Page "Ethnic group" Paragraph 50

Thus, in the West, the notion of ethnicity, like race and nation, developed in the context of European colonial expansion, when mercantilism and capitalism were promoting global movements of populations at the same time that state boundaries were being more clearly and rigidly defined.

In the nineteenth century, modern states generally sought legitimacy through their claim to represent " nations.

" Nation-states, however, invariably include populations that have been excluded from national life for one reason or another.

Members of excluded groups, consequently, will either demand inclusion on the basis of equality, or seek autonomy, sometimes even to the extent of complete political separation in their own nation-state.

Under these conditions — when people moved from one state to another, or one state conquered or colonized peoples beyond its national boundaries — ethnic groups were formed by people who identified with one nation, but lived in another state.