Secession, Rebellion, Nation Building and National Collapse

Sometimes nations fall apart. When they do, there is usually an obvious reason, but the breakup often happens along linguistic border demarcations.

Secessions are most often attempted by linguistically distinct subgroups.

Nation building through language policy is common throughout history, from Francis I of France in 1539, to British efforts in Southern Sudan in the early 1900s, repeated efforts to formalize an official "Serbo-Croat" language for the Yugoslavs, and even, in some ways, Ataturk and Mao in Turkey and China.