It is estimated that the origin of separatism is in Protestantism
Separatism is the movement or ideology that promotes the separation of a region from the country or entity to which it belongs . Separatists usually seek the independence of their land, although they can also seek the removal of one State to join another.
Objectives of separatism
What separatism desires, therefore, is the disintegration of an entity through the separation of one of its parts. This intention may be justified for historical, religious, ethnic or any other reasons.
Through separatism, we want an area to achieve its autonomy and stop being politically subjected. If this objective is met, the inhabitants of said space modify the conditions of their citizenship.
Characteristics and origin
It is important to mention that separatism can have different characteristics. In some cases it is a peaceful trend that is committed to achieving its objectives within the framework of the law and the Constitution , promoting political changes. Separatism, however, can also appeal to violence and resort to attacks, guerrilla warfare, etc.
Regarding the origins of separatism, historian and professor Enric Ucelay-Da Cal (born in the United States in 1948) suggests that they are found in Protestantism, so we should consider the English Puritans of the 1600s as the oldest separatists of the story .
Ucelay-Da Cal is based on the fact that the religious community of that time separated from the group to which it belonged to form an independent one, governed by new rules , different from those imposed by the Church. It is possible to see features similar to these in what happened with the Enlightenment, in the 18th century.
Some examples
We can find several examples of separatism in Spain . For many decades, the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna ( ETA ) organization pursued Basque independence through violent actions, causing more than eight hundred deaths. ETA dissolved in 2018 without achieving its objective .
In Catalonia , meanwhile, separatism achieved a unilateral declaration of independence in 2017 that, in practice, did not prosper. In any case, numerous Catalan groups continue working to separate from the Spanish State and achieve sovereignty for their people.
sexual separatism
This type of separatism is also known as gender separatism, and belongs to movements that seek the distinction and isolation of people according to their sex, sexual option or sexual identity in different communities, with the aim of reducing or even eliminating the direct dealings with those individuals who do not belong to your group .
Isolation based on sex, sexual choice or identity
Within this section we can find another classification, which gives us, for example, feminist separatism and MGTOW ( men who follow their own path ). The first suggests that to achieve feminism's opposition to imposed gender roles, it is necessary to separate women from men. As almost all feminist theories are based on lesbian feminism, this type of separatism is also considered an extension of it.
Regarding the MGTOW, these are groups that are made up almost exclusively of men , who rely on the assumption that women are interested and abusive to justify the need to isolate themselves from them. At the very least, they avoid any emotional ties with women to protect themselves from their harmful attitudes.
The emergence of this sexual separatism took place on the Internet, as happened with so many other movements, and it expanded there to reach the importance it has today. It is necessary to point out that it promotes hostility and misogyny . Two theoretical bases on which he justifies his vision and rhetoric are biologism and the theory of evolution.