Unlikely Countries That People Don't Understand
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- čas přidán 6. 05. 2024
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▶ In this video I talk about some other countries that, to the unaware observer, maybe shouldn't exist. My point isn't to defend this position. It is, rather, to contradict it: by explaining why these sometime criticized countries do deserve to exist. I speak about North Macedonia and its dispute with Greece, Switzerland and its language divides, East Timor and the attempted annexation by Indonesia, Kosovo and Serbia's refusal of accepting their sovereignty, Bosnia Herzegovina's multiple nationalities situation, as well as Iraq's contemporary chaos and the United Kingdom's potential for falling apart.
▶ TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
00:57 North Macedonia
02:45 Switzerland
05:44 East Timor
07:21 Kosovo
09:34 Bosnia & Herzegovina
10:50 Iraq
11:51 United Kingdom
13:15 Summary
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*Just to make it clear, since some people seem to not have caught the disclaimer at the start: the point of this video is to, precisely, point out why I believe these countries SHOULD EXIST. Explaining their history, identity and, if nothing else, right of self determination.*
Fair enough it that was your aim, but try to be as much as possible factual, not to spread propaganda which is based on historically unverified claims, why should some of them exist. There were some respected historians in the past centuries, and a lot of historical documents, which were accepted by the whole scientific community, before Noel Malcolm took over to rewrite everything, and be the most cited author for some regions.
Better read a book or something if you are gonna make videos like these…
“Being Albanian very early in history, now it’s own country”
Never heard more wrong things in one sentence, you lost me right there buddy, disliked, and stop spreading NATO misinformation. Converted Rebels of Arbanon (Greeko-Serbian tribe, Gegs and Tosks) assimilated by Turks in so many marriages, and served them until last day of Ottoman Empire, aren’t “Illyrian” buddy.. and Illyria, which was just a region and Roman province btw, has nothing to do with Albania, since that has to be the story you you trying to sell.. Hopefully you are aware that you support terroism, fascism and fake history claims.
Also your “Kosovo country” is missing other part and it’s Metohija. Kosovo is Serbian word meaning “the land of blackbirds” why do you think it’s called that way? One region is Kosovo, the other one is Metohija, and it would mean something like “peace in the mountains”, which imperialist ruined..
Who gave you legitimacy to explain that? All you did is lie
William Tell sends his regards
Currently the video's title is "Should These Countries Even Exist?". The tone of the title says quite the contrary to your disclaimer.
As a surinames with a lot of Dutch acquaintances I can confidently say on behalf of the Dutch
The fact that Belgium wasn’t on this list ruined my day
Our day*
Belgium is in the previous video
Surinam is cool!
Belgium In older vid
It was in the previous video I made about this!
As a German, I can say that Switzerland is obviously a different Nation with its very own history, political system, and culture, with "German" dialects which are very distinguished from the standard German or even dialects spoken in Southern Germany. No one in Germany thinks, that Switzerland is a part of Germany. Not even the Nazis tried to annex Switzerland.
I just want to say that there was gonna be a plan to annex Switzerland into Nazi germany, but that never came to fruition. Obviously.
I dont want to argue with your comment overall but the nazis most definetily wanted to take over swiss, it just wasnt their biggest priority at the time and also would have required too much involvement. If they would have won ww2, wouldn’t have taken them too long to attempt an annexation 😅
Nazis did plan to invade Swiss they were just already at war with the soviets and didn’t want to waste their troops
Nazis had plan to invade switzerland with operation Tannenbaum however that was not reasoned german identity but just...conquering.
Considering Hitler reference about switzerland he wasn't the biggest fan.
From wiki:
In a meeting held with Fascist Italy's leader, Benito Mussolini, and foreign minister, Galeazzo Ciano, in June 1941, Hitler stated his opinion on Switzerland quite plainly:
"Switzerland possesses the most disgusting and miserable people and political system. The Swiss are the mortal enemies of the new Germany."
Or
In August 1942, Hitler further described Switzerland as "a pimple on the face of Europe" and as a state that no longer had a right to exist, denouncing the Swiss people as "a misbegotten branch of our Volk."[3] From a Nazi viewpoint, Switzerland, as a small, multilingual, decentralized democracy where German-speakers felt more of an affinity with their French-speaking fellow Swiss citizens than towards their German brothers across the border, was the antithesis of the racially homogeneous and collectivised "Führer State".[4]
You should check "Operation Tannenbaum"
Andorra is probably on the top of my why do you exist list, even when compared to the other micro states its utterly bizarre.
Been there and can confirm it is pointless. Exists only for tax free cigarettes, alcohol and chocolate.
Its existence is definitely interesting, yeah
@General.Knowledge In the Pyrenees near Andorra are burnt put 4x4 vehicles thar were caught smuggling stuff into spain and france. We were there in 2007 hiking in the area.
if catalonia got its independence, andorra would def join it
It is a Catalan Country
Not certain if it's been mentioned but Wales was taken by England much earlier than the 16th century. Wales was CONQUERED by England in the late 13th century (the first "Prince of Wales" was invested in 1301). There were a number of rebellions against England until the early 15th century (some areas would form independent kingdoms and principalities) but these were fully quelled around 1415. The victor of the Battle of Bosworth Field in the Wars of the Roses was one Henry Tudor, the first Welsh-born King of England (as King Henry VII). Under the rule of Henry VIII (son of Henry VII), England and Wales became a unified nation with the last of traditional Welsh/Celtic laws being abolished in the 1530s and English law being imposed.
As to Scotland, they were officially unified in the early 18th century, but they'd essentially existed as "two kingdoms under one king" for most of the previous century, beginning with the ascension of James VI of Scotland to the English throne (as James--only becoming James I after 1625 when he died and his son ascended as James II) and continuing until Queen Anne oversaw the formal political union of the two countries (they were even ruled as a single state under Cromwell's "Protectorate").
England and Wales never became a unified nation. The Laws in Wales Act created a unified state called the Kingdom of England and Wales (known simply as England for short, despite the fact that the Kingdom of England was more than the nation of England) but the two nations continued to remain as two distinct nations.
