Unionism

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In the history of Christianity, unionism is an associative movement, originally Protestant and then ecumenical Christian, of the Christian Unions of Young People (UCJG) and by extension of associations from UCJG as the unionist scouts of France.

In the history of Protestantism, unionism is a movement aimed at promoting the ecclesiological unity of Protestant churches emerging from the Reformation. It led to the creation of the United Church of Canada to the United Protestant Church of Belgium, the Union of Protestant Churches of Alsace and Lorraine, and the creation of the United Protestant Church of France resulting from the merger of the Reformed Church of France and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of France.

In the history of Belgium, unionism is a Belgian political movement which, at the time of the revolution of 1830, advocated the union of Catholics and liberals against the iniquitous "Holland" regime (see Society of Twelve: the provinces that soon formed the Belgian state had been part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands since 1815).

In Ireland, unionism, notably represented by the Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party, is a British political movement that advocates the preservation of the union of the Irish province with the United Kingdom.

In the history of the United States of America, during the Civil War and the decade preceding it, the Unionists, both from the North and the South, defended the perpetual Union of States, as founded in 1788, in the face of the secessionist threats that led to the creation of the Confederate States of America.

Elsewhere in historical time and geographical space, there have been or exist militant movements for the unification of various territories into larger states, some of which have been successful (German unionism, Italian unionism or Yemeni unionism for example), others have temporarily ended up failing (Romanian unionism, Czechoslovak unionism, Yugoslav unionism for example), while others have not succeeded (Hellenic unionism, Cypriot unionism, modern Romanian unionism, Serbian unionism, Chinese unionism, Korean unionism or Papuan unionism among others).