Fascinating article about how the map may be changing in the years ahead: The New York Times’ List of Potential New Countries, and Others As Well (GeoCurrents)
1. Mali Breaks UpAnd see: Spain ‘won’t have enough tanks’: Catalonia to vote on independence, defy Madrid (RT)
2. Belgium (Finally) Splits Up
3. Congo Splinters
4. Somalia’s Breakup Confirmed
5. Alawites Go Solo
6. The Arabian Gulf Union
7. An Independent Kurdistan
8. Greater Azerbaijan
9. Pashtunistan and Baluchistan Take a Stand
10. China Gobbles Up Siberia
11. Korea Reunited
Additional suggestions for potential new countries have also been made elsewhere. ComingAnarchy.com lists the following newly independent states that could splinter off existing countries in Europe: Scotland (currently part of the UK), Normandy, Brittany, and Corsica (France), Basque Republic and Catalonia, the latter with or without the Balearic Islands (Spain), Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria (Germany), Padania and Sardinia.
An even more radical map of “Potential independent states in Europe” (whose original author I was not able to establish as it has been reposted on multiple websites without proper reference) lists, in addition to the already mentioned candidates: United Ireland, created by joining together the current Republic of Ireland and the Northern Ireland) and Wales in the British Isles; Galicia and Andalusia (Spain); Trentino South-Tyrol in northern Italy; Republica Srpska and Herzeg-Bosnia (which together currently form Bosnia and Herzegovina); Kosovo and Metohia in southern Serbia; Trasdnistria; North Ossetia, Chechnya, and Abkhazia in northern Caucasus region; Nagorno-Karabakh; and Northern Cyprus.
No mention of anything in North America, despite secession stories this year about Colorado and California? And I suppose Quebec is still threatening. Maybe Mexico will finally take back the Southwest? Wildest Secession Movements in The United States (Neatorama) And see this: The New American Nations
How much is due to peak oil/resource scarcity?
And here is a film of changing European borders from 1000AD to the present day:
If more countries had adopted the cantonal system, some of these would never clamor to get out. (I think that if Czechoslovakia had adopted the cantonal system in 1918, Sudeten would not have turned out for Hitler as they had, and maybe it would not have lost Ruthenia and eventually broken into two. It would have been stronger.) But despite Switzerland's clear and long lasting success, no emulators. Any takers on how to explain it?
ReplyDelete"Shitfing"--dude, is that ever a Freudian slip of the fingers.
ReplyDeleteHa! I've made a new word. There's no spell check for the titles...
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