Unrealized country unions: A look at ambitious geopolitical proposals

Poland, Lithuania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Austria-Hungary, throughout history there have been several country unions that brought together two or more nations under one single state, then eventually breaking apart into their component countries. But also throughout history there were other attempts at these types of unions between countries that ended up not taking place, some of them being particularly interesting projects while others were just somewhat crazy and unrealistic ideas that someone happened to have. So in this video, we're going to take a look at a few of those interesting cases. Before we move on, I want to thank the sponsor of today's video and friend of the channel, NordVPN. NordVPN is the best VPN service out there. I use it myself and the reasons why I chose it over other VPNs are simple. First, it's the fastest VPN out there. When you turn it on, it just loads the websites normally, not taking ages every time you switch the page. 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I also love their associated tools, NordPass, which allows you to manage all your passwords making sure you don't forget them and NordLocker which provides encryption for your files to also keep them safe go to nordvpn.com slash general knowledge to get a two-year plan plus one free month with a huge discount as well as a 30-day money-back guarantee now back to the video starting with the one on the thumbnail a surprising union proposal took place between 1904 and up to 1956 a Franco-British union a concept for a union between the two independent sovereign states of the United Kingdom and France. It was proposed during certain crises of the 20th century and, as crazy as it sounds, it does have some historical precedence. After all, the ties between France and England have been close since the Norman Conquest in which the Duke of Normandy, an important French fief, became King of England while also owing feudal ties to the French crown, with centuries of close relations following, although mostly through constant conflict. In April of 1904, France and the United Kingdom signed a series of agreements known as the Entente Cordiale, which marked the end of centuries of conflict between the two powers and the start of a period of peaceful coexistence. And if it had truly happened at the time, it would have included both the French and the British colonial empires, creating a nation that would rule more than a third of the world's territory. But practicality, patriotism and desires to maintain the independence on both nations kept this from ever moving any further than a hypothetical idea. Next we have the Federation of the Andes in 1826. This was a proposed merger of the countries liberated by Simon Bolivar into a single state. According to some sources, Bolivar seeked to create a single state out of the countries who had acquired independence from the Spanish Empire. To do this, he organized the Congress of Panama to pitch the project of a continental union with a federal state whose members would be the previous Spanish colonial captaincies. Local governments disagreed both in creating this union, but also in the way in which it could function in the case of those who were in support and so the proposal failed. Facing this defeat, Bolívar tried a more realistic alternative to unite the countries whose independence was accomplished through his own leadership, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia. Peru and Colombia actually reached a written agreement to prepare to do this in 1822. It was essentially an alliance of defense, an agreement of equal rights in both countries for all citizens, and a common military and naval force. But with Colombia being the greater nation, the plan required that the union first began with Peru and Bolivia, so that their citizens would not feel as if they were simply being annexed by the Colombians. Instability in Bolivia and Peru's refusal of accepting the proposed government system, which they claimed was too powerful and almost close to an absolutist monarchy, led to the failure of this project. In sum, this proposed union failed because of the distance between the nation's cities, poor communication and transport infrastructure, disagreements about government type, and patriotic desires of each having their own nation. A fun fact, there was actually a proposal to unite all South American countries into one nation, called Patria Grande, Great Homeland, and it even included some in Central America. It obviously also failed because it would be impossible to unite all of those recently independent and so distant nations. Another really interesting union proposal that actually took place various times throughout history was the proposed Union of Romania and Bulgaria. First proposed in 1878, it sought to unify Bulgaria and Romania into a common state under either a federation, a personal union or a confederation, depending on which proposal we're talking about. Such ideas found support, especially in Bulgaria, and there were several opportunities to realize them. Proposals usually came from the Bulgarians, but it was Romania who was to hold the leading positions. These proposals ultimately failed because of cultural and political differences between the two peoples and opposition from great powers at the time like Austria-Hungary and especially Russia. The idea had historical precedence. Bulgarians and Romanians had first lived together under the rule of the first Bulgarian Empire. Then the second Bulgarian Empire, established through the cooperation of Bulgarians and Vlachs, which are Romanians, and under the Ottoman Empire as well, which conquered and ruled territories populated by Bulgarians and Romanians for centuries. A Bulgarian-Romanian union was never actually established, the disapproval of several great powers, the differences