Separatism

...a move by a minority group or region within a country, towards greater independence or separation from the countr that governs them...

Reasons:

• An area which is economically depressed compared with a wealtheir core
• A minority language or culture with a different history or minority religious grouping
• The perception that exploitation of local resources by national government produces little economic gain for that region
• Peripheral location to the economic.political core
• Collapse of the state, weakening the political power that held the regions together
• The strengthening of supranational bodies such as the EU, which has led many nationalist groups to think that have a better chance of deveoping economically if they are independent

• In Spain, the Basque area (northern Spain/Southwest France) and Catalonia (Northeast spain), which now has the autonomy to decide many of its own affairs. The Catalan language, for example, has been taught in all schools in the region since 1983 and has become the official language of education
• The question of independence for french-speaking Quebec, and pressure from the Inuits in the north led to the creation of a self-governing region -> Nunavut in 1999
• The break up of the USSR into its 15 constituen republics
• National groups within former soviet repubics seeking independence like Chechnya. Rebels have been put down with extreme force by the Russian army
• Czechosloka separated into the Czech Republic and Slovaki
• Belgium, which consists of a Flemish-speaking north and a French speaking south (Wallonia)
• Italy - the northenr leagues have been agitating autonomy for northern provinces such as venice or verona
• East Timor - sought independence after being annexed by Indonesia. After a long and bloody struggle between separatists and militia gangs from Indonesia, the UN took control in 1999, handing over to a new government in 2002
• Western Sahara, which has been fighting for independence since 1975, when armed forces occupied the country and incorporated it into Morocco after the Spanish withdrawal

..can be peaceful or non-peaceful

• The establishment and maintenance of societies and norms with clear separate cultural identities within a country
• The protection of a language through the media and education
• The growth of separate political parties and devolved power
• Civil disobedience/Civil war
• Terrorist violence