Countries that nearly came to be

Countries that almost existed. On this channel we talk a lot about countries both the ones that exist now, the ones that did in the past and sometimes also about ones that almost existed. In this video we're going to go through a few more of those. Now most of these countries were proposed but never truly created for the reasons we'll learn ahead while some others did exist for a short period of time then being annexed or destroyed and failing at their objective to remain an independent sovereign state. So let's jump straight into some of these almost countries if you will. First, the Polish Czechoslovak Federation. The Polish Czechoslovak Confederation or Federation was a political concept from the time of World War II, supported by the Polish government in exile. The UK and US weren't opposed to it but never really sought to implement it after the war, making their support seem circumstantial to the conflict. It was a revitalization of the Miedzimór concept, proposing the creation of a federation based on Poland and Czechoslovakia. The Polish seemingly were all for it, but the Czechoslovak government in exile not so much. After the war, the idea was definitively destroyed by the growing Soviet influence in Central and Eastern Europe. It makes sense that they wouldn't want a strong independent federation that could threaten their regional dominance. All the way in Northern Anatolia, in what is today Turkey, there could have been a Republic of Pontus. After the end of World War I, the Ottoman Empire was among the defeated central powers. They saw their empire collapse and be given to Britain and France, but they could have lost even more territory. This territory, previously the location of the Roman Empire province of Pontus or the even more ancient Greek kingdom of Pontus, is a region which had a history of Hellenic culture, even after Persian and Turkish rule of Anatolia. American president Woodrow Wilson had proclaimed that all the nationalities of the Turkish empire had a right to their autonomy and so the Pontic Greeks began calling for independence with the issue being discussed in the peace conferences. However, oddly enough, the opposition to this idea came from Greece itself, stating that the new country would be too weak to withstand a Turkish invasion in the future and too remote for them to support it. So, it was included instead in the larger proposed state of Wilsonian Armenia. Let's move on to that other proposed country. Wilsonian Armenia, getting its name from the same President Woodrow Wilson of the US, refers to the unimplemented boundary configuration of the First Republic of Armenia in the Treaty of Sevres. A crazy treaty that completely destroyed Turkey by splitting its land among the Entente powers and their allies, then never having been put into effect due to strong Turkish resistance. The proposed boundaries incorporated portions of the Ottoman regions which had Armenian populations with an added inclusion of portions of the Trabzon village to provide an outlet to the Black Sea at the port of Trabzon. And like we saw some regions of the previously proposed Republic of Pontus were also added to safeguard these Greek people. The United States ended up being the ones who actually rejected the mandate for Armenia in 1920 and the idea was fully abandoned after the Turkish war in the same year. The proposed political changes put forth by Woodrow Wilson are really interesting, if you want I can make a full video dedicated to that, kind of answering a hypothetical question of what if Woodrow Wilson's plans had come to fruition. Back in Europe we also have the Free State of Antwerp. The creation of this potential country was connected to the Vlaahout partition plan for Belgium. At the time Belgium was still ruled by the Netherlands, although its people began demanding independence. However, major European powers were divided on whether or not to support these claims and kept stalling the negotiations at the 1830 London Conference. The French for one would have preferred to annex the French speaking provinces in Wallonia, but everyone else didn't want them to do so. So French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand proposed an alternative which according to them was more reasonable. would take the provinces of East Flanders, Einout, the south of Brabant and the west of Namur. The north of Brabant would go to the Netherlands, Prussia would take all territory east of the Mills River and then Antwerp, Ghent and the rest of West Flanders would become an independent free state. But still this proposal was not seen as good enough by other great powers who decided to grant all of belgium independence as one political entity it's very interesting that up to today there's a big debate on whether or not belgium should split up into two countries flanders and velonia it's interesting that as early on as this it was already an issue moving to asia we have united bengal united bengal was a proposal to transform the bengal province of the british into an undivided sovereign state at the time of the partition of india in 1947 all of the region was controlled by the British and upon independence it became first a part of India and Pakistan and then India and Bangladesh. Their goal was according to them to prevent the division of Bengal on religious grounds which I guess was what ended up happening. The proposed name for this country was the Free State of Bengal. There was some historical reasoning to this. There had been a sultanate of Bengal that controlled these regions from 1332 to 1576 and apparently there was a regional administration of the British that had under its control the area that the new country claimed as their own. Within the British government there was serious consideration of the proposal due to their desire of safeguarding commercial interests there. India was however only in support of it if they became a part of the Indian Union. The proposal was never put to a vote and ended up not happening. Although I guess Bangladesh today is a version of it, it just doesn't include all the areas they initially idealized. For the West, in the Middle East, there was also the Fertile Crescent Plan. The Fertile Crescent Plan was an Iraqi proposal for the union of the Kingdom of Iraq with mandatory Syria, which at the time included mandatory Lebanon, mandatory Palestine, and Transjordan. It was based on the fact that the ruling monarchies of all these regions were of the same Hashemite dynasty. Nuri al-Said, Prime Minister of Iraq at the time, presented the plan to the British during World War II when it appeared that France had become too weak to hold on to Syria due to its collapse in Europe. Northern Syrians were in support but some others weren't due to the heavy British influence within the Iraqi government, they didn't want to stop being a French protectorate just to become a British one. The two Ashmite kingdoms briefly created the Arab Federation in 1958 joining Jordan and Iraq but it and any hope for the Fertile Crescent plan ended with the overthrow of the Iraqi monarchy in 1958. All the way in Europe, Schleswig- The Schleswig-Alstein question was a diplomatic issue around the 19th century, although issues regarding it continue to come up later on in history. Schleswig was a Danish duchy, while Alstein was just on the other side of the Danish border, being in medieval times a thief of the Holy Roman Empire. 