Editing Nation state (section)

== In practice ==
{{original research|section|date=May 2016}}
[[File:Map Europe 1923-en.svg|thumb|260px|Map of [[List of national border changes (1914–present)|territorial changes in Europe]] after [[World War&nbsp;I]] (as of 1923)]]
The notion of a unifying "national identity" also extends to countries that host multiple ethnic or language groups, such as [[India]]. For example, [[Switzerland]] is constitutionally a confederation of [[Cantons of Switzerland|cantons]] and has four official languages. Still, it also has a "Swiss" national identity, a national history and a classic national hero, [[Wilhelm Tell]].<ref>{{cite web |first=Thomas |last=Riklin |date=2005 |title=Worin unterscheidet sich die schweizerische "Nation" von der Französischen bzw. Deutschen "Nation"? |trans-title=How does the Swiss "nation" differ from the French or German "nation"? |url=http://www.federalism.ch/files/documents/Nation.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061013204126/http://www.federalism.ch/files/documents/Nation.pdf |archive-date=13 October 2006 |df=dmy-all |language=de}}</ref>

Innumerable conflicts have arisen where political boundaries did not correspond with ethnic or cultural boundaries.

After World War II in the [[Josip Broz Tito]] era, nationalism was appealed to for uniting [[South Slav]] peoples. Later in the 20th century, after the break-up of the Soviet Union, leaders appealed to ancient ethnic feuds or tensions that ignited conflict between the [[Serbs]], [[Croats]], and [[Slovenes]], as well as [[Bosniaks]], [[Montenegrins (ethnic group)|Montenegrins]] and [[Macedonians (ethnic group)|Macedonians]], eventually breaking up the long collaboration of peoples. Ethnic cleansing was carried out in the Balkans, destroying the formerly [[Socialist state|socialist republic]] and producing the civil wars in [[Croatian War of Independence|Croatia]] and [[Bosnian War|Bosnia and Herzegovina]] in 1992–95, resulting in mass population displacements and segregation that radically altered what was once a highly diverse and intermixed ethnic makeup of the region. These conflicts were mainly about creating a new political framework of states, each of which would be ethnically and politically homogeneous. Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks insisted they were ethnically distinct, although many communities had a long history of intermarriage.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

[[Belgium]] is a classic example of a state that is not a nation-state.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}  The state was formed by [[secession]] from the [[United Kingdom of the Netherlands]] in 1830, whose neutrality and integrity was protected by the [[Treaty of London 1839]]; thus, it served as a [[buffer state]] after the Napoleonic Wars between the European powers [[France]], [[Prussia]] (after 1871 the [[German Empire]]) and the [[United Kingdom]] until [[World War I]], when the Germans breached its neutrality. Currently, Belgium is divided between the [[Flemings]] in the north, the [[French-speaking]] population in the south, and the German-speaking population in the east. The [[Flanders|Flemish]] population in the north speaks Dutch, the [[Wallonia|Walloon]] population in the south speaks either [[French language|French]] or, in the east of [[Liège Province]], German. The Brussels population speaks French or Dutch.

The Flemish identity is also cultural, and there is a strong separatist movement espoused by the political parties, the right-wing [[Vlaams Belang]] and the [[New Flemish Alliance]]. The Francophone [[Wallonia|Walloon]] identity of Belgium is linguistically distinct and [[Regionalism (politics)|regionalist]]. There is also unitary [[Belgian nationalism]], several versions of a [[Greater Netherlands]] ideal, and a [[German-speaking community of Belgium]] annexed from [[Germany]] in 1920 and re-annexed by Germany in 1940–1944. However, these ideologies are all very marginal and politically insignificant during elections.

[[File:Ethnolinguistic map of China 1983.png|thumb|upright=1.35|Ethnolinguistic map of mainland China and Taiwan<ref>Source: United States Central Intelligence Agency, 1983. The map shows the distribution of ethnolinguistic groups according to the historical majority of ethnic groups by region. Note this is different from the current distribution due to age-long internal migration and assimilation.</ref>]]

[[China]] covers a large geographic area and uses the concept of "[[Zhonghua minzu]]" or Chinese nationality, in the sense of [[ethnic group]]s. Still, it also officially recognizes the majority [[Han Chinese|Han]] ethnic group which accounts for over 90% of the population, and no fewer than 55 [[Ethnic minorities in China|ethnic national minorities]].

According to Philip G. Roeder, [[Moldova]] is an example of a Soviet-era "segment-state" ([[Moldavian SSR]]), where the "nation-state project of the segment-state trumped the nation-state project of prior statehood. In Moldova, despite strong agitation from university faculty and students for reunification with [[Romania]], the nation-state project forged within the Moldavian SSR trumped the project for a return to the interwar nation-state project of [[Greater Romania]]."<ref name="Roeder2007">{{cite book |first=Philip G. |last=Roeder |title=Where Nation-States Come From: Institutional Change in the Age of Nationalism |year=2007 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-13467-3 |page=126}}</ref> See [[Controversy over linguistic and ethnic identity in Moldova]] for further details.