My impression is that most Americans when hearing the term “secession” think of the War Between the States, or as it’s usually referred to, The Civil War, and so conjure up a bloody multiyear event when any consideration of secession arises. But secessions are in fact, often peaceful with both sides accepting the parting of ways (just as couples, business partners, friends, and club members, etc. generally do).
I’ve prepared this (admittedly non-exhaustive) list—including twenty-three secessions from or to the United States—to make the point that in fact peaceful secessions are rather common and beneficial.
There were as little as 40-70 sovereign countries in the 1940s (it’s a rather inexact science!) and today there are 206. Clearly the world can carry on with secessions being the norm for the last 80 years. And do realize that the violent secessions that have occurred were each a case of a group wanting to leave a jurisdiction only to have that jurisdiction resort to violence against its own for the sake of maintaining their power—a vile motive to say the least.
Secession: the act of becoming independent and no longer part of a country, area, organization, etc. | |||
# | Date | Jurisdictions | From |
1 | 1777 | New Hampshire/New York | |
2-12 | 1787-1788 | Georgia, South Carolina, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire | The Articles of Perpetual Union |
13 | 1789 | The Articles of Perpetual Union | |
14 | 1790 | The Articles of Perpetual Union | |
15 | 1803 | France | |
16 | 1820 | Massachusetts | |
17 | 1831 | Netherlands | |
18 | 1847 | United States | |
19 | 1854-1947 | United Kingdom | |
20 | 1861 | France | |
21 | 1867 | Russia | |
22 | 1901 | United Kingdom | |
23 | 1902 | United States | |
24 | 1905 | Norway, Sweden | |
25 | 1917 | Russia | |
26 | 1917 | Denmark | |
27 | 1934 | United Kingdom | |
28 | 1944 | Denmark | |
29 | 1946 | United States | |
30 | 1961 | United Arab Republic | |
31 | 1965 | Malaysia | |
32 | 1982 | United Kingdom | |
33 | 1983 | United States | |
34 | 1986 | United States | |
35 | 1990 | Union of Soviet Socialists Republic | |
36 | 1991 | Union of Soviet Socialists Republic | |
37 | 1991 | Union of Soviet Socialists Republic | |
38 | 1991 | Union of Soviet Socialists Republic | |
39 | 1991 | Union of Soviet Socialists Republic | |
40 | 1991 | Union of Soviet Socialists Republic | |
41 | 1991 | Union of Soviet Socialists Republic | |
42 | 1991 | Union of Soviet Socialists Republic | |
43 | 1991 | Union of Soviet Socialists Republic | |
44 | 1991 | Union of Soviet Socialists Republic | |
45 | 1991 | Union of Soviet Socialists Republic | |
46 | 1991 | Union of Soviet Socialists Republic | |
47 | 1991 | Union of Soviet Socialists Republic | |
48 | 1991 | Union of Soviet Socialists Republic | |
49 | 1991 | Union of Soviet Socialists Republic | |
50-51 | 1991 | Yugoslavia | |
52-53 | 1992 | Czechoslovakia | |
54 | 1994 | United States | |
55 | 2006 | Yugoslavia | |
56 | 2009 | Denmark | |
57 | 2020 | European Union | |
