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In politics, a partition is a change of political borders cutting through at least one community’s homeland. That change is done primarily via diplomatic means, and use of military force is negligible.

Common arguments for partitions include:

• historicist — that partition is inevitable, or is already happening, this argument is related to historicism
• last resort — that partition should be pursued to avoid the worst outcomes (genocide or large-scale ethnic expulsions), if other means fail
• cost-benefit — that partition offers, on balance, a better prospect of conflict reduction than the maintenance of the existing borders
• better tomorrow — that there will be a reduction in actual violence and conflict recurrence, and that the new more homogenized polities that emerge will have better prospects for the peaceful development in future
• rigorous end — heterogeneity in cultures is bad, homogeneous states should be the goal of any policy

Common arguments against include:

• It creates enormous human suffering
• Grievances that could eventually lead to more deadly violence, such as the Korean and Vietnam wars.
• It prioritizes race and ethnicity to a level only acceptable to an Apartheid Regime
• The international system is very reluctant to accept the idea of partition in deeply divided societies

Examples

Notable examples (see also Category:Partition) are:

• Partition of Prussia by the Second Peace of Thorn in 1466^{[1] [2]} creating Royal Prussia, and Duchy of Prussia in 1525^[3]
• Partition of Catalonia by the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659: Northern Catalan territories (Rousillon) was given to France by Spain.
• In the 1757 Second Treaty of Versailles, France agreed upon the partition of Prussia^[4]
• Partition of the United States during the American Civil War.
• Partition of Prussia in 1919^[5]
• German occupation of Czechoslovakia^[6] and Munich Agreement of 1938
• Partition and Elimination^[7] of East Prussia^[8] among People's Republic of Poland and Soviet Union^[9]
• Three Partitions of Luxembourg, the last of which in 1839, that divided Luxembourg between France, Prussia, Belgium, and the independent Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
• Three Partitions of Poland and Poland-Lithuania in the 18th, with the fourth one sometimes referring to events of 19th and 20th centuries
• 1905 Partition of Bengal and 1947 Partition of Bengal
• Partition of Tyrol by the London Pact of 1915
• Partition of the German Empire in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles
• Partition of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire in 1919 by the Treaty of St. Germain
• Partition of Ireland in 1920 into the independent Irish Free State and (British) Northern Ireland
• Treaty of Kars of 1921, which partitioned Ottoman Armenia between the republic of Turkey and the then Soviet Union (Western and Eastern Armenia)
• Partition of Germany and Berlin after World War II, annexation of Former eastern territories of Germany
• Partition of Korea in 1945
• 1947 UN Partition Plan for Palestine (region); this partition was abortive, as the proposed Palestinian state was never formed; Israel took most of the territory, with some going to Transjordan and Egypt.
• Partition of India (colonial British India) in 1947 into the independent dominions (later republics) of India and Pakistan (which included modern-day Bangladesh)
• Partition of Korea in 1953
• Partition of Punjab in 1966 into the states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh
• Partition of Pakistan in 1971, when East Pakistan became the independent nation of Bangladesh after the Bangladesh Liberation War
• Partition of Vietnam in 1954
• The hypothetical partition of the Canadian province of Quebec

See also

• Separatism
• Secession

References

• Brendan O’Leary, DEBATING PARTITION: JUSTIFICATIONS AND CRITIQUES