Scotland and England became The United Kingdom in 1603 when the English Queen Elizabeth I died with no heir. The English throne was offered to King James VI of Scotland who accepted it and became James VI of Scotland and James I of England. His son Charles became Charles I of both countries in 1625. He was executed by Cromwell in 1649. Cromwell established the Commonwealth of England but Scotland remained loyal to Charles I's son, Charles II. Cromwell invaded Scotland in 1651 and forcibly joined Scotland and England together as the Republic of Great Britain (and Ireland after 1653). On Cromwell's death the monarchy was restored and Charles II ruled as King of Scotland and England. His brother became King James VII of Scotland and James II of England. Scotland remained a separate independent state until 1707 when it joined into a political union with England.
One more interesting country that shouldn't exist at all is Moldova, because most of the people are Romanian, a vast majority have Romanian passport and the culture is very similar to Romania, as well as they speak the same Romanian language
Romania and Moldova should unite in one state
North Macedonia should be split half to Albania and half to Bulgaria. However the Russian minority in Moldova should join Ukraine.
@@HeroManNick132 Yeah, about that, not gonna happen. Not with Moldova as well.
@@talesferreiralimadossantos8806 Transnistria is literally the main problem of Moldova so why Slavs (Russians) should join Romania? They better join Ukraine.
@@HeroManNick132 They have Gagauzia as well. AFAIK Romanian constitution doesn't allow authonomies.
If another video like that will be made here are some suggestions of mine
Belgium - the Flanders/Wallonia split is a writing on the wall that Brussels cannot accept imo. My lecturer told me once that in response to the Flemish having a university in Leuven, the Waloons built a completely new city - Louvain-la-Neuve just around 30 kilometres south. The regions' population are so different that even something as small as beer can upset someone.
Somalia - the Somali Civil War is going on since like, forever it may seem. The biggest irony here is that a breakaway state of Somaliland, who nobody recognizes, is more stable than Somalia proper. Here to blame is the clan system which basically doomed Somalia from the start. Somaliland is comprised of mostly 1 clan, while Somalia proper is a mixture of clans.
(I’m merging my comments)
(1)Somalia has more than just Somaliland, there’s also puntland, also Cypriot isnt really a unique culture, it’s the name for Turks and Greeks on the island of Cyprus
(2) Mainly the Greeks and their dialect, I’m just putting it out there to not anger any Turks on the island, Belgium has more than just Flemish and wallonian portions, there’s a bit of German in the eupen-melmedy region that was former German territory before the treaty of Versailles, and a province in the south of wallonia taken from Luxembourg and also named for Luxembourg and uses the Luxembourgish coat of arms for its flag and coat of arms
(3) The major issue with Somalia is that the British merged the Italian Somaliland colony with their British Somaliland colony after ww2 and gave Somalia independence as one country instead of the two distinct colonies
(4) Also Yemen falls into that same issue as the British Yemen colony was comprised of 4 or 5 major tribes (I think) and later, after its independence, it merged with the other independent Yemen state while also owning the island of socotra, an island closer to Somalia than to yemen
Belgium was in part one.
Belgium was in the other vid.
Somaliland is comparable more stable than Somalia but it has a well hidden ongoing conflict, 2023 Las Anod conflict
Welp Dutch is more concerns with Wealth rather than the conversion of the local population...Yes, there are substantional Protestant converts in Indonesia (especially in Eastern Indonesia), but again its not their main objective...Portuguese and Spanish by extension, is different they make it their holy mission to convert local pagans people they encounter (even by force).
Yeah, they were mostly traders, not really religious. At least not compared to some of the other countries that colonized places around the world.
As an Iraqi I felt my heart drop when you spoke about Iraq.
Thank you for mentioning how much the Iraqis deserve their own country and temporary conflicts don’t take that away.
Should the Kurds also be part of that? I think not
Just as Iraqis deserve their country they also do
In 1999 Australia was on a war “footing” over the independence of East Timor. According to Prime Minister at the time, John Howard, Australia had plans to bomb military head quarters in Indonesia and a lot of Australia’s military was moved to the northern parts of the country. It was a tense time between Australia and Indonesia.
Honorable mention: Singapore.
Singapore is unique in that it was granted independence unwillingly, as opposed to other nations, most of which was fought for. The issue is the conflict between the ruling elites in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and seeing no other way to resolve the feud, Malaysia decided to cut Singapore loose. The thinking was that since Singapore had no natural resources to sustain itself in the long term, the ruling elite in KL expects Singapore to return with its tail between its legs and beg to rejoin the Federation, allowing KL to assert its power there. On paper, this move seemed logical, but nearly 50 years later, Singapore is still independent. A country that should not exist in theory, considering Singapore's size and lack of resources, but the world is full of surprises, I guess.
Of all the bad things Portugal has done colonially (frankly it’s par for the course of most European nations) it’s nice to see the beginning of a redemption arc with them advocating for their former colony’s independence from Indonesia during that occupation.
Well, Indonesia didn't help at all, you can read about the "East Timor genocide". But really what led Portugal and other countries to help East Timor gain independence was the Dili cemetery massacre. This was filmed by an Australian journalist and really helped the cause.
After the 1974 revolution, Portugal left its colonies almost overnight (it remained in Macau only because China did not want the territory at that time). A mistake that left East Timor free to be invaded as soon as Portugal left...
@@RuiSilva-rw6vl I’ve read a little about it. It sounds like it was horrible.
Moldova should join Romania.
As North Macedonia Bulgaria and other part - Albania.
For me, Belgium is a clear example of an " out of the blue" country. Belgians in general (from my perspective) don't embrace different cultural aspects of their country, like Switzerland, where even if they speak different languages, what unites them is the Alpine culture they have, so they look beyond "language" identity. Instead, Flemish and Walloons like to remark their differences, and how similar to Dutch or French they are, respectively.
Regarding culture, apart from products like beer, chocolates, fries or waffles, there seems to be very few cultural traits that could distinguish a Belgian person, as an outsider I mean. If you speak Dutch or French, maybe you could tell a Belgian by how they speak, as they have their own words or terms in each language, but again, for an outsider, you wouldn't tell them apart from French or Dutch people.
For me, I think Flanders should unite to the Netherlands and Wallonia to France, with autonomy as the Faroe Islands within Denmark, or Wales in the UK. Flanders should be a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and Wallonia should be an autonomous region of France. Although, I doubt that could be the case for Wallonia, since France is extremly centralised and likes to impose French culture over local culture such as in Brittany, Corsica, the French Basque Country, etc. So for me, Belgians barely like to be Belgians, cuz they are Flemish or Walloon firstly.
