Talk:Nikola Tesla/Nationality and ethnicity

Nikola Tesla isn’t American

I swear to God these americans are thinking famous people are their nationality when they’re not! Nikola Tesla only lived in the USA. He is Serbo-Croatian. Born in Croatia, Serbian family. 💀 Hellopreppy (talk) 17:50, 24 May 2024 (UTC)

Tesla was an American citizen for 52 years and lived in the United States for most of his life. Cullen328 (talk) 17:56, 24 May 2024 (UTC)

He was a naturalized. Sources do say that he was quite proud to become American. Yes, maybe the lead isn't quite accurate because it emphasizes his American citizenship and Serbian ethnicity, neglecting that he was born in Croatia which was a part of Austrian Empire. It is a big part of his notability after all, as he wasn't an American citizen until age 35. However, the article does explicitly mention that Tesla was born in Croatia later in the text. If he wasn't naturalized the lead could say Serbo-Croatian. 78.1.202.178 (talk) 00:14, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Separate talk page

Can someone explain to me why is there a separate talk page just for nationality and ethnicity? What exactly is the problem here? I think that sources do cover this quite well. 1. Ethnicity - almoust all sources state Serbian as ethnicity 2. Nationality - Austrian then American

Also, Austria was a multicultural empire composed of several distinct parts. Usually, for people from Austria, usually their cultural land is mentioned, as not all people were austrains. For Tesla, it's mentioned that he was a native of Croatian part of the empire, as opposed to being Austrain or Hungarian.

All checks out. Maybe someone more familiar can explain what exactly is debated here?

78.1.202.178 (talk) 00:34, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

You can read some good topics in the last 2 archives about nationality. It wasn't Austiran before American.

Also some editors are disputing Tesla was born in Croatian part of the Empire, although the article says Military Frontier and Military Frontier article lists MF as part of Croatia. 95.168.105.16 (talk) 14:02, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

You know, you can't use Wikipedia as a source? 78.1.202.106 (talk) 14:57, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

If you don't intend to read previous discussions, and those are too long for you to read, I can't help you much.

Here are the sources: "Tesla was born an ethnic Serb in Smiljian in the province of Lika in what is today Croatia. At that time, a portion of Croatia was the military frontier district of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the area was referred to as Vojna Krajina ..." Bernard Carlson, Tesla: Inventor of the Electric Age, p.13

"the village where Tesla was born, is in the province of Lika, and at the time of his birth was a dependent province held by the Austro-Hungarian Empire as part of Croatia and Slovenia.". O'Neill (1944), page 12. 95.168.105.16 (talk) 15:23, 4 July 2024 (UTC)