Today, September 18, 2014, the Scottish will go to the polls to decide whether or not they should secede from the United Kingdom and become their own, independent country. This referendum is the culmination of decades of mounting independence sentiment in Scotland, and as Kathy Gilsinan wrote in The Atlantic, even having the vote means “Scottish independence is closer to a reality now than at any point since 1707,” which is when Scotland initially joined up with the United Kingdom. While the Scots are dangerously close to voting themselves a new nation today, they are not the only ones in the world who are interested in self-governance, and they would not be the first nation to vote itself separate from another. Today we explore secession movements closer to home.
Secessionist movements tend to gain steam when a given region has notably distinct political views from the rest of the country. Perhaps the most notable example of this was the secession of eleven of the United States to form the Confederate States of America. Politically speaking it made sense for these states, which had strong agricultural economies and favored a more locally-focused governmental system, to become their own nation. Regardless, the practical effects of losing nearly half her states would be devastating for the Union, and so they went to war. This established a precedent that, without the blessing of the federal government, states could not vote themselves to be independent nations. Simply put, unless the whole nation agrees, states are not permitted to secede from the Union.
This has not stopped further secession movements from popping up in the United States. During the early 2000’s, the typically quiet state of Vermont had a growing secessionist movement, mostly drawn out of ire against the current President George W. Bush. In 2007 on town meeting day, 37 Vermont towns voted to impeach President Bush. While the movement has died down since Bush left office, some Vermonters still see secession as a desirable option. The movement, which is called the Second Vermont Republic (the first Vermont Republic lasted 14 years before the area was admitted to the Union as the 14th state in 1791), seeks to distance the state from the rest of the union, which the movement alleges is caught up in wrongheaded foreign policy and disastrous cultural consumerism. While it doesn’t appear the group has enough support to actually effect a vote, movements like this exist in America today, and this is just one example.
Sometimes secession is a geographic consideration. The United States declaring independence from Great Britain was a form of secession, and while there was an entire ocean between the Britain and her former colonies, they fought long and hard to keep them. Alaska, one of the two states unattached to the lower 48, has had an active independence-focused political party for nearly four decades, and they are no fringe group. After abandoning the cause of outright secession from the United States and focusing on more mainstream, yet independence-minded values, the Alaskan Independence Party elected Wally Hickel to the statehouse as the state’s first third party governor in 1990. While it is unlikely that the United States will lose states anytime soon, there is the distinct possibility it will add one.
Puerto Rico recently held a referendum in 2012 asking their citizens two questions: first if they believed the U.S. territory should continue to enjoy its status as such, and if not, would they prefer becoming an independent nation, a sovereign free associated state (somewhere between a territory and a full fledged nation), or a U.S. state. A thin majority elected for change, and of those, 61% would choose to pursue outright statehood. With a subsequent Government Accountability Office report showing that statehood could be fiscally advantageous for both the U.S. and Puerto Rico, the chances of seeing a 51st state have increased even further. It is important to remember that the lines on the map are never fixed, and the atlas sitting on your shelf might be out of date very soon, if it isn't already.