Maybe, if they could really integrate, embrace and love all the mix of Dutch, French and German aspects like Switzerland, they could built a stronger national Identity, becoming a Belgian Federation. It's just an opinion, as a non Belgian.
If Belgium splits than Flanders will be independent and Wallonia will join France. We are very different than dutch people so it makes no sense to unite with them. We also have sources to be independent unlike Wallonia.
I don’t think the Dutch cared about converting the local population to Christianity, too much hassle and no good for profits. They were there for the money, as good Calvinists 🤑
Oh boy I sure do hope the comment section will be peaceful!
Not too bad so far!
We never say North "Macedonia" should not exist or should be part of Greece, we say that they shouldn't use that name.
And we always reply "You'll have to get that name over our dead body"
@@DacLMK Do you even know the language where your name comes from and what your name means?
Thanks for another interesting video. I think the title is a bit provocative, some people may find it offensive. I’m a bit surprised that both Belgium and Spain were not included, as both countries have regions that speak different languages and feel very much different from the other.
Spain seems ripe for "Balkanization" with Basque and Catalonia being prime breakaway candidates. Perhaps Grenada as well
And maybe Galicia too, as they also have their own language
Unlike Spain, Belgium has no national language like Austria and Liechtenstein. Belgians just speak a Southern dialect of Dutch called ''Flemish,'' the Southern part speaks a Northern dialect of French called ''Walloon'' and finally there is a German minority in the Eastern part.
Very informative and very brave!
I just came in with a bag of popcorn to read all the comments from Northern Macedonians.
Macedonian is a dialect of Bulgarian language. North Macedonia should be a part of Bulgaria.
Serbicized Bulgarian dialect*
@@HeroManNick132 I also feel that Bulgaria should use dialects from Sophia region (not Varna region) as basis for standard Bulgarian. Sophia dialect is much closer to Macedonian Bulgarian.
@@robertab929 Българският е базиран повече към диалектите от Елена, Трявна и Велико Търново, отколкото Варненските диалекти, които се различават повече.
А пък оня ''македонски'' е базиран на най-западните диалекти от Битоля, Велес и Прилеп. Той пък трябва да бъде от Източните диалекти, но не от Куманово, защото там нарочно прибавят повече сърбизми от стандартната норма.
Not to hate but if North Macedonia should be a part of another country it should be Bulgaria. They are SO MUCH MORE closer to Bulgaria culturally, language-wise and so on, that Greece. Bulgaria even controlled their territory during WW2. Edit: I wrote that before I watched the vid, based on the thumbnail. I agree fully with what u said, but also don't forget that big part of today's north Greece were Bulgarian lands.
Don’t forget that it’s not only Bulgarian, Albanians are less the half of population and a pretty large part of it used to be historically albanian.
@@albanianmapping Half of the Albanians in Macedonia today are from Kosovo who have settled during the Kosovo War in the late 90s. Plus the Albanians in Macedonia need to chill with their stupid nationalism and plaster the Albanian flag on every corner in their ghettoized villages.
Why? I don't feel close to Bulgaria at all, and I'm Macedonian. Our cultures have devolved over the years, and I think it's better this way. Plus what Bulgaria did in WW2 still leaves a sour taste in our mouths, and we're still waiting for an official apology. And don't get me started on how Bulgaria treats the Macedonian minority in Pirin, the historical controversies and so on...
@@DacLMK Wait a moment and look where your ancestors come from, if you don’t like then go back from where they come. You’re a mix of turkic bulgarians with slavs, both immigrants! Stay calm dude!
@@DacLMK You’re bulgarian however, you’re not macedonian, don’t steal identity, only albanians are autothonus in NMK, so only they can be called macedonians!
I miss Flandres as a Portuguese. We traded a lot with them in our medieval past and even sent people to populate our islands of Azores.
At 6:34. Most of the natives of East Timor were animists, with traditional polytheistic religions, before the arrival of Europeans in the early 1500s. It was easy for the Portuguese to convert this type of small population. The Dutch were never really into converting the natives. That would've led to instability and the inability of the Dutch to trade, make money, and take over most of the many, many, many islands of Indonesia. So they never bothered to convert the natives to Protestantism.
Iraq also had an Assyrian Christian minority but many are emigrating.
And for counties that should exist, I would say Val D'aran. It's part of Spain but you have to go through a tunnel to get there and they have their own language.
Oh cool! Which region of Spain is this?
@@General.Knowledge Catalonia
@@General.Knowledge In the Pyrenees just west of Andorra on the border with France.
@@General.Knowledge Val d'Aran ("Aran Valley") is a small region of Catalonia of Occitan culture or one would say a portion of Occitania that protrudes/bulges into Catalonia. It is roughly the size of Andorra (Aran with 634 Km2 vs 468 Km2) but much less inhabitants (11.000 vs 82.000), about the size of a Catalan "comarca" (equivalent to a "county").
I wish the Assyrians (and other Christian minorities) could have their own states.
Who is spending 200+ dollars on electric razers? It's like a 30 to 50 dollar purchase every 2 or 3 years.
You forgot to mention that Bosnia existed 1000 years ago as a kingdom.
Kingdom of Bosnia? It was separate kingdom from Serbian Empire, and it was ruled also by Nemanjić dynasty. It was de facto part of Serbian empire, but it was claimed by Hungary. That’s why it was considered separate from Serbian Empire, even though they had Nemanjić dynasty rulers.
@@freedomordeathserbia jebeni srpski lažovi, u to više ni djeca od 6 godina ne vjeruju.
@@freedomordeathserbia
it was never part of the Serbian Empire, on the contrary it was attacked by the Serbian Empire when Tsar Dushan invaded. However he never annexed it. They also didn't have any saying in Bosnian internal or external affairs, it was de facto and de jure independent.
The Bosnian royal family was related to the Serbian Nemanjic dynasty, just as they were related to the Hungarian and Croatian families. Also it was an matrnal connection, the Nemanjic never had control or rule over Bosnia.
The last Serbian ruler of Bosnia was Constantine Bodin, King of Dioclea, from the Vojsavljevic Dynasty in 1101.
