1995-10-01a- CIA Conference Report: THE CHALLENGE OF ETHNIC CONFLICT TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORDER IN THE 1990S GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES 01-Oct-95

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shared religious beliefs and the absence of common Language still plays a fundamental role in the identity
political goals makes it more appropriate to designate of virtually all nations. Linguistic homogeneity is a
such groups by the more neutral term peoples. Nations characteristic of every national group, with the notable
may be viewed as peoples who have become group exception of the Swiss, and even there group tensions
conscious and politically activated. The process is a exist, particularly between the Italian-Swiss and the
continuing one and now is occurring among Quechua- German-Swiss. One of the most common causes of
speakers of the Oriente of Peru, galvanized by the ethnic tensions within a state is a group's opposition to
Sendero Luminoso guerrillas. perceived threats to its language. Attempts by Mag-
yars to impose Hungarian as a uniform language
The commonly accepted starting point for the appear- throughout their kingdom in the 1870s stimulated
ance of nations is the French Revolution. The inhabit- Croatian-speakers to become the nation of Croats. A
ants of France not only transformed their state at the century later, Croatian intellectuals again used a lin-
end of the 18th century, but also in a sense they guistic threat as a national rallying symbol, decrying
became Frenchmen for the first time. Before that time the degrading of the Croatian literary language by
few associated themselves with the Kingdom of attempts of the Yugoslav regime to blend it with Ser-
France. Their identities were with family and locality bian vocabulary and usage to form an "artificial"
and, at a higher level, with their true Christian faith. Serbo-Croatian statewide language.
Following the Revolution they increasingly gained a
sense of personal participation in a greater cultural- Religious tradition also plays a role in the identities of
political organism. They were manipulated by the most nations. The militancy of the Croatians about
Jacobins, dedicated believers in "the people," who, their literary language was a symptom of deeper divi-
denigrated traditional Catholicism and enthusiasti- sions among the South Slavs based upon their differ-
cally preached a new form of belonging that cele- ing religious heritages. Croatian culture has been
brated the interests of the "masses." This bound up for more than a millenium with the Roman
revolutionary system of beliefs took hold because tra- Catholic world, while Serbian traditions stem from an
ditional religion no longer was able to meet spiritual Eastern Orthodox inheritance. It should be stressed
needs in the challenges of a rapidly changing society. that religious dimensions of modern national identities
Urbanization and industrialization presented difficult need not derive from active worship but generally
problems for individuals for whom traditional reli- come from the shared values, customs, and images
gious establishments had no answers. accumulating in a society from a common religious
legacy. Avowedly atheistic members of the League of
From the beginning, language proved a critical ele- Yugoslav Communists, although speaking a common
ment in national identity. To be French meant sharing Serbo-Croatian language, remained always partitioned
of French culture, and this meant particularly the into distinctive bodies of Serbs, Croats, and Muslims,
French language. Among proposals voiced in France's separated from each other by their respective religious
revolutionary parliament was expulsion of all Alsa- cultures. A similar.cultural disparity separates
tians across the country's "natural border" of the English-speaking Roman Catholic partisans of the
Rhine because they were "foreigners'; their vernacu- Irish Revolutionary Army from Protestant supporters
lar was German, not French. of the Ulster Defence Association.
The new ideas proved exciting and satisfying, and Thus, although a common language appears to be a
Napoleon's troops spread them across the territory major element of national identity, in itself it does not
they conquered. However, talk of "liberty, equality, provide a sufficient base for identification with a
and brotherhood" by enthusiastic French soldiers did nation. The French nation never managed to incorpo-
not co-opt civilians speaking German, Italian, and rate the adjacent French-speaking Belgian Walloons
other languages into becoming part of the new French or the Swiss francophones of Geneva. Closer to home,
nation. Although large numbers readily accepted the although virtually all citizens of the United States and
secular ideas of their occupiers, each linguistic group
evolved a separate national identity.
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