Do you support independence for people or regions that want it?
@AlwaysAskingWhy (96)
United States
February 22, 2008 5:16pm CST
Reading about the brouhaha over Kosovar independence made me think about the notion of a nation's independence. When Cuba fought for independence against Spain, the US supported them. But when the Philippines fought for independence against Spain around the same time, the US did not support them. In fact, they crushed the rebels after taking over the islands from Spain. So do you support a region's desire for independence? If so, for what reasons? Should independence be granted to a region, or should it be obtained by that region regardless of whether a nation wants to grant it to them or not? If a region should be granted independence (as in the case of Kosovo) due to the oppression suffered by Kosovars under Serbian rule, then should Native Americans or African Americans be granted independence for the same reasons, if they desire such independence? What do you think?
1 response
@Graagh (95)
• United States
23 Feb 08
The question of independence for countries is, at least from the view of other nations, very specific to whatever the situation is. It is not an easy question to answer, as is shown by history. The two examples you gave are only a few out of many, many different stories. I think it is important to remember that country is defined by a few things, perhaps, but one of them is the recognition of other countries (after all, otherwise you're just a rebellion).
As for the granting of African Americans or Native American independence, I think that it is far too late to try that, and with the way that these people are spread out across America it is not viable to create the hundreds of states needed. Moreover, Native American is not very good as far as a unifying term. The individual tribes are by no means all part of one larger group, and thus it would be very difficult to group them together in any meaningful way.