@@Amelos1494 No buddy, firstly Banate of Bosnia, later became Kingdom of Bosnia. It was de facto part of Serbian Empire as the rulers were from Nemanjić dynasty. It was claimed by Hungary, but was de facto independent from Hungary, ruled by Nemanjić dynasty and their ancestors. Educate yourself.
That new intro is pretty good
Thanks! I hired this really good animator to make it, I was really pleased with the result :)
Some small countries could possibly join bigger countries, but might see the costs outweighing the benefits. For example, the Principality of Monaco could possibly join France and/ or the European Union, but they don’t want to lose their autonomy to other countries and organizations.
I can see why Monaco wants to be a very rich independent country rather than a French backwater. What would be the advantage to them?
As far as i know, France will take over Monaco - when Monaco no longer has a male prince
@@Markus_Abrach I think France and Monaco have fudged that so it can stay in existence.
great video 🔥
North Macedonia is far more Bulgarian than greek or Serbian, many if the revolutionaries there were Bulgarian and for a long time fought for a united bulgaria, in ottoman birth certificates most of the people were registered as Bulgarian, and about 25 % of Bulgarians have Macedonian ancestry, my great great grandfather was a revolutionary in Macedonia but had to migrate to Bulgaria.
The main problem between Bulgaria and north Macedonia isn't the fact that it exists, it is the fact that they claim some of Bulgarian history like tsar Samuel, and refuse to admit that before the 20th century there was no ethnic Macedonians, there was only a regional identity like the shops or east Bulgarians.
Абе, в Северна Македония много преобладава сръбската култура. Например много от тях носят сръбски имена като Бобан, което за нас е чуждо, макар че то произлиза от версията на Богдан.
Да не кажа, че тяхната лютеница им викат айвар, макар че и ние го имаме.
Но все пак това е нарочно направено, за да имат сърбите повече власт върху тях, но се провалиха, въпреки че ги пълнят там със сръбски стоки, медии и музика нарочно.
Bosnia 🇧🇦 is full of great people of different religions, but politicians keep wanting to divide them, so sad. #UnitedBosnia
Why would we want to live with people who advocated jihad in the 90s and then cried when they got war crimed?
Great video!
Very interesting video.
You totally excluded the Serbian perspective from the Kosovo, historically Kosovo wasn't ethnically homogenous as it is today, historically it was mixed, but a series of different conflicts led to today's situation. But what mainly nailed the coffin of Serbian presence, was wars between Habsburgs and Ottomans which led to a ''Great Migration of Serbs'' from southern regions of Serbia. So why then are we Serbs so adamant about Kosovo not only because of our current minority there, but because of cultural heritage, it contains a lot of our 13th century orthodox monasteries, four of which are on UNESCO heritage site, but during the 2004 Kosovo pogrom, many of those medieval monuments were destroyed by Albanians. It is just decades of conflict and distrust that led to the current state of awful Albanian-Serb relations
Serbs South of Mitrovica are minority, stop your chauvinistic expansions to the South!
Was it even mixed? From what I remember : after the Ottomans conquered Kosovo, through several ethnic cleansings the Serbs were gradually replaced by Albanian immigrants.
I have nothing against these countries existing independently
Ngl, the more i learn about the history of Yugoslavia, the more amazed I am that they lasted as long as they did.
It is my understanding that Iraq, which was created after WW I as a British protectorate, included the Kurdish regions because of its oil rather than any historical relationship. It has also been a British colonial policy to maintain power in a particular colony by pitting one nationality against another. This has led to to some very unstable nations after independence and often bloody civil wars.
As a person of German-American descent, I can say that Germany is probably an exception that proves a rule. Few thought in the 17th-19th centuries that an area of five kingdoms could be melded into one country. Though I obviously did not approve of the Prussian methods, I must concede that in the end, the product seems to have succeeded. I will note with approval that Austria was left out even despite the antics of the mad paper hanger in 1938. All of which should be a lesson that there is such a thing as areas that are too disparate to ever successfully combine with a neighbor no matter how beneficial such an action might appear to be.
I think the one chance would have been in 1919 but that time has passed
Well these German states or the former holy empire was more of a buffer state and then it united and 50years later there were 2 world wars within on generation.
So yeah... "succeeded" depends on the viewpoint.
To me the german unification and rebalancing of powers in Europe was probably a key point that led to WW1.
As someone from one of these countries, I absolutely agree that it should be dissolved. I campaigned forn the partial dissolution, sadly around 2.5 million in our population shat it and threw away the opportunity to build a better nation
Which country?
@@AvrahamYairStern Scotland
@@mcswordfish ah, I'm in England atm, I hope Scotland gets their independence, given that's the will of the people next time
@@AvrahamYairSternwhat the hell would ur economy be built off of and what natural resources do you even have other than fish n trees
@@wegdhass5587dairy, textiles, liquor, wool, various online services, oil. google is free mate
Two inacurracies concerning Switzerland: The foundation in 1291 is the "national myth" but not really an official date. Switzerland remained part of the Roman Empire until 1499 (factually). The founding date of the modern state is 12. September 1848. It's worth mentioning, that even though 1848 is a relatively recent date, most neighboring countries are younger.
Iraq "external factors" love it.
Speaking of which. India and Pakistan probably shouldn't have ended up the way they did. In a couple of hundred years wouldn't it be cool if there were independent countries e.g. Bengal, Assam, Kashmir, Sindh, Punjab etc. existing peacefully alongside the existing countries of Nepal, Sri Lanka etc. They could be a union like Europe. Then Tamil Nadu would vote for Texit.
I mean India is basically a union where each state is given a level of autonomy to pursue it's own policies.
The only difference is that we do have a combined national identity ( mostly because of British uniting everyone against them)
I'm glad to see videos about the Balkans that summarize history in an actual un-biased way, props to you!
Thanks!
@@General.Knowledge Albanian says ahhahahahahahhaha, I wouldn’t take that as a compliment… I am wondering, are you paid to spread propaganda, you are doing it by your own will, or are you aware at all that you are spreading propaganda? I am wondering, it matters a lot
You're albanian lol
@@ryboi1337And? At no point was there anything that was biased, just objective truths.
What history? He forgot to mention that Kosovo was Serbian in 12,13 century. Or that doesnt matter?
In my opinion there should be no countries. I want to travel visa free in my SUV across the globe.
