Separatism

Separatism is a political movement seeking to detach a territory or community from an existing state, usually to form an independent state or join another one.

Self-determination: The principle that peoples should determine their political status and pursue their development. Separatists invoke it to argue that a community should choose its own statehood.
Ethnic nationalism: Nationalism that defines membership in a nation chiefly through shared ancestry, culture, or language. It can frame a distinct ethnic community as entitled to its own territory and state.
Bangladesh Liberation War: The 1971 war through which East Pakistan became the independent state of Bangladesh. It is a case in which separatist demands culminated in independence after war.
Territorial integrity: The principle that a state's territory and political independence should be protected from external disruption. It conflicts with claims that a territory has a right to leave the state.
Secession: The formal withdrawal of a territory from an existing sovereign state. It is the constitutional and political act separatist movements seek to achieve.
Language policy: Government rules and practices governing the use, recognition, and teaching of languages. Language restrictions or disputes can sharpen demands for territorial autonomy or separation.
Norwegian independence from Sweden: The peaceful dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905, after Norway declared independence. It shows separation achieved through political pressure and negotiation rather than prolonged war.
International recognition: Acceptance by states or international organizations of an entity's status or government. A successful declaration of independence does not by itself secure broad recognition as a state.
Irredentism: A political movement seeking to unite territory with a neighboring state on grounds of shared identity or historical claim. Unlike separatism's usual goal of a separate polity, irredentism seeks union with another state.
Colonialism: A system in which a state controls and exploits territories and peoples beyond its own borders. Anti-colonial struggles have produced independence movements that resemble separatist campaigns within states.

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