The history of our world is full of conflicts and compromises. The causes of many conflicts stem from differences over ethnicity. The compromises that follow are important measures to determine how the differences are resolved and sometimes broken again. In this lesson you will focus on how smaller ethnic groups (minorities) and larger groups use public policy to cooperate with one another.

So what is an ethnicity? An ethnicity is a race or national group that someone belongs to. You may be familiar with African Americans, Mexican Americans, or even Native Americans as ethnic groups in the United States, but there are many ethnic groups globally.

Roll your mouse over the map to discover different ethnic groups around the world.

After looking at the map is there anything that surprised you? Do you think that you are clear about ethnic groups? Looking at the photos, why do you think that conflicts arise based on the ethnicity of one group?