Minorities In The 18th Century

Etymologically, the word minority in 1530s has been using as a meaning of "condition of being smaller," from Middle French minorité (15c.), or directly from Medieval Latin Minoritatem (Nominative minorities), from Latin minor Meaning "state of being under legal age" is from 1540s; that of "smaller number or part" is from 1736. The meaning "group of people separated from the rest of a community by race, religion, language, etc." is from 1919, originally in an Eastern European context. In modern era, the word minority in defined according to Oxford dictionary a small group of people within a community or country, differing from the main population in race, religion, language, or political persuasion.

In the Islamic law under the Islamic system,

Individual States recognize a wide range of groups domestically as minorities based on shared ethnic, cultural, religious and/or linguistic characteristics. Under the International Law, Adopted by consensus in 1992, the United Nations Minorities Declaration in its article 1 refers to minorities as based on national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity, and provides that States should protect their existence. It is often stressed that the existence of a minority is a question of fact and that any definition must include both objective factors (such as the existence of a shared ethnicity, language or religion) and Subjective factors (including that individuals must identify themselves as members of a minority). However, According to a definition offered in 1977 by Francesco Capotorti , Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, a minority is: A group numerically inferior to the rest of the population of a State, in a non-dominant position, whose members—being nationals of the State—possess ethnic, religious or linguistic characteristics differing from those of the rest of the population and show, if only implicitly, a sense of solidarity, directed towards preserving their culture, traditions, religion or

During the close of the late Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Age, These Protection mechanisms (which were unilateral and without concrete international enforcement) tried to address the Catholic and Protestant minority populations that had developed as a consequence of the Protestant Reformation, as territorial transfers of the time, combined with guaranteed freedom of emigration and allegiance, led to demographic shifts between these denominations in various territories Therefore, the issue of religious tolerance was already appearing in international law back then. Protections for these confessional minorities thus represent early forerunners for later laws protecting ethnic minorities, as will be expanded upon. The contemporary minority issues with which we have familiarity are largely rooted in the nineteenth