Breton nationalism - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Breton nationalism is the nationalism

Nationalism

Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

of the traditional province

Provinces of France

The Kingdom of France was organised into provinces until March 4, 1790, when the establishment of the département system superseded provinces. The provinces of France were roughly equivalent to the historic counties of England...

of Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. Brittany is considered to be one of the six Celtic nations

Celtic nations

The Celtic nations are territories in North-West Europe in which that area's own Celtic languages and some cultural traits have survived.The term "nation" is used in its original sense to mean a people who share a common traditional identity and culture and are identified with a traditional...

(along with Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, the Isle of Man

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

and Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

). Like the nationalism of many neighbouring regions, Breton nationalism combines political as well as cultural aspects.

The political aspirations of Breton nationalists include the desire to obtain the right to self-rule, whether within France or independently of it, and to acquire more power in the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

, United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

and other international institutions.

Breton cultural nationalism includes an important linguistic component, with Breton

Breton language

Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...

and Gallo

Gallo language

Gallo is a regional language of France. Gallo is a Romance language, one of the Oïl languages. It is the historic language of the region of Upper Brittany and some neighboring portions of Normandy, but today is spoken by only a small minority of the population, having been largely superseded by...

speakers seeking equality with French language

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

in the region. Cultural nationalists also seek a reinvigoration of Breton music, traditions and symbols, and the forging of strong links with other Celtic nations

Celtic nations

.

The French government's official position is to consider Brittany as a part of France, a position claimed to date from the time when the March of Neustria

March of Neustria

The marches of Neustria were creations of the Carolingian king of West Francia covering the ancient Merovingian kingdom of Neustria. Originally, there were two marches, one against the Bretons and one against the Norsemen created by Charles the Bald in 861. These two marches are often called the...

was controlled by Roland

Roland

Roland was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. Historically, Roland was military governor of the Breton March, with responsibility for defending the frontier of Francia against the Bretons...

, but dating officially from the dynastic marriage in 1491 of Anne, Duchess of Brittany

Anne of Brittany

Anne, Duchess of Brittany , also known as Anna of Brittany , was a Breton ruler, who was to become queen to two successive French kings. She was born in Nantes, Brittany, and was the daughter of Francis II, Duke of Brittany and Margaret of Foix. Her maternal grandparents were Queen Eleanor of...

with the king of France. This could include a range of views, from allowing Brittany a devolved government to curbing wishes for independence.

Politics

Breton nationalist politics offers some contrasts with other forms of nationalism, such as those of Wales

Wales

or the Basque Country

Basque Country (autonomous community)

The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....

. The principal Breton party, the Union démocratique bretonne (UDB) is classed as regionalist rather than separatist (or nationalist strictly speaking) by Parisian electoral analysts, as the UDB seeks devolution rather than full independence.

Brittany has not been granted devolved powers as seen with the Scottish Parliament

Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...

, Welsh Assembly

National Assembly for Wales

The National Assembly for Wales is a devolved assembly with power to make legislation in Wales. The Assembly comprises 60 members, who are known as Assembly Members, or AMs...

and the Northern Ireland Executive

Northern Ireland Executive

The Northern Ireland Executive is the executive arm of the Northern Ireland Assembly, the devolved legislature for Northern Ireland. It is answerable to the Assembly and was established according to the terms of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, which followed the Good Friday Agreement...

in the United Kingdom, or with self-rule within the larger state, as in the Basque Country

Basque Country (autonomous community)

The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....

and Basque Government

Basque Government

The Basque Government is the governing body of the Basque Autonomous Community of Spain. The head of this government is the lehendakari or Basque president that is appointed by the Basque Parliament every four years...

in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. This means that nationalist politics occurs only at the local level, as the Breton nationalists are currently unrepresented in the French National Assembly

French National Assembly

The French National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The upper house is the Senate ....

. There is, however, a regional assembly with limited powers. Regional politics, however, remains a particularly vexed issue for Breton nationalists, as historic Brittany is divided between two French regions

Régions of France

France is divided into 27 administrative regions , 22 of which are in Metropolitan France, and five of which are overseas. Corsica is a territorial collectivity , but is considered a region in mainstream usage, and is even shown as such on the INSEE website...

: Brittany and the Pays-de-la-Loire. The reunification of Brittany into a single administrative region has become a major political demand of Breton nationalists, one shared by a broad swath of the Breton political spectrum.

Parties with a Breton nationalist agenda include those seeking autonomy, such as the UDB

Union Démocratique Bretonne

The Breton Democratic Union is the main autonomist and regionalist party in Brittany and Loire-Atlantique. It advocates devolution for Brittany as well as the promotion of the Breton language and its associated culture....

or the Parti Breton

Parti Breton

The Breton Party is a social-democratic and social-liberal nationalist party which aspires to the creation of an independent "Republic of Brittany", within the European Union.-Program:...

, several federalist groups, anarchists such as Treger Disuj, traditionalists (linked to French royalism and legitimism), independentists, and Extreme right such as Adsav

Adsav

Adsav is a Breton nationalist secessionist party active in Britanny, which claims to be neither right-wing or left-wing, although its roots are on the right and it is widely considered to be a far right party....

