Failed attempts at unification: A look at countries that tried

Throughout history we have had some examples of country unions, essentially two countries or nations that came together either because they both chose to do it, because one conquered the other or because a third power that ruled the regions granted them independence together. Regardless of the cause the examples are many, Austria-Hungary, Czechoslovakia among many more and while some of them temporarily worked others immediately failed either upon their creation or even upon their proposal. In this video we're going to be taking a look at those, starting with the ones on the thumbnail. First, Mafilindo, which was, or I guess for some people still is, a proposed union of Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia in 1963. It takes its name from the first letters of the countries that would join it, Ma from Malaysia, Fi from the Philippines and Indo from Indonesia. Mafilindo was initially proposed as a realization of Filipino national hero Dr. José Rizal's dream of uniting the Malay peoples, seen as artificially divided by colonial borders. Essentially, there is a common cultural element and background between the people of these nations and some political leaders have thought of taking advantage of that to unite them politically after European colonial powers left. In 1963, a summit took place in Manila where the three countries signed a series of agreements, mostly resolving border disputes and it seemed as if a way was being paved to this union first as a defensive alliance but eventually working towards political integration. However, it only lasted a month as Indonesia soon adopted a policy of confrontation towards Malaysia due to their claim that the island of Borneo had not yet had time to declare if they wanted to join them or not. The Philippines supported Indonesia and Malaysia severed relations with the two countries. Apparently, one big supporter of this idea was US President John F. Kennedy, who believed that this union would prevent Indonesia from turning towards communism. Portugal and Spain are two countries where the question of unity is often brought up. After all, they exist together in their own peninsula in Europe and it is geographically odd that they are two separate countries. However, as you learn the history of the region, you easily understand why Portugal was able to remain independent, while other Iberian kingdoms such as Aragon and Navarra were absorbed and joined into Spain. I won't get into the whole history of Portugal's fight and achievement of independence, but I will get into one specific moment when a Spanish-Portuguese union did take place, ending up quickly failing. Between 1580 and 1640, the Iberian Union existed. A dynastic union due to a crisis in the Portuguese succession line, although it's important to say that this was a personal union, so the kingdoms of Portugal and Spain remained technically independent states, sharing only a single monarch but at this point in history the monarch was the head of state so it was as good as losing their independence. The battle of Alcácer Quibir in 1578 saw the death of the young Portuguese king Sebastian. He was 18 years old and died with no heirs. His uncle who succeeded him was a 66 year old cardinal and so he also had no children. Essentially the line was broken. A war of succession took place and one of the claimants Philip II of Spain won and united his kingdom of Spain with that of Portugal. At this time, not only was the Iberian Peninsula united, but also both of their colonial empires, stretching the rule of the Spanish-Portuguese monarchy to almost everywhere in the world. As you can imagine, Portuguese people weren't super okay with this, and after two Spanish kings, a third one changed the policy towards Portuguese taxes and influence, which was the final drop. A revolution took place, and Portugal restored its full independence with the crowning of a new king and the beginning of a new dynasty. Now before we keep going, a quick message from the sponsor of this video, Fume. Cold turkey may be great on sandwiches, but there's a better way to break your bad habits. And Fume, precisely, tries to look at problems in a different way. According to them, not everything in a bad habit is wrong, so instead of a drastic, uncomfortable change, why not just remove the bad element from the equation? Fume is an innovative, award-winning device that does just that. Instead of electronics, they are completely natural. 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The new Fume Solano is launching on November 6th so you can upgrade your journey pack to the Solano to enjoy the premium walnut barrel and onyx black coated mouthpiece that has a slightly softer finish. To save an additional 10% off on your order today. Now, back to the video. Next, the third one on the thumbnail, Syria and Iraq. Curiously enough, this one is also from 1963. In 1958, and I believe I've mentioned this in a previous video, Egypt and Syria joined up in the United Arab Republic. It ended up failing due to a coup in Syria, but the idea was revisited in 1963. That year, the three countries of Egypt, Syria, and Iraq agreed to unite following planned referendums in each country. However, as far as I know, none of the votes ended up taking place and the idea failed. Initial objections were also present by Iraqi and Syrian people due to a fear of Egyptian political dominance. The proposed union of Iraq and Syria specifically, though, has other examples throughout history. During World War II, the Fertile Crescent Plan was presented by the Iraqi Ashmit dynasty to annex mandatory Syria, a French colony. Again, in 1949, discussions began being held to try and make this union happen, but they collapsed after another military coup in Iraq. Essentially, it seems there is a cultural proximity between the two peoples, but political instability on both sides has always prevented it from happening. Moving to a crazy one I didn't even know existed, the Republic of German Austria, including the territory of modern-day Austria, South Tyrol, and the German populated areas of Czechia, which would eventually be annexed as the Sudetenland by Germany just before World War II. But this attempted union took place in 1918-19, just after the end of World War I. With the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, another successful union that ended up failing, if you can even say those two opposite things together, the political leaders of the German-speaking population attempted to form their own country with the territory held by the