This thumbnail will cause some thousands of people to be angry
Fun Fact: The Swiss canton of Ticino created the first proportional electoral system in 1890 being a blueprint for multi-party democracies. We should be very thankful for them.
The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies will always be my "Why did you exist" because there was only ever one Sicily.
Naples or the Duchy of Naples and Taranto was often considered to by the so called 'Second Sicily'. Thats why when they united with Sicily proper, they became the Kingdom of Two Sicilies.
-Pre-Italian Unity facts
Actually there were never a “Kingdom of Naples” existed officially... the kingdom in present-day southern Italy had always been named “Kingdom of Sicily” for the whole time in its history... this situation happened because the so-called kingdom of Naples was originally a part of Sicilian kingdom that encompassed both south Italy and Island of Sicily before a revolt separated the kingdom into two as mainland and island parts during 13th century, due to this historical context, they are both “kingdoms of Sicily” by name
@@JohnWick-cz3ph That makes a tad bit more sense, because with my explanation I still couldn't figure out why they called 'The Boot' of Italy a Sicily.
-Post Rome Medieval Southern Italian Facts
Should Canada exist? No.
Does Canada really exist? No.
It's an autonomous British Colony
Great Video, thank you
One question: you do mention Switzerland as a country, that should not exist. What about Austria just nearby? Is'nt the existance of Austria as an independant country much more - well, let us say - strange than that of Switzerland?
I can think of a very controversial country that shouldn't exist. You know which one that I'm talking about, it begins with the letter 'I.'
Iceland shouldn't exist.
Wha? Why?
I Agree...
It should just switch names with Greenland.
Idk they seem to be doing quite fine by themselves.
A better idea would be to make a Nordic union with a standard language for the Scandinavians.
I thought you were gonna say Isr-
I'd be interested in what you'd have to say about the opposite of this; "Countries that should exist, but don't"
First to come to mind is Quebec, and I'm sure there are many reasons this country doesn't exist and I think it would make for another interesting video
oh boy, i will make a controversy, but i'll add some:
Kurdistan
Rohingya (Myanmar)
Uyghurstan
Tibet
Total dismantling of the DRC
Etc
Kurdistan, but Iraq, Turkey and Iran would certainly object.
I haven’t watched the video yet but if you didn’t mention Belgium…
I used to call Switzerland a Frankencountry, but now their continued existence (as in how they haven't flung themselves apart à la Belgium) makes a lot more sense.
Geography helps a lot for national identity.
That is an excellent question. And the answer is: I'm not sure.
I can't wait to read all the very insightful comments
i agree
>there are racists in the comment section
Bulgaria already laid claims to North Macedonia.
And? That doesn't mean you can just take over us against our will.
@@DacLMK macedonia is a communist anti-bulgarian project. it has no right to exist.
1. Vatican City
I think Switzerland is just perfect just the way they are
I would have added to this list
1.all english speaking carribean Island nations -why are they not one country ?
2.Guatemala,Honduras,El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica -same as 1.
3.Panama
4.Venezuela/ why Not Part of colombia?
5.Ecuador /same
6.Bolivia /why Not Part of peru
7.Uruguay /why Not Part of Argentina
8.Sweden, Norway, Denmark/why Not one country?
9.Belarus/why Not Part of Russia?
10.Slovakia/why Not Part of czechia
11.Moldova, why Not reuinte with romania?
12.Slovenia /why Not with croatia?
13.Montenegro/why Not with Serbia?
14.Cyprus/ why Not divided between Greece and Turkey?
15.Malta/ why Not Part of italy ?
17.Belgium
18.Luxemburg
19.Liechtenstein
20.San Marino
21.Vatican City
22.Monaco
23.Andorra /explains itself
24.Maghreb/ why Not one country
25.the Same with Western africa
26.Eritrea
27.republic of the congo
28.Central African Republic
29.Uganda
28. Mauritius, seychelles /why Not united?
29.Zambia
30. All of the Arab countries /why Not one country ?
31.Sudan
32.Sri Lanka
33.north Korea /South Korea
34.singapore
35.Brunei
36. All of micronesia,melanesia and polynesia /why Not 3 countries by either Region
37. New Zealand
38. Zimbabwe/Malawi
🤣
I’m not gonna write a whole list about responses to all these but in the first one, the people there are literally all ENGLISH and already live in the country that has ENGLISH people in it.
Indigenous New Zealand people are completely different from indigenous Australians for one thing. Secondly New Zealand is quite far from Australia and faces different environments and circumstances.
I am from Jamaica 🇯🇲 and yes we were all u ited once in 1960s but we broke away because we all wanted to do our own stuff...but we travel visa free to each and in Latin America...we love like one big family
East Timor and the Philippines are the only countries in Asia with a Catholic population majority. And this is of course due to colonialism.
Here's the question I must ask though: Are North Macedonians and Greek Macedonians historically the same people and one seperate from the Greeks?
Edit: Well it appears a war has started in the replies, I guess that means this depends on your view?
No, North Macedonians are Slavs. Greek Macedonians are Hellenic..
@@freedomordeathserbia Fair enough.
Yes, both people share the same origin and genetics confirms this. The area of North Macedonia was dominated by Bulgaria during the middle ages and as such underwent a strong process of Slavicization. After this cultural split, politics just drove the two sides apart further.
@@freedomordeathserbia Bulgarians + Serbs, Bosniaks and Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Roma*
@@RedstoneHeroes Thanks to the Serbian chauvinism, despite there was and still to this day there is no Serb South from Mitrovica.
Cool video
Thank you!
Andorra, Monaco, Catalonia, Valonia and Occitania can form separate country together.
Bru i hope the comment section will be peaceful for this one
No peace until justice is dealt.
Macedonians are just Bulgarians and the western part should leave to join Albania cause they form 30% of the country and Kosovo should join Albania as well due to it being 92%+
Ethnic nationalism should be left in the 1940s
@@user-ml1vz4vq7j naw why would two states with the same people be separate how does that make sense 🤣
@@Albanian_History Nazi
@@user-ml1vz4vq7j Lol cry.
Why it doesnt matter what you think or you want to be ?? Its like ukrainians must not be independent cause they think are russians or kosovo also , if tgey think are albanians why not?? Dont put double standards is not good for democracy…..
