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Regional and ethnic consciousness now represents a strong political factor in many European countries. Within Spain, for example, the dominant population--some 27 million--is Castillian, but there are between 6 and 8 million Catalans, almost 2 million Basques, and about 3 million Galicians. Belgium is divided into 4 million French-speaking Walloons and 6 million Flemings, whose language is Dutch-based. In some cases, political conflict and cultural tensions among regional ethnic minority groups and nationally dominant groups go back a century or more. Since the 1960s, there has been a widespread resurgence of regional ethnic consciousness, perhaps as a reaction to the increasing scale of human organization and the homogenizing influences of economic and cultural globalization. Whatever the reasons, regional ethnic consciousness now represents a strong factor in the geography of Europe. (Source: P. Knox, Geography of Western Europe. London: Croom Helm, 1984, p. 69.) |
