 million became refugees.

EAST: Various Ethnicities•Fought the government between 2004 and 2006

•Groups took issue with north’s refusal to share oil profits.

DOMINATION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

Sub-Saharan Africa has been host to a number of ethnic

clashes.

The Horn of Africa and Central Africa have especially seen

heavy conflict.

SomaliaThe vast majority of Somalis are Sunni Muslims who speak Somali and have a sense of Somalia as a nation-state.

Somalia’s population is divided into various ethnic groups known as clans that traditionally occupied different portions of the country.

In 1991, the ruling dictatorship collapsed and various clans and subclans claimed control over various territories.

Clans have claimed independent states of:Somaliland Puntland Galmudug Southwestern Somalia

The US sent troops to Somalia between 1992 and 1994 to protect international relief workers and to try to reduce weapons caches.

Islamist militias took control of much of Somalia between 2004 and 2006, involving Eritrea, Ethiopia and the US.

They were driven out but have since returned and gained control in much of the country.

Lebanon has also seen ethnic competition for dominance of national identity since the 1970s Lebanon

Lebanon was once seen as the financial and recreational center of the levant.

Lebanon is split between approximately 60% Muslims and 39% Christians.

The largest Christian group are the Maronites followed by the Greek Orthodox. Most Christians consider themselves ethnically Phoenician

Most of the Muslims are Shia, and Sunni (the world majority) are the minority.Druze (now considered a Muslim sect) also form a major community. Lebanon’s Muslims are ethnically Arab.

Lebanon’s ethnicites are also somewhat geographicall isolated, Maronites in west-central, Sunnis in the northwest, Shiites in the South and east. Each group formed a militia to protect its territory.

When Lebanon became independent in 1943, chamber deputies were allotted to each religion according to 1932 census percentages. By tradition, the four major posts were each headed by a member of one ethnic group.

When the government was created, Christians were the majority and controlled much of the country. As Muslims became the majority, they demanded political and economic equality.

The US and Israel both sent troops to Lebanon, and Syria controlled it until pulling its troops out in 2005.

DOMINATION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

ETHNICITIES DIVIDED

BETWEEN STATESThe borders of newly created states rarely coincide with ethnic boundaries. Conflicts arise when ethnic groups get split between multiple countries.

Irredentism is when a region of one country is populated by a nationality/ethnic group represented by another state to which they would rather belong.

South Asia has seen numerous conflicts are ethnicities were split between states.

India and PakistanGreat Britain controlled India as a colony until 1947.

When it left, it split the country into two countries, India in the middle (a Hindu nation), and Pakistan on either side (a Muslim nation) with a narrow corridor of India surrounding East Pakistan.

East Pakistan fomented to become an independent country, becoming Bangladesh in 1971.

With its hundreds of languages and ethnicities, Hinduism had served as a centripetal force for India and caused tension with the concentrations of Muslim concentrations in the east and west.

When the borders were drawn, millions of people were caught on the wrong side, sparking massive migrations between Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.

As refugees attempted to move to their respective countries, they were often attacked by members of the opposing religion.

Pakistan and India never agreed on the border location in Kashmir in the north. Muslims, the majority on both sides, fight to unite Kashmir with Pakistan.

25 million Sikhs, the majority in the Punjab region south of Kashmir, have also fought for an independent state in their region.

ETHNICITIES DIVIDED

BETWEEN STATESThe borders of newly created states rarely coincide with ethnic boundaries. Conflicts arise when ethnic groups get split between multiple countries.

South Asia has seen numerous conflicts where ethnicities are split between states.

Sri LankaSri Lanka is an island off the southeast coast of India.

The Sinhalese, who are Buddhist and speak an Indo-European language, migrated from India and occupied the southern portion of the island in the 5th century BCE. (82% of population)

The Tamils, who are Hindu and speak a Dravidian language, migrated from India and occupied the northern part of the island in the 3 rd century BCE. (14% of population)

War between the two groups for control of the island erupted in 1983 and lasted until 2009 with over 80,000 killed in the conflict.

Sinhalese have dominated the government, military and economy, and the Tamils feel discriminated against.

The Sinhalese made Buddhism the official religion and Sinhala the official language of Sri Lanka in 1953.

The Tamil guerilla army was defeated in 2009, and Tamils fear that their ethnic identity is in jeopardy.

Pakistan and India are in constant conflict over the Kashmir region of

Northern India