We Greek people NEVER said that we want this country to be part of Greece. We dont have any problem with them. Everyone knows that Greeks are friendly people and love our neighbours. We just want them to use ANY other name except Macedonia, as ancient Macedonia (700 BC) historically used to be a Greek city state with Greek speaking people, Greek architecture, religion, artifacts and culture.
Simple as that. 🔵➕🔴= 🤝
Nah, it's not that. Greece wants to erase their dark past of how they obtained Aegean Macedonia and what it did to fully settle it with Greeks who now claim to be Macedonian Greeks. And we the Macedonians will keep reminding Greece until it apologizes and returns every confiscated land back to their original owners.
@@DacLMK so it is you Slavs who want to anex the north part of Greece, the land of Aristotle, Alexander and Protagoras. Thank you for confirming that 🙂
@@Sapi0koilias Not "annex" returned back to it's original owner. Greece stole it from the Macedonians, and one day it'll be returned back. We all know what the natural borders of Macedonia are. From Olimp to the south, to Debar on the west, to Presevo in the north and to Kavala and Pirin mountain to the east.
@@DacLMK yes I agree with you about the borders of the ancient Macedonian kingdom. However I didn't get those Slavic names that you mentioned (dobra, dobrevo, whatever...) And I'm pretty sure that neither Megas Alexandros would do, considering that he was not a Slav like you.
@@Sapi0koilias I see your confusion, but I don't blame you for being raised to think we're just Slavs.
I think that the countries should exist if a majority of the inhabitants agree.
I often wonder why Belgium exists.
Most Belgians I know wonder the same thing.
Admittedly, I only know one Belgian, so this may actually be a minority view
Tl;dr: Belgium is Catholic, Netherlands is Protestant.
Flemish are ethnically Dutch but religiously Catholic like the Walloons. Religion is what originally united Belgium. Secularisation is leading to modern seperatism in Belgium.
@@dafydd1722 It's the same division of like Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, Montenegrins being divided by religion.
@@ferretyluv Sucks that despite we all Christians but yet we create some artifical differences between them like how there are Sunni and Shia Muslims.
A united Kurdistan and Assyria should be independent.
And Assyria? What the actual fuck are you talking about?
Yes.
I definitely agree. How could millions of people with a common language/culture/history/etc. for centuries NOT have their own country?
@@Dhi_Bee There are a lot to mention. Our Aramean brothers also deserve an independent state and autonomies inside Kurdistan. In Kurdistan Autonomous Region (in Iraq) Kurdish and Arabic are official languages and Assyrian (Aramaic), Armenian and Turkish (Turkoman dialect) are recognized minority languages.
As a person who likes CountryBalls and Saw the Thumbnail, I see this as an absolute win
Singapur, Belgium, Cyprus.
Bosnia existed in 11th century, so its existence shouldn’t be questionable.
Banate of Bosnia was de facto part of Serbian Empire. It was claimed by Hungary, and that’s why it was considered separated from Serbian Empire, even though it was ruled by Nemanjić dynasty and was de facto part of Serbian Empire.
@@freedomordeathserbiathe Bosnian Banate was de facto independent since 1180.
It was de jure under the Hungarian crown and had little to no political connection to the Serbian Empire which came into existence in 1346.
@@freedomordeathserbiaYou really like to create fake historical facts and live your own truth, don’t you? Lying is Serbian national sport.
@@melpomenathemuse I like speaking facts only
As a citizen of one of these nations, we so damn right should exist!!!!!!!
Oh really? Which one bro!?
FYROM ? Yes, it should exist as you are between Serbs and Bulgarians.
Cope
Which one?
Nice tactic there. I'm also a citizen from one of these nations that "shouldn't exist"
You cannot use SFRY maps for Kingdom, borders were different
If only gaining independence for Eat Timor (Timor Leste) was as straightforward as your description, there would not have been so many atrocities and fierce battles. Many lives were lost. Australia only became involved after a request from the United Nations. Next: reunification of New Guinea (Niugini).
No hate but North Macedonians are ethnic bulgarians same as kosovars are albanians and Moldavians are romanians so it should reunite with Bulgaria. But ofcourae anything they feel happier its their business.
@@Naum96 ние сме сънародници бе. Обиждаш себе си не мен.
@@Naum96 Обсебен си сърбоманче!
@@niktodorov4951 Как да му го налееш на сърбоманин, застанал пред лъжата, че е ''македонец'' и всичко произлиза от него?
As a Bulgarian, I support North Macedonia. However, ordinary people must know and study the original historical documents.
As a Macedonian, I have studied the original documents, and they lead to conclusion that your takes are wrong or half-truth. So our hatred will continue.
@@DacLMK if you hate us, you must hate the world too. The Bulgarian and the world history is the same. So good luck with that.
@@DacLMKAs a real Makedonian (Greek) you are not macedonia but slavic west bulgar
@@TheHunterOfYharnam Butthurt too much?🇲🇰🇲🇰🇲🇰🇲🇰
@@DacLMK You are the one trying to change your whole nationality
The answer to 7:37 is that the US need to keep their enormous military presence in a frivolous Balkan narco state. Also, on 7:53, Kosovo's history can be traced waaaaay back, before the Ottomans, you have Serbian Orthodox monasteries dating from the Middle Ages...
narco state? lmao Kosovo has better rule of law than Serbia.
"Starting with the ones on the thumbnail"
Sir, this is the internet. You're supposed to clickbait us. Good day to you. Hahrump.
For East Timor, being a Christian minority in Indonesia would be way worse than being independent. I'm glad they are independent (same with Papua New Guinea). Speaking of Papua New Guinea, I wish the rest of their ethnic group could be free. Despite some controversial things, I would support the Free Papua Movement as they should not be ruled over by Indonesia for the same reason East Timor or Papua New Guinea shouldn't be.
For North Macedonia, its weird for Slavs taking the name of an area a Hellenistic group finds important. It should definitely exist though.
As an Indonesian, I gladly reject your opinion 😂 being a minority in Indonesia doesnt mean you will be persecuted. No. In fact, a lot of Christians live in Indonesia are nationalist. Indonesian government only oppose those who do separatism stuff, not just christians Papuans, but also moslem in Aceh. So it's not talking about religion but separatism and by the opinion you gave, you clearly western australians or americans or europeans who love to mess up our border😂
@@andriwahyudani1302 Is that why Aceh gets so much autonomy for Sharia Law, but Papuans and other Christian majority provinces don't get much autonomy of their own, despite clearly wanting it?
