In the US, Hawaiian sovereignty activists are likely the most legitimate voices for an independent nation, with even the US government recognizing wrongdoing. In November 1993, then-President Clinton signed the famous "Apology Resolution," passed by both houses of Congress, which admitted that, "the indigenous Hawaiian people never directly relinquished their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people or over their national lands to the United States." In short, US military forces supported an illegal overthrow of the constitutional monarchy in 1887, and a similarly extra-legal 1898 annexation.
Other movements, such as the
Alaskan Independence Party,
Second Vermont Republic, and
Texan efforts are not strictly linked to historical wrongs, but instead a new frustration with the US. Indeed, anytime communities become alienated from the national system, often along identity and economic lines, the talk of separation tends to become louder. Particularly in a time of economic upheaval and recession, historical cleavages in society become more likely to promote separatist feelings.
Across the globe today, sub-national groups continue to clamor for recognition, some more fervently than others. Ranging from the examples of
Belgium,
Spain,
Somalia,
Canada,
Morocco,
Russia,
Iraq/Turkey,
China,
Israel/OPT and so on, to the less aggressive cases like
Italy,
France, and
Puerto Rico, nearly every nation on the planet has some level of separatist tendency, which stretches the fabric of national unity.
Bringing the