> I was babbling on here about the Cossacks a while ago, and the thought
> occurs to me: Does anyone know of any other instances in history in which
a
> group that was artifically created by a state (in this case, for military
> purposes) over time developed into a group that considers itself to be an
> separate ethnicity?
Australians are one example. Created by the British state from its relative surplus population. The descendants of convicts and other early settlers were recognised as having a distinct accent as early as the 1830s. And "Australian" is how 38% of the population identified their ethnicity on the 2001 census:
http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/b85e1eb3a2bc274aca256d39001bc337?OpenDocument