Secession
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Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or political entity. Typically there is a strong issue difference that drives the withdrawal.
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Political secessions
American Revolution
A notable example of successful secession in the modern era is the Declaration of Independence by the Thirteen Colonies from the British Crown in 1776. This event is often referred to as the American Revolution. More accurately this was a secession movement as opposed to a revolution. Revolutions seek to replace current governments, while secession movements seek to separate from current governments.
Confederate States of America
Other secession movements include the case of the Southern states of the United States seceding to form the Confederate States of America. Less dramatically, new American states were commonly formed out of an older state as the United States grew, such as in the northeast (Maine created out of Massachusetts), the mid-Atlantic (Kentucky created out of Virginia) and then repeatedly in the western territories. The formation of such states are not typically considered secessionist because they were officially accepted by the parent state and the national government.
Local examples in the United States
Local examples of secession also exist, such as Piedmont, California, which was part of Oakland before seceding from the latter in 1907 and the attempt of Staten Island to break away from New York City in the late-1980s and early 1990s. San Fernando Valley recently lost a vote to separate from Los Angeles County but has seen an increased attention to its infrastructure needs. Several cities in Vermont including Killington are currently exploring a secession request to allow them to join New Hampshire over claims that they are not getting adequate return of state resources from their state tax contributions.
There have been other modern secessionist movements to create new states. There was a short-lived effort to create a Jefferson State out of counties in southern Oregon and northern California in 1941, in part motivated by requests for better roads, but it was quickly shelved by the outbreak of World War II. Advocates in the upper peninsula of Michigan, with off and on intensity, have called for it to become a separate 51st state. A movement in Western Massachusetts, harkening back to Shays' Rebellion, seeks to secede from Massachusetts. There have been calls for formation of Cascadia in the Pacific Northwest. A less ambitious plan would create a new state from Washington State east of the Cascade Mountains, along with northern Idaho, northwestern Montana, and possibly northeastern Oregon. It would be centered on Spokane, Washington (the largest city in the region), and called "Columbia" after the Columbia River.
There are also web sites currently advocating a separate California (http://www.newcaliforniarepublic.org) nation, and independent nation of Hawaii as well as other sections (http://www.secessionist.us) of the United States. A humorous response to an alleged infringment of the Constitutional protection against unlawful search and seizure inspired the brief formation of the Conch Republic in the Florida Keys.
Many articles after the 2004 Presidential election questioned whether the so-called "blue" and "red" states can continue to co-exist or ever reconcile or if they might be drifting toward irreparable policy differences and social conflict and possible future separation. Alternatively it is possible the political conflict may result in gradual diminution of the federal government- for lack of a true national consensus - and perhaps a greater emphasis on state rights to permit them to chart more of their own domestic agendas while maintaining the federal union for a more limited set of national actions than undertaken today and for international purposes.
Quebec
In addition, Canada has had the chronic threat of the province of Quebec seceding in some fashion from the confederation. This has led to two referendums which voted repeatedly to defeat the move, but the possibility of another remains. See Secession of Quebec
World of arts
In the world of art, the term Secession has been applied to withdrawals from official academies by artists seeking greater freedom to exhibit avant-garde or controversial work. Three such withdrawals occurred in the German-speaking world in the last years of the nineteenth century: the Vienna Secession and the Munich and Berlin Secessions.
See also
- Secession (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/secession/)
- declaration of independence
- Hartford Convention
- Jesusland
- nullification
- secession of Quebec
- separatism
- South Carolina Exposition and Protest
- United States of Canada
- Christian Exodus
- New York City secession
- Scottish Secession Church
External Links
- Secession - from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica (http://4.1911encyclopedia.org/S/SE/SECESSION.htm)
- Secession - from the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia (http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0844253.html)de:Sezession