When the British Parliament created a Welsh Assembly in 1999, the goal seemed simple enough: to allow some self-rule in Wales in hopes of stopping the violence associated with the Welsh independence movement of the 1970s and 1980s.

The move was the first significant modern step in the centuries-old conflict between the Welsh and the English over control of Wales. The analysis of what a Welsh Assembly meant differed vastly between the English and the Welsh. In England, politicians hoped that allowing home rule in Wales and Scotland would help quell the flames of independence and allow for a more stable United Kingdom. Welsh nationals saw the move as the first step in securing their cultural history and language from the encroachment of the English. However, since the creation of the Welsh Assembly in 1999, the clash over the political identity of Wales has created the potential for violence that the founding of the assembly was meant to stop.

The modern Welsh independence movement began in earnest in the 1950s when groups such as Y Gweriniaethwyr (Free Wales Army) started to form small armies. Between 1979 and 1984 over 100 violent attacks were attributed to the group Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Movement for the Defense of Wales). This led to the emergence of a political movement for Welsh autonomy. Welsh nationalism was not new to the independence movements of the postwar era; the political party Plaid Cymru had been a powerful force in Welsh politics since its formation in 1925. Its purpose had been to provide a challenge for the British parties active in Welsh politics but with movements for autonomy strengthening, the nature of Welsh nationalism fundamentally changed. No longer was Plaid Cymru simply content with challenging major British political parties; it became a party focused on protecting the cultural and national heritage of Wales.

The violence associated with Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru did not simply occur because of the general trend in the late 1970s toward agitating for independence by minority populations in Western Europe. Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru’s actions were a result of what they felt was an infringement upon their rights by the English. With the decline of the economy of northern England in the 1970s, many lower middle-class workers from the industrial towns began moving to Wales where property prices were lower and jobs were more abundant. The English, however, did not assimilate into the existing Welsh society and instead retained their desire for English nationality even though they were living in Wales. As a result, Welsh culture and Welsh, once considered the most resilient of Celtic languages, became endangered. In the period between 1975 and 1990 the percentage of the population of Wales that spoke fluent Welsh fell by almost 50 percent. The movement of the English into Wales came to be viewed as an act of English imperialism by the Welsh nationalists. Their goal of preserving Welsh culture took on a new meaning; Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru felt that the migration of the English to Wales amounted to cultural warfare. While some extremist groups resorted to violence, Plaid Cymru consolidated its power and agenda, making the group a united political front that was able to challenge Labour, a major British political party, for the Welsh seats in Parliament.

The emergence of Plaid Cymru as a viable political party hinted at the division inherent in Welsh politics by the mid-1980s. Plaid Cymru began sending members to the British Parliament, yet it was unable to gain a voting majority throughout the whole of Wales. The dislocation of the English working class in the 1970s had effectively pushed the population of Welsh speakers into the minority. Consequently, the preservation of Welsh culture (a primary goal of Plaid Cymru) became increasingly difficult. Without representation, the Welsh could not fight for the issues they felt were most important. Seeing their language and culture quickly disappearing, much of Wales adopted laws making the study of the Welsh language mandatory. While this had the temporary effect of saving the Welsh language (over 500,000 people now speak Welsh, with the vast majority under the age of 30), it did not achieve the desired end of the absolute preservation of culture. With more and more English moving to Wales, some nationalists feared that the mandatory teaching of Welsh would become a thing of the past. Nationalist organizations began to feel that the only system that would afford their culture absolute protection would be some form of devolution of power from Westminster to Cardiff.

As the Welsh movement for cultural freedom became a driving force in politics, another part of Great Britain was in similar disarray. Scotland was engaged in debates with the British Parliament over the economic rights and freedoms enjoyed by companies within its borders. Parliament decided that some devolution of power would be necessary and it allowed for the first election of a Welsh Assembly and a Scottish Parliament in 1999 as a means of placating the parties. It thought that the granting of a Welsh Assembly would be the final step in silencing the Welsh nationalists, but this solution failed to address many of the problems inherent to the region.

To ensure that the Welsh nationalist minority was not continually silenced, Parliament also gave the Welsh Assembly a system of proportional representation that would overrepresent the nationalist minority. In the initial 1999 election to the assembly, this system gave Plaid Cymru 17 of the 60 seats, ensuring them a voice in Welsh politics. This was insufficient for the radical nationalists in Wales; they felt that they were still under English rule on the cultural issues that were most important to them. Measures are now being taken to circumvent the perceived English rule in Wales; one of the more controversial steps was a recent effort to prevent non-Welsh speakers from buying property in Wales. This move infuriated the English, who claimed to be making a good faith effort to devolve power to the Welsh.

Although the establishment of a Welsh Assembly is one step toward solving the division between the Welsh and the English, in its current form it does not solve the problems it set out to fix. The Welsh and the English are addressing fundamentally different issues, dividing themselves further. The Welsh nationalists feel that the proportionally representative nature of the Welsh Assembly entrenches their status as a minority. They argue that they have not been granted a system that allows the Welsh to make independent political choices. Until such a system is in place, the Plaid Cymru will not be satisfied. On the other side, the English want to be free to live in Wales and they feel that Welsh attempts to bar them amounts to racism. It seems that until the Welsh are willing to address this, the English will refuse to make further concessions on home rule.