Well, countries are all more or less delusions, yet made more or less real by the authority of states.
The real delusion in this story is that German is a language. From what I’ve heard, take three Germans from different regions, all speaking their mother tongue and they’ll have just as much trouble understanding each other as three Spaniards from diverse parts of Spain†. But while the Spaniards will be well aware that one of them is speaking Galician, one Castellan and another Catalonian, each German is convinced that he’s speaking German and that the others are speaking German in a weird way. Spaniards will likely speak Castellan, if not as their first then as their second language. Germans will all be familiar with a standard German but not really identify it as a distinct language from their own. Same story in Italy.
†: Assuming none of the Spaniards in the example are Basque.
It’s a good thing Europa has moved past all that fractious border shenanigans
Maybe people of the future will watch our Europe chart and wonder how United Europe ever managed to unite.
“Unification” = Prussian dominance through conquering, alliances, and coercion.
I find the standard historical descriptor “unification” to be statist embellishing and give the false idea that this was somehow grassroots.
I find the standard historical descriptor “unification” to be statist embellishing and give the false idea that this was somehow grassroots.
“War is politics through other means”, and all that jazz. German unification movements were widespread and a key component of Prussia’s success was leveraging that grassroots enthusiasm towards a unified German nation to assist them, by portraying themselves as the most likely to be able to achieve it.
###Electorate of Cologne represent!
(*throws another archbishop to the curb*)
Großherzogtum Baden FTW
I‘m gonna take a bath in Baden-Baden now.
