Religija, jezik in narodnost: primer modernega Walesa

This article aims to give Slovene readers a sense of the development of nationhood in Wales, with emphasis on the formative nineteenth century. Descended from the original Celtic inhabitants, the Welsh by 1800 had become a fairly typical non-dominant group who retained, however, a literary language with a millennial tradition used in the Protestant Church, on the basis of which a widely read vernacular press developed in the nineteenth century. Demographic and economic growth, and the eclipse of the landowners and Welsh Anglican Church made for a buoyant sense of Welsh affirmation, however, which only weakened after 1918. But from the 1960s the nationalist movement first founded in 1925 grew powerfully among the Welsh speaking minority and world-wide trends helped shift the balance between Welsh and British loyalties among English speakers. In 1999 an elected Welsh Assembly was established which acquired full legislative powers in important matters after a referendum of March 2011. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]