between Bulgarians and Romanians, their national goals, and it all added up to the hostile environment of the region in they lived and so it ended up never taking place. Going back to the Americas, another proposed union was the Antillean Confederation which in 1870 attempted to unite Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The Antillean Confederation was the idea of Ramón Emeterio Betances about the need of natives of the Caribbean uniting into a regional entity or other islands into this union however it wasn't supported by all. Its main idea was to contribute to the end of European colonialism in the Americas and it took place while Spain still ruled these territories. But after the Spanish-American war part of the territories were handed over to the United States and the idea faded away. Back in Europe in 1910 there was a proposed Balkans Socialist Federation. This would be interesting because it would include a country union itself as a member. It would consist of Yugoslavia, Albania and Bulgaria. The movement for the Balkans Socialist Federation arose after the Young Turk Revolution in 1908. The main platforms for the Union were Balkan unity and action against the impending wars that were threatening Europe. Each country saw some level of support for this idea at some point between 1910 and 1916, but each of the countries was against it and persecuted popular leaders who advocated for the project. Eventually the idea faded away as it was deemed undoable. Uniting the Balkans has been a topic in several projects throughout history. Yugoslavia itself is the only example that actually achieved some level of success, but even that was a temporary one and ended not so well. Other examples are the Greek Yugoslav Confederation proposal in 1942 or a plan to expand Yugoslavia itself onto Albania and Bulgaria in 1946, both of which failed to be implemented. Another crazy union proposal also in Europe was made in 1918, just after the end of World War I and it was called Intermarium, proposing to unite a gigantic amount of countries into a single political entity, Belarus, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, taking up a gigantic chunk of Europe. It was conceived by Józef Piłsudski, a Polish statesman and head of state at the time. The proposed union would have incorporated the territories between the Baltic, the Black and the Adriatic Seas, therefore getting the name Intermarium, Latin for Between Seas. This idea was also known through its Polish name Między Morzami, from Między, Between and Morz, Sea. If you play Hearts of Iron IV, you will probably recognize it. It was meant to emulate the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which also stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Its main objective was to keep Russia out of conquering those lands, by presenting a united front against it. France backed the plan, but Russia and many other European powers were against it. Lithuania and Ukraine also thought it would damage their own independence at the time. Eventually, all of these territories were temporarily conquered and occupied by Germany and then the Soviet Union, eventually reaching their own independence. All the way in Africa, in 1957, some people wanted to create a United States of Latin Africa. This was a proposed Union of Romance-Language-Speaking Central African Countries envisioned by Barthélemy Boganda. The idea's implementation was cut short by Boganda's death in a plane crash in 1959. The country was meant to be a counterweight to the powerful British-influenced southern bloc of South Africa. It would consist of Angola, Belgian Congo, Rwanda-Urundi, French Congo, Ubangi-Shari, French Chad, French Cameroon, French Gabon, Spanish Guinea, and São Tomé-Príncipe. it would encompass a tremendously large region as we can see on this map. I couldn't find out why this didn't take place. Perhaps the death of its proponents truly was of big importance. And also, maybe achieving independence of all territories from Europe was a big obstacle. Angola for instance was only granted independence by Portugal in 1974-75. And finally, also in Europe, a proposed union between all Baltic and Nordic countries, Balto-Skandia. Proposed initially in 1928, it would have united Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. This idea was presented by Swedish professor Sten De Geer in a geography journal and then further developed by another Lithuanian geographer. The idea would be an economic, military and political union of these nations. As far as I know, this idea has no popular support and it never did, at all. It was just a concept presented by these two people. But many times these proposed unions signify some type of cultural proximity between the nations mentioned. In this case, there is in fact proximity between Nordic and Baltic countries, and they in fact are united through the cooperation organization Nordic-Baltic-8. It's interesting to see that many times these full-on annexation unions are replaced by more realistic, and in my opinion better, alternatives of heavy diplomatic cooperation and alliance. So, those are a few of the proposed state mergers throughout history, some proposed by idealists, only being the proposal of one or two single people who spoke out or wrote a book about it, while others were real attempts by governments or statesmen with or without the support of their people, but all of them ultimately failing. Oddly, there are still a few of them going on right now too, about 7 or 8 current proposals of uniting two or more countries into single ones. If you are interested in this, I can make a video about them as well. Thanks so much for watching this video, subscribe if you want to catch newer ones and leave a comment below with your opinions and thoughts about this. Would you like to see any of these proposed country unions take place and why, why not? I will see you next time for more general knowledge.