empire, but never achieved recognition. Despite claiming all this territory, in practice, its authority was limited to the Danubian and Alpine provinces, which had been the core of Cis-Lithuania. Much of its claimed territory was de facto administered by the newly formed Czechoslovakia and internationally recognized as such. The borders of it would be absolutely awful, so I guess it's a good thing that it didn't happen. The Treaty of Versailles and the demand of the winning powers were the biggest obstacle, namely the clause that forbid Austria from ever uniting with Germany again. I guess they just forgot to keep enforcing it later on. Moving northwest, Aistia, an apparent proposed union of Latvia and Lithuania due to their shared history, cultural proximities, and a way of facing off external threats. Now, the legitimacy of this one is a little questionable. There's very little information about it online, and what does exist doesn't have very reliable sources. It's supposed to have been a proposed union of the territories of Latvia with Lithuania at the end of World War I, but even at the time proposed and supported by small minorities on each side. It seems that its failure, in addition to the absence of external support and recognition, was that in order to accept this proposal Lithuania would have had to give up its claims on Polish occupied lands in Lithuania, which they didn't want to do. Plus, Latvians weren't too happy about the possibility of Lithuanians having more power within the union. This old, low quality map shows us what the territory of this union would have been. One very real and very interesting proposed union was Greater Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia itself was already a union, it existed for a long time in the western Balkans and ended up dissolving, but I think you can still call it successful at least when compared to these failed proposals or really short lived ones. However, an expansion to it was proposed at several points, aiming to extend their territory into southern Austria, northeastern Italy, all of Albania, northeastern Greece and also all of Bulgaria, particularly focusing on the addition of Bulgaria which was the most likely option and the one that came closest to actually happening. The Sveno movement participated in the 1934 Bulgarian coup that put an end to the Bulgarian monarchy and they requested for the immediate unification of Bulgaria into Yugoslavia but it ended up not happening then, I believe due to the movement not having enough power internally. The proposals mostly took place in the interwar period between 1918 and 1938, but they continued after these 20 years. In 1940, General Milan Nedik proposed that Yugoslavia join the Axis powers and attack Greece to seize Salonika. And also during WWII, the British government supported the creation of a Greater Yugoslavia after the war due to opposition to the Bulgarian government's accession to the Axis powers. After World War II, Yugoslav ruler Tito insisted Bulgaria should surrender Pirin Macedonia to Yugoslavia and later join the Union as well. Bulgaria's refusal to cede territory, in combination with the worsening of relations between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, who held great influence over communist Bulgaria, led to the failing of this proposed Union. Moving slightly northeast, still in the Balkans, the proposed Union of Romania and Hungary, which took place after the end of World War I and the significant loss of Hungarian territory, much of which went to Romania, but which still had hundreds of thousands of Hungarians living there. The proposal had supporters on both sides and reasons for each of them to favor the project. For Hungary, it would prevent their political isolation after the war and fulfill the hope of getting back Transylvania, or at least securing autonomy for its Hungarian minority. As an additional inducement for Hungary to accept the proposed union, Romania offered to support them in defending their western territories against Austria and to help them get back Slovakia and Hungary's former southern territories that they lost in the Treaty of Trianon. For Romania, it would expand their power and influence in Europe, increase the security of their western border, reduce or even fully eliminate the chance of Hungary taking back Transylvania and preventing the Habsburgs from returning to power. However, this last one seems to be one of the reasons for the failure, as a new union would have been ruled by the Romanian Ornzolan-Sigmaringen dynasty, which I'm sure the Hungarians weren't too happy about. Every proposal for the Union ended up failing because of opposition in Hungary and Romania, as well as from other neighboring countries, particularly Serbia and later Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and most of all the Entente powers. And finally for this video, the United States of Peru and Bolivia. Now, Peru and Bolivia have successfully united other times in history, namely in the Peru-Bolivian Confederation between 1829 and 1836. However, after that, in 1880, they attempted to reunite under the super cool flag of purple and gold stripes, calling themselves the United States of Peru and Bolivia. It began during the Pacific War, in which Bolivia and Peru were facing off against Chile. They got to the point of planning everything, from the political organization to the military merger. The military juntas of both countries advised holding a plebiscite in order to consult citizens about the federal union project. But due to the ongoing war, the consultation was never held. In the meantime, Chile won the Pacific War, which I guess contributed to it not happening, plus the war being over in general pushed the two former allies a little further away from each other. So, those are some of the failed unions that have taken place throughout history, either failing upon their proposal or upon their creation, be it immediately or in the short term of their existence. Some failed because the people didn't really want to be united on both sides, others because one side felt oppressed and conquered, others were temporary and planned by third parties and others also had third parties involved, but in preventing them from happening or succeeding. What do you think about this? Would you have liked to see any of the country unions mentioned in this video succeed? And which other failed or attempted unions do you know about that I didn't mention? Let me know in the comments. Thanks so much for watching this video. Subscribe if you want and I will see you next time for more general knowledge.