Editing Forced assimilation (section)

{{Short description|Involuntary cultural assimilation of minority groups}}
{{Refimprove|date=March 2009}}
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| direction         = vertical
| total_width       = 300px
| image1            = Saami Family 1900.jpg
| alt1              = Photograph of a Sami family in the year 1900
| caption1          = 
| image2            = Blomsterbarn og Kongen (10308485073).jpg
| alt2              = Photograph of the king of Norway speaking to and receiving a bouquet of flowers from a young girl dressed in a traditional Sami gaeptie
| caption2          = The [[Sámi people|Sámi]] people have been victim to forced assimilation tactics by the governments of [[Norway]], [[Sweden]], [[Finland]], and [[Russia]] during the 19th and first half of the 20th century. Today, their culture and languages are instead promoted, legally protected, and taught in schools.
}}

'''Forced assimilation''' is the involuntary [[cultural assimilation]] of religious or [[ethnic]] [[minority group]]s, during which they are forced by a government to adopt the [[language]], [[national identity]], [[Social norm|norms]], [[mores]], [[Convention (norm)|customs]], [[tradition]]s, [[Value (ethics)|values]], [[mentality]], [[perception]]s, [[Lifestyle (sociology)|way of life]], and often the [[Forced conversion|religion]] and [[ideology]] of an established and generally larger [[community]] belonging to a [[dominant culture]]. 

The enforced use of a dominant language in legislation, [[education]], literature, and worship also counts as forced assimilation. Unlike [[ethnic cleansing]], the local population is not outright [[Genocide|destroyed]] and may or may not be forced to leave a certain area. Instead, the assimilation of the population is made mandatory. This is also called ''mandatory assimilation'' by scholars who study [[genocide]] and [[nationalism]]. 

Mandatory assimilation has sometimes been made a policy of new or contested nations, often during or in the aftermath of a war. Some examples are both the [[Germans|German]] and [[French people|French]] forced assimilation in the provinces [[Alsace]] and (at least a part of) [[Lorraine (region)|Lorraine]], and some decades after the Swedish conquests of the Danish provinces [[Scania]], [[Blekinge]] and [[Halland]] the local population was submitted to forced assimilation, or even the forced assimilation of [[Thai Chinese|ethnic Teochew]]s in [[Bangkok]] by the [[Thailand|Siam government]] during [[World War I|World War&nbsp;I]] until the [[1973 Thai popular uprising|1973 uprising]].