The Birth, Spread, and Culmination of Imperialism in North America

First, may I say many thanks to Wikipedia for providing this amazing map illustrating the changing demographics of Imperialism in the North America.

I found this gem below while researching the Basque Nationalist movement in the Basque regions of Spain and France. My curiosity was sparked this morning as I came across an article in Spiegel describing the role sport has played in the Basque region on the collective consciousness of a national identity. While it is clear that athletics cohesively collects passions together, funneling the emotions into a singular embodied version of David versus Goliath, the article highlighted the suppression, and subsequent revitalization of the Basque language as the manifestation of ethnic identity.

The question of the role language plays in collective consciousness inspired me to further research Quebec nationalism, as well as Celtic nationalism. Doing so brought me to the interactive map seen above. It is amazing to have a visual representation of the changing demographics of North America, and of the immediate association between language and empire. With the notable (and debatable) exception of Canada, each growth built their empire on the back of linguistic identity, and literary proficiency.

Therefore, as Globalization continues its long march down the corridors of time, how long can collective identities remain intact in the face of the encroachment of language erosion?

~ by maffersalmon on April 11, 2008.