Emerging nations: Exploring potential new countries around the world

This video is sponsored by NordVPN. Since everyone really seemed to like last week's video, here are more new countries that might exist soon. I chose doing a little less countries, but talking about them more in depth. So here we go. Starting with one on last week's thumbnail that I didn't get to. Ingria. Now, the reason I didn't include this one is because I couldn't find any substantial evidence of independence movements in the area, but apparently a few websites mention it as being a possibility, even if a very far and remote one. Located in the northwest of Russia, this idealized independent state would separate itself from Russia, but eventually stretch into a little bit of Finland to the north and Estonia to the west. Its capital would be the biggest city in the area, St. Petersburg, which would rob Russia of one of its historical capitals and biggest cities. Apparently, the idea of possible independence is rooted in a historical separation of the territory from Russia at some point. It seems as if, during the time of the Novgorod Republic, a medieval Russian state which existed from the 12th to 15th century, the leaders of Novgorod established an alliance with the Swedish. This alliance was done through a marriage with a Swedish princess. As a result, the area of Ingria was granted to the princess and ruled by Swedish Jarls, with some autonomy from the Novgorod Republic. Adding to this, in the Finnish part, there was a short-lived independent state called the Republic of North Ingria from 1919 to 1920, which, at the time, seceded from Bolshevik Russia after the October Revolution. Furthermore, the Ingrians were recognized by the Soviet Union as a unique nationality. It would be cool to see a new state emerge in this area, but I don't think the Russians would be interested in losing St. Petersburg. Moving to America. Quebec. Quebec has been dealing with an independence movement for a long time. Some argue that the first event was the Lower Canada Rebellions in 1837, where Quebecois revolted against the British colonial rulers. My guess is that the roots are indeed in the cultural differences between it and the rest of Canada, since it was colonized by the French as opposed to most of the rest of the country which was colonized by the British. In fact, their claims for independence are somewhat like this, a unique culture, a French-speaking majority of 78% and a big percentage of Roman Catholic population as opposed to the national Protestant majority. The independence movements argue that the best way of preserving their identity is through independence. There's also a historical justification that Quebec should be independent because of New France having been conquered by the British in 1763. It argues that the people of Quebec are descendants of a conquered people who are due their national sovereignty. There were even some rumors that said they would apply to be a US state if granted independence, which wouldn't make sense since their arguments for independence go against that idea. So that's probably not true. Back to Europe. Brittany. In the northwest of France, there's a peninsula where some of its inhabitants also want independence. Brittany is considered to be one of the six Celtic nations, along with Cornwall, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales. The independence movement appeared in the 1920s when a group of students founded the Breton Nationalist Party and they fight for obtaining the right to self-rule either as a part of France or outside of it. Their language is different. While also speaking French, locals speak Breton and Gallo and they fight for the equality of these two with French. But according to a poll, in 2013, only 18% of the local population support independence. However, 37% would describe themselves as Breton first and French second. The French government's positions regarding this have varied, from allowing Brittany a local government to refusing independence movements entirely. Personally I think France is a pretty well consolidated nation-state, so I don't see it breaking apart anytime soon, but who knows. Back to America, to the west coast of the US, California. California always comes up in these types of videos. It was, for a very brief period of time in 1846, an independent republic. In fact, the name California Republic is still on their flag. In June of 1846, 33 American immigrants in Alta California who had entered without official permission rebelled against the Mexican government, at the time Mexico controlled the area. Apparently, the rebellion was secretly encouraged by the US army due to the Mexican-American war at the time. Three weeks later, the New Republic's army of around 200 men was incorporated into the California Battalion of the U.S., joining the Union unofficially and becoming a full-member state in 1850. However, despite only lasting for about three weeks, the seed of independence was planted in California. Recently, there's been some traction to movements which defend the idea of Cal Exit, the separation of California from the U.S. and its establishment as an independent state. California is the richest US state, but I'd argue that a lot of that wealth is dependent on its belonging to the union. But who knows, maybe they'll get to be independent eventually. I guess some Californians just prefer to be perceived as Californians other than as citizens of the US. But hey, if they don't get independence, they can always use NordVPN to mask their IP address and pretend like they're from any of many countries across the world, protecting their personal data at the same time. That was a pretty smooth integration of today's sponsor, right? Moving on to the next possible country, Venice. Venetism is known as the concept of promoting the rediscovery of the Republic of Venice and their traditions, culture, language, and demanding more autonomy or even independence from Italy. In 1886, the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia voted in a referendum to join Italy, but a lot of independent supporters up to today refuse the validity of the referendum and demand that a new one be taken. In 2014, the local government pushed for a new one, but the Italian Constitutional Court deemed it illegal. Instead, they voted for autonomy. With 57% of the population voting, 98% voted yes. and the central government began negotiations with Venice to grant it more autonomy. This new country would include all the territories of the historical Venetian republic, plus a few more, surrounding ones which were never fully a part of the republic, but are of Venetian culture at this point. Interestingly, Venetism is also referred to as the local opposition to the idea of another independence movement, Padania, an idealized independent state in North Italy. The roots of the independence movement are for sure in the fact that they used to be independent, especially as the Republic of Venice, La Serenissima. The Republic of Venice was a city-state, a maritime republic and a leading European economic trading power during the middle ages and the renaissance. So, who knows, maybe we'll see a rebirth of the Republic soon. Next, East Thrace. This one is sort of like the first one, although I think even less likely in terms of probability and less present in terms of independence movements. Apparently, there's some type of movement that argues for the independence of this area and its separation from Turkey. Turkey is an odd case of a country being in two continents. Most of it is in Asia and then a small part is in Europe. East Thrace is the European part of Turkey. Some go even further and call for a full restoration of the region of Thrace, taking this from Turkey and then a big chunk of Bulgaria plus some of Greece. This region is one of the, if not the richest, of Turkey, so it could probably support itself alone, especially if it got part of Bulgaria and Greece as well but I never honestly see this as being possible. There's no way Turkey would give up their economic capital and control over the strait plus there doesn't even seem to be any real big cultural difference or a sentiment of national separation between locals and the Turkish. So in my opinion this one is the least likely to happen on this list. And finally two countries Flanders and Wallonia which might exist if Belgium separates itself. The partition of Belgium is a hypothetical situation which has been discussed and it would involve a split of the country along linguistic divisions between Flanders in the north speaking Flemish which is pretty close to Dutch and Wallonia in the south speaking mostly French. They could either become independent states or join the Netherlands and France respectively. In fact, there's a plan dating back from 1830 which already planned this division. There's also a German-speaking minority in the south, right on the German border, but I guess not large enough to claim its own new country. Both communities already have a large degree of autonomy within the Belgian federation, so independence and partition might really be the next step. It would create an issue with Brussels, which is already an autonomous region itself as the capital of the EU, making some argue that the city would become an independent city-state as a third Belgian nation. I would honestly say that out of this list, this one seems the most likely to happen in the near future. So those are a few more countries that might exist soon. 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If you want to join click the link in the description nordvpn.org slash knowledge and you can also use the coupon code knowledge. Thanks for watching this video, remember to subscribe to catch future ones, leave a comment below with suggestions for part 3 and I will see you next time.