Culture and language

Breton cultural movements are diverse and include many more active participants than the political parties with a Breton agenda. Since the late nineties, Breton culture has witnessed a large increased in popularity, not only within Brittany but throughout France.

In addition to French, which is spoken in Brittany since the late Middle Age

Middle age

Middle age is the period of age beyond young adulthood but before the onset of old age. Various attempts have been made to define this age, which is around the third quarter of the average life span of human beings....

, the Breton linguistic area traditionally comprises two major regional languages : the Gallo language

Gallo language

, which is a romance language and the Breton language

Breton language

, which is a Celtic language closely related to Welsh

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

and even more to Cornish

Cornish language

Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...

.

Breton language was traditionally spoken only in the western part of the region (Lower Brittany), as Gallo

Gallo language

was spoken in the East (Upper Brittany

Upper Brittany

Upper Brittany is a term used to describe the eastern part of Brittany which is predominantly of a Romance culture and is associated with the Gallo language. The name is in counterpoint to Lower Brittany, the western part of the ancient province and present-day region, where the Breton language...

).

While at the beginning of the 20th century, only a minority of these Bretons were even able to understand French, the Breton

Breton language

and the Gallo language

Gallo language

s have been progressively uprooted by French. Currently, only a minority of Bretons are able to understand the regional languages of Brittany and this number is steadily decreasing. In order to invert this trend, an organization named Diwan

Diwan (school)

Diwan is a federation of Breton language-medium schools in Brittany .-Concept:The Diwan concept, which allows children to learn French and Breton through immersion was inspired by the Gaelscoileanna movement in Ireland, Ikastolak movement in the Basque Country and the Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin...

was created in 1977. The goal of this association is to propose schooling in Breton through a system of total immersion. Unlike other schools in France, including private schools, the institutions belonging to Diwan operate almost totally without any support from the French government, a recent decision by the French constitutional council (2001) declaring teaching exclusively in Breton unconstitutional, French being the official language of the Republic. Since the 1970s however, an increasing number of schools have adopted a system of bilingualism.

In the 1980s and 1990s, but peaking in the early 2000s, there were some television programs translated into Breton. TV Breizh

TV Breizh

TV Breizh is a private French regional station for the Brittany region.-History:The channel was launched on September 1, 2000 by TF1 and Patrick Le Lay for the purposes of broadcasting regional programming and reruns of TF1 programmes.TV Breizh tried to obtain an analogue broadcast licence for its...

was a Breton-speaking TV channel offered programming fully in Breton, but the station went out of business by 2007.

History

The name Breton movement, or Emsav in Breton , is used to group the major Breton political and cultural movements. Some feel the term (or the movements themselves) does not adequately reflect the diversity, internal divisions and conflicts within Brittany.

Traditionally, the history of the Breton movement is split into three periods, the First Emsav being the birth of the Breton movement in the nineteenth century and before 1914, the Second Emsav covering the period 1914-1945 and the Third Emsav for the post-war

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

movements. The historic memory of the Second Emsav has been tarnished in the memory of many by the collaboration of most leading Breton nationalists during the Nazi occupation of France. After the war, the movement was widely discredited politically and several of these members arrested as collaborators. The second Emsav essentially disappeared. After the Second Emsav went into limbo, Breton nationalism remained practically silent for two decades.

The Third Emsav was closely associated with the upsurge of social contestation during the 1960s. This last movement was grown on its own without links with the previous nationalist movements and, in sharp contrast with the earlier ideology, occupied the left side of the political spectrum with affinity ranging from social liberalism

Social liberalism

Social liberalism is the belief that liberalism should include social justice. It differs from classical liberalism in that it believes the legitimate role of the state includes addressing economic and social issues such as unemployment, health care, and education while simultaneously expanding...

and social democracy

Social democracy

Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...

to revolutionary Marxism

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

. This can help to explain the reluctance that some members of the movement feel toward the term 'nationalism' which, in France, carries right-wing connotations. The movement has experienced continued momentum through the growth of regional identities across Europe in the 1980s and to the present.

Recently, a new branch of the movement, Adsav

Adsav

, a far right wing organization, has appeared. This movement is, like other nationalist parties, very small and has no connection with the organization from the third Emsav.

Economic nationalism

Small-business owners have formed groups to defend the interests of small and medium sized businesses in Brittany. The label "Produit en Bretagne" is now used by them in order to create and advance the image of Brittany in other countries.

Efforts have also been made to promote the Breton language. In 2001, TV Breizh

TV Breizh

was created. However, little of its content is in Breton. The Breton language

Breton language

is also spoken for a few hours on the public television station France 3

France 3

France 3 is the second largest French public television channel and part of the France Télévisions group, which also includes France 2, France 4, France 5, and France Ô....

region Ouest.

In 2004, a regional mobile telecommunications operator was set up with the name Breizh Mobile to serve the area.

Politics

Culture and language

History

Economic nationalism

See also