1460 onwards, however, the two had been ruled together by a common duke, who in practice was also the king of Denmark. But the joining of these two states was soon to be put in question. The German confederation, formed in 1815, then included Olsztyn. And by the early 19th century, Olsztyn's population was, along with much of Schleswig, almost entirely ethnically German. In 1848, Frederick VII of Denmark announced to the people of Schleswig the promulgation of a constitution under which the duchy while preserving its local autonomy would permanently become an integral part of denmark this led to an uprising by schleswig-olstein's large german majority in support of independence and close association with the german confederation an uprising that was in fact supported by the prussian military and initially they were able to drive denmark's troops away from the territory beginning the first schleswig war the danish ended up winning this one but then there was a second Schleswig war in 1864, which led to the duchies and corporations within Germany. Should have Prussia won that first war, perhaps independence would have been granted. It's arguable if the state would have joined a united Germany later on, but a path for lasting independence would have been created. It would be odd to have this extra country in between Denmark and Germany today. Speaking of modern times, following the defeat of Germany in World War I, Northern Schleswig was finally reunified with Denmark after two referendums. A small minority of ethnic Germans still lives there as well. All the way in America for a change we have Los Altos, Soconusco and Mosquitia, three countries that could have existed in Central America. Mosquitia or Miskito was on the coast of Nicaragua today while Los Altos and Soconusco were both in what is today northern Guatemala and southern Mexico. Soconusco was a part of the general captaincy of Guatemala, a Spanish colony, from 1609 to 1821. After the Spanish left, it belonged to the Federal Republic of Central America for a couple of months, but then accepted the annexation to the First Mexican Empire, now being mostly a part of the Mexican state of Chiapas. It seemed that full on independence was never seriously considered and it was always a matter of either joining Mexico or the other Central American states. However, contrary to some other regions, they actually declared their own independence from the Spanish crown in 1821, which could have paved the way for them to become their own country should they have decided to do so. Los Altos was effectively independent from 1838-39 and then again from 48-49 in the 1800s but only for a year each time. It was also a part of the Central American Federation and then of Guatemala which they declared independence from in the middle of Guatemala's civil war. Contrary to others on this list, it actually had a flag since it actually achieved independence even if for a short period of time. It was a modification of the Central American Union flag with a central seal showing a volcano in the background with a quetzal, a local bird symbolizing liberty, in front. Since 1871, it has also been on the present flag of Guatemala. Finally, Miskito. The Miskito people who speak the Miskito language exist in the eastern coast of Central America, facing the Atlantic Ocean. Today they exist along the coasts of Honduras and Nicaragua. On paper it was a part of the viceroyalty of New Granada but the Spanish never truly held great control of the region apparently and at least since the 17th century up to 1894 the Miskito kingdom existed. It's important to say that the British called them a kingdom but in reality they were just a group of native people without a specific societal structure ruled by the native people themselves, although having a lot of British influence. Here is their coat of arms, red and white with native spears and a tree on top. But this coat of arms was just made by the British. The local military leaders of the natives established an alliance with the British via the Providence Island Company joining up in fighting the Spanish together. Local native rule continued and it wasn't until 1860 that Britain recognized Nicaragua's claim over the Mesquite coast long after the Spanish were gone with formal control only being established in 1894. If the British hadn't recognized the claims and preferred to maintain its local influence, perhaps this could have been an additional country in Central America today. So, those are a few countries that almost existed. From the idealized Polish Czechoslovak Federation to the Greek Republic of Pontus in Turkey or a Greater Armenia. Learning about the potential creation of a Free State of Antwerp to a United Bengal, a Great Middle Eastern Union and an additional potential country in between Denmark and Germany sharing heritage with both, as well as three small Central American regions that could have become independent. If circumstances had been different, any of these could have existed and lasted until today. Making us think of how current countries result from sometimes the oddest and luckiest combination of factors and circumstances. Countries that almost didn't exist would also be a good topic, looking at states that managed to achieve independence due to some lucky event. Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see that, along with any other countries that almost existed that you know and which I didn't mention here. Thanks so much for watching this video, subscribe if you want and I will see you next time for more general knowledge.