@@averagewhiteguy2 Not really, Aceh must to faced tsunami and years of wars to get those autonomy 😀 and I must to inform you, all of Christians majority provinces who are nationalists such as North Sulawesi and East Nusa tenggara never had religion discrimination from the central government, Jakarta even built tourist destinations, schools, church's, dams etc. Just look at Jesus Statue in Manado and Labuan Bajo Flores. In Papua, it's much more complicated because when the Indonesian government wanted to withdraw their troops, the separatist troops will attack civilians and infrastructure workers, no matter they are Papuans or Christians, they will still be killed by separatists troops.
@@averagewhiteguy2papua is autonomy region of indonesia tough. Thats 6 special autonomous province in papua, and they have the same power like aceh.
@@meyzda While the Papuan provinces do have the so called "special" status to have more autonomy, they do not have the so called "privileged" status. Aceh has both the special and privileged status. And I think that is not fair.
14 October 1912 Skopje writes a poem of Crown Prince Alexander asking a 7 year old girl, What are you, "Pa shta si ti, her reply got her a slap, as she answered Bulgarian.
One country that exists but shouldnt in my opinion is the DRC.
They are more an alliance than a proper country, without counting the multiple rebellions and civil wars that curses them.
North Korea left the chat.
@6:46 When you talk about religion, you should compare Timor Leste with Indonesian West Timor, not the entire Indonesian, since the West Timor religion are 91.4% Christianity, consist of: 55.6% Catholicism, and 36.2% Protestantism
Fun fact about Kosovo Albanians,they had way better standard of living in Kosovo than Albanians in Albania in period of 1945-1990,that's why their number grew from ~700 hundred thousand Albanians on the whole territory of Yugoslavia in 1948 up to nearly 2 million in just Kosovo 50 years later
Judging from the changes of population in other ex-Yu countries in that time period , that looks like a normal growth of population that resulted because of the third child policy of Yugoslavia that gave people financial benefits for having 3 children
@@rsoldier7829 Oh boy,they didn't have just 3 kids,Albanian couples would have 12-18 kids
@@Weeboslav 🤣 You are funny but I'll tell you this, if you find me just 1 Albanian that had 18 kids I will kms but you're blatantly lying and there has never been a Albanian with that many kids no matter what you read on Serbian propaganda news
Fun fact or rather stupid fact. What you are trying to imply here is that Albanians left Albania to live in Kosovo, but what you are to biased to understand is that the border was rigidly controlled and noone dared to leave Albania. Plus Albanias population grew from 1 million to 3.2 million in the same time period, regardless of the living standard they apparently had. The only difference between Yugoslavia is that they applied proper communist policies and that their dictator isolated the country. Albanians in Kosovo were second grade citizen and were treated very harshly, most albanian newcomers came from the Toplica regions in Serbia, which they had to leave because of the forced expulsion done by the serbian military. Plus the statistics in the early years of Yugoslavia didn't record every Albanian. Things started to get better for Albanians in Kosova only after 1974 and it lasted only until 1981.
@@leukaj733thats the truth ! And fact is that draza mihajlovic sends in his era serbs from šumadija in the area of gjakove … until then there where only some montegrinians and some gypsies they called them selfs serbs … but now there are no more serbs in gjakove 👍🤙
As an Iraqi I was genuinely surprised that you put Iraq but we overcome the difficulties and hopefully we become a more stable nation although some of the events ( not all ) and their chaiotic nature are ( in my eyes ) better then the stability of USA or Europe since it feel more refreshing than the normal life in USA or Europe ( I know a lot of people might find my comments really strange and stupid but I like some of the chaos in Iraq like what happened in 2019 )
Iraq is the historical land of Iran(Persia), since the Achaemenid period, and centuries later, when the Ottoman Empire was formed, it attacked and annexed it.
You are not clear about the criteria used. How did you decide what countries to feature on this list? Did you pick at random? People living in a place have the human right to decide how they will self-organize and self-label.
Picked at random, mostly. But chose ones that are usually the topic of similar discussions. My point, as mentioned in the video, is to counter the arguments and in fact justify the right to exist of each of these countries.
NORTH MACEDONIA IS BULGARIAN
Italians and Serbs would say Croatia. Italians and Austrians Slovenia. Serbs and Albanians would say Montenegro.
what is your argument for croatia and slovenia?
@@benpuljak2304 before ww2 there were italians living in the croatian coast. They were not that much.
question, why do your videos get such low views in relation to subscribers? shouldn't it be the other way around?
Depends of the algorithm.
Never have I seen a worse explanation and least accurate explanation of the situation in the Balkans. I know it's not the easiest thing to explain, but, man, did you reach for some new lows
East Timor is NOT part of Indonesia. Neither is West Papua.
yes west papua sucks. they should join papua new guinea
but east timor is indonesian
@@WhizzKid2012Why, they were invaded, occupied and genocided. About 308,000 Timorese lost their lives during the invasion and occupation, 44% of the pre-invasion population.
@@luisgoncalosilva6194 i dont care. east timor just sucks.
Macedonia 🇧🇬
West Macedonia 🇦🇱
Lautaro Martínez
Marcus Thuram
Alexis Sánchez
Marko Arnautović
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Davide Frattesi
Hakan Çalhanoglu
Kristjan Asllani
Nicolò Barella
Davy Klaasen
Federico DiMarco
Carlos Augusto
Denzel Dumfries
Juan Cuadrado
Alessandro Bastoni
Stefan de Vrij
Francesco Acerbi
Benjamin Pavard
Yan Aurel Bisseck
Mateo Darmian
Yann Sommer
Emil Audero
FORZA INTER!!!!!!!!
Countries with Romance languages as dominant should be reorganized due to the similarity of languages:
* Portugal + Galicia (part of today's Spain) [Portuguese and Galician are very similar];
* Spain (without Portugal, Galicia, Catalonia, Wallonia, Basque);
(alternatively, Portugal + Spain without Catalonia, Wallonia, Basque).
