More Countries That Dislike Each Other (& Why?)

Country rivalries. A few weeks ago I made a video about this topic where I talked about a few of the rivalries that exist throughout the world between countries. I left a comment asking you for suggestions for more rivalries that exist and you guys came through with a lot more suggestions that exist between two or more nations. So in this video we're going to take a look at eight more rivalries that exist between who and why, understanding why these countries to some extent each other. Starting with the ones on the thumbnail. There is a somewhat serious disagreement between Vatican City and the People's Republic of China. Now, I know what you're probably thinking, these two countries are thousands of miles away, they obviously share no border, they have no historical conflict with each other, so why would they dislike one another or have any type of conflict today? Well, the reason is simple, bishops. We have to remember that the Vatican isn't just a small micro-state in Europe, it's also the Holy See, the headquarters of the Catholic Church and the ruler of that religion worldwide. The authority to appoint bishops. China belongs to the Vatican and all Catholic countries, but China isn't a Catholic country, even though it has a sizable Catholic population, around 12 million people. And its regime is very opposed to any other institution other than the state and especially a foreign entity having any type of influence and power in their territory. And so, this issue has been a key point of contention in the restoration of relations between China and the Vatican. This situation because they actually severed diplomatic ties in 1951. Instead of recognizing Vatican authority, the Chinese government created the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and nominated seven bishops themselves, which the Vatican doesn't recognize. Another issue that is a consequence of this, but also one of the causes of the issue, is that the Holy See is currently the only sovereign entity in Europe and one of the few in the world that recognizes the Republic of China, Taiwan. As the sole representative of China, when PRC won their internal conflict, the Vatican continued to recognize Taiwan as the real China, which obviously doesn't please the mainland Chinese. But Pope Francis and the current PRC government have made efforts to re-approach and attempt to resolve this issue and it seems to be going well. Another rivalry that exists, and a big one, is Greece and Turkey. The civilizations of Greece and Turkey have been in conflict oftentimes throughout history, even though those who existed back then are not the same as today, especially in Turkey. The legendary Greek invasion of Troy in what is today Turkey is a perfect example of the historical rivalry that has existed between the people, or at least the states, of those two regions. There was always conflict between Greek city-states and civilizations from Anatolia, between the kingdom of Greece and the Ottoman Empire and even between the two modern states. But both past conflicts, and most importantly the one today, have to do with one major issue, control of the Aegean Sea and Aegean Islands, and also the East Mediterranean as well as the island of Cyprus. Cyprus became independent, then wanted to join Greece, then was invaded by Turkey, and today it's divided in two. Cyprus itself, which is Greek in culture and has great proximity with Greece itself, and Northern Cyprus, which is a Turkish protectorate Recently, a Turkish minister shared a a picture of a map where all the Aegean islands were under the control of the Turks. The historical issues, some real and some only legendary, in addition to these tensions today in Cyprus and the Aegean, make it so that the two governments dislike each other to some extent. Greece is still one of the countries in the world with the highest military budgets, percentage-wise, all because they believe in a potential conflict with Turkey. Moving to South America, another pair of countries that you could say dislike each other in some ways are Brazil and Argentina. It's odd because their rivalry somewhat mirrors the one that exists between Portugal and Spain. Two countries, one that speaks Portuguese and one that speaks Spanish in both cases. Perhaps their rivalry even has some roots in precisely the fact that they belonged to two different and opposing colonial empires. The rivalry today is most seen in football games, even though the two biggest stars of each team are apparently good friends. The rivalry has been so big that in the 20th century the two teams refused to play each other and didn't do so for over 10 years and a big rivalry existed between the two biggest stars on each side, Pelé and Maradona. But the history of the rivalry, although seen in football today, didn't start there and can be traced back to the various conflicts and the wars that the two countries had throughout time. Oddly, Buenos Aires was the first capital to recognize Argentine independence, whereas Buenos Aires was the first government to recognize Brazil's. But they inherited a lot of disputes that the colonial powers had in these regions. The Cisplatine War from 1825 to 1828 was the biggest example of conflict between the two, but thankfully the rivalry today seems reduced to sports. Back in Europe, a big rivalry exists between Scotland and England, despite the fact that both of them belong to the United Kingdom. Scotland has fought to assert its independence throughout history and England's desire of ruling all of Britain has posed an obstacle to that, which necessarily resulted in conflict between the two. At an early point where both Scotland and a beginning of England were both clearly independent, there was also a territorial dispute over the border area and also some of Northumbria, today Northern England, which was claimed by both kingdoms Although, I didn't know this, the first king of a united England and Scotland was actually Scottish. King James VI of Scotland inherited the English crown in 1603, ruling the two kingdoms in personal union, with each of them remaining independent. A hundred years later, in 1707, Scotland subsequently entered into a full political union with the Kingdom of England, creating the new Kingdom of Great Britain, which would later include Ireland and be renamed the United Kingdom in 1801. The early disputes for territory, the slightly different culture, as well as the fight and desire for independence, which in part lasts until today, made it so that these two countries have always been seen as mutual rivals, with each government somewhat disliking the other Something that has been visible through the numerous conflicts and full-out wars between the two kingdoms throughout history. There have been at least nine wars between the people of Scotland and England, with over 83 battles fought. From as early as 596, when the Angles defeated an alliance of Scots, Britons, and Picts, before either kingdom existed, to many border conflicts or full-on wars that took place all the way up to at least the 17th century. Over a thousand years of conflict were sure to make a mark Moving to Asia, a recent dispute has been rekindled between Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia claims that it is in a diplomatic conflict with Qatar because of Iran, of whom they claim Qatar is a proxy. However, Qatar maintains that the conflict is an attempt for Saudi Arabia to reassert the hegemