In a recent unofficial ballot held by a nationalist groups 2.1 million Venetions, which is around 89 of participating voters chose independence. There’s going to be problems with the sample who were polled of course considering the organization which sponsored this ballot was a Venetian nationalist organization, but it’s still noteworthy considering the region has 3.7 million eligible voters. If anything it’s good at gauging secessionist sentiment. Most Venetians also approved joining the EU and affiliate organizations. Venice or the Most Serene Republic of Venice was an independent republic for over a thousand years and was an independent state until it was conquered by Napoleon in 1797. It’s also been forcibly integrated in Austria and Italy and has had very little legislative autonomy. Venice also pays more in taxes than it receives from being part of Italy. As such Venice has a strong case for independence and has strong cultural and economic reasons for leaving Italy. This could have massive repercussions for the European Union? How will the organization deal with the political fragmentation of it’s menber states?

Venice isn’t the only European state which is considering independence. Scotland has recently been making headlines over it’s referendum on leaving it’s Union with England.  With Venice, Catalonia and Scotland considering independence, there’s been an argument that nations inevitably form apart and that Europe will eventually become a collection of micro states.  I don’t it’s as simple as that.

I’m not well qualified to speak about the Venetian, Catalan or Scottish movement, so I’ll talk about the Breton. The Breton used to have a pretty strong-organized independence movement, but they stopped however when they accidentally killed a person. He was an electrician who got electrocuted when the Breton nationalists interfered with a broadcast (an act that some of the more paranoid Breton thought was actually a setup by the French Government, but I digress). The general idea behind Brittany’s desire to become independent was that it used to be far richer before being annexed into France. The Breton also have their own language, ethnic and cultural identity. Nowadays the only thing that’s keeping them with France is due to their dependence to France (like with the Welsh). This may change if it’s economic status with France changes. Other regions are probably operating under the same logic as Brittany did. They have their own cultural identity and the population feels marginalized, or otherwise believe they would be better off as an independent state. The period in time we live in also encourages these calls for Independence.

While I partly agree with the idea of the cyclical nature of big federations falling apart, I don’t think it’s something that’s something that is inherently going to happen. I think a key factor in keeping countries together is social cohesion, and the problem with social cohesion is that it can be strained by several factors, whether it’s war or political and economic stresses on the populace.
For example, the Holy Roman Empire’s death was caused due to three factors: their inability to reform, the death and destruction that was caused in the Thirty year war (which was exacerbated with the Peace of Westphalia which made them lose alot of members) and the final nail in the coffin was the Rise of Napoleon.

Any institution will collapse when subjected to enough stress and nothing is truly permanent. However, it doesn’t mean that breaking apart is a foregone conclusion.

If we really went down to it, the Breton themselves could divide themselves back into the original clans, like the Bigoudins, the Glasique and such. Any nations could break down into it’s most minute constituents, but they don’t due to the economic benefits of a union, the threat of a common enemy or any other reason. Large nations seem to fall apart so often, because their sheer size seeds their own destruction by creating internal and external problems. That can take time however and the Holy Roman Empire did exist for almost 900 years under threats like the Ottomans, the French and the investiture controversy.

Nations form and dissolve and the two extremes of believing that nations should always maintaining status quo, or believing that nations will always completely balkanize is wrongheaded. One should always in factors like economy, representation and cultural differences.

It’s a mystery on how the E.U will deal with political fragmentation among it’s members, but it would be wiser for the E.U to allow these secessions instead of refusing new states the ability to join the E.U.

Source:

Ford, Matt “Europe’s latest Secession Movement” The Atlantic, March 2014