* countries in South and Central America should join forces;
* northern France without Brittany + Wallonia (southern Belgium);
* Wallonia + Catalonia + Andorra+ Monaco + Occitan [Occitan and Catalan languages are similar, so they could form one state; Walloon is a dialect of Catalan; Catalan and Castilian (Spanish) are more different from each other than Portuguese and Spanish; ethnic correction of the border with northern Italy is also needed];
* Northern Italy (with Rome) + San Marino+ Corsica + Rhaeto-Roman regions of Switzerland;
* Vatican City;
* Southern Italy (with Naples) + Sicily;
* Sardinia;
* Romania;
* Brittany [now in France; they use the Celtic language];
* Basque [now in Spain and France; Basque is not even an Indo-European language];
The number of countries in Europe after the reorganization would be one more than at present.
I dont know about the others, but Timor Leste ofcourse should exist!!!
no it shouldn't. they have an enclave and it is a split island. they really should join indonesia.
@@WhizzKid2012 No. Religiously and culturally are very different, and always been.
So Timor must be independent.
@@TobinPT yes but it looks bad in the map
@@WhizzKid2012 That's subjective plus maps don't reflect the culture or the people.
Are you using drugs? Only one Serbian Orthodox monastery in Kosovo and Metohija is older than the whole Albanian artificial nation… (Converted rebels of Arbanon)… Just monastery Dečani raised by Stefan Dečan for example, it’s also UNESCO world heritage…
N. Macedonia should've never existed, but it should be part of Bulgaria, not Greece!!!
Singapore would be a prime candidate.
It did NOT try to be its own country. It wanted to be part of Malaysia.
It did NOT want independence. It was ejected from Malaysia and there was fear when that happened, not celebration.
The Malaysians thought Singapore would not be able to sustain itself and would be back to beg for their place within Malaysia.
It does not have enough water for itself. It has to buy from neighbouring countries
It does not have enough land for crops and other food.
It does not have any natural resources. No oil, no minerals, etc, for export or even for itself.
It doesn’t have an ingrained common culture.
Its people are made up of different races with different languages, different religions, different cultures, etc.
By all reckoning, it should not exist.
Singapore has a great story.
Left to die but came back stronger. And it's GDP is close to the same size as Malaysia which is insane.
OK lets start with Macedonia. When you say there was Serbianization you dont talk about why it was done in the first place. Yes Serbs closed Bulgarian schools but lets go over the reasons first. Macedonia was part of Serbian empire prior to Ottoman occupation of the Balkan and Serbian church was obviously present there for a long time before eventually Turks took jurisdiction of that region from it and later even dismantled Serbian church with Greek or Constantinople church taking over and starting Hellenization(and if you go further south into Greece today there are a lot of "Greeks" with clear slavic origins).
Later when Serbia rebelled and a region around Belgrade(pashaluk) got a semi-independence Turks allowed Bulgarians to reestablish an independent church over all Slavs, and basically start Bulgarization. In 1876. you werent even allowed to declare yourself as a Serb because of the bad relationship between Serbs and Turks. So only later after the Balan war you have Serbs liberating Macedonia and replacing Bulgarian schools with Serbian. But Bulgarians came back during ww1 and ww2 and committed atrocities over Serbian population including trying to bulgarize them again.
So basically reason for the existence of Macedonians is that everyone else told them what they are, so they eventually developed a regional identity over tribal one.
Now Kosovo... "being ethnically albanian since very early in history" This is wrong on so many levels. Albanians claim that they are descendants of Dardanians, some tribe that lived in the region during Roman Empire, but that is just myth building. Fact is that region was mostly depopulated with all the invasions and was completely populated by Serbs before Ottomans. And Kosovo was then a center of Serbian state andalso a religious center. Albanians were not even a thing until something like 11th century and they were not in Kosovo, but in what is today Albania.
Most of Albanians converted to islam, with some Serbs also doing it(think of modern Bosniaks)
Later during many Serbian rebellions against the Turks, Turks carried out reprisals against Serbian population, together with their, now muslim, albanian vassals. That resulted with pretty much ethnic cleansing of Serbs with muslim Albanian settlers replacing them in Kosovo. Fun fact there is also one Christian Albanian tribe that migrated with the Serbs to Habsburg empire escaping muslims. While muslim Serbs were mostly albanized with some "albanians" who speak Serbian instead of Albanian being recorded even in 19th century when Serbia regained control. Then after liberation from the Turks there were reprisals against Albanian bands that served the Turks, while those same bands continued to fight against the Serbs. But even then not all Albanian tribes were against the Serbs, and a lot of them fought alongside Serbia against those who were now rebelling against the new state. There was even a chance for Serbia and Albania to unite into one state while Esad Pasha was ruling Albania but he was assassinator by some albanian nationalist. Then after ww2 communists took over Yugoslavia and they gave the power to all minorities, including Albanians to diminish the power of the largest ethnic group, the Serbs. They even accepted migrants from Albania further increasing Albanian population in Kosovo.
So again very complicated region and history for your standard western propaganda, but no its not "Serbianization". Thats a very ignorant view of history.
Now to Bosnia. Another complicated region, but at least it can be easily explained. Bosniaks are just Islamized Slavic population, and sure they have the right to identify as neither Serbs nor Croats even if their ancestors were at some point, just like Macedonians. So ethnically/religiously mixed region has a bunch of rebellion's and basically a war and peace is enforced by western powers. Now west being west it sides against socialists and funds are arms rebels. Therefore taking side of Croats and Bosniaks against Serb who were a majority in a socialist country, but not really in power. Anyone thinking Serbs had control over Yugoslav army at the time is delusional. So when everything was falling apart everyone got the western support to form their ethnic state but Serbs. So first Croats were allowed to form a country that had 600k Serbs in it, but Serbs were not allowed to secede from that Croatia and were ethnically cleansed.(all allowed by west) Then war in Bosnia broke out as Bosniaks who were barely 50% of population wanted their independence as well, but this time Serbs were actually able to organize and fight back resulting in Serbs pretty much winning the war, but being forced to sign peace by the west with creation of Republika Srpska as part of B&H. Of course Serbs were not allowed to separate from Bosnia like Bosniaks were allowed to separate from Yugoslavia because of wester hypocrisy... So thats why B&H exists today in this borders, because western olygarchy says so.
Deluded serb😂 Albanians didn't exist until 11th century? Sure Illyrians were African then
Tl;dr: Everyone in the Balkans hates each other.
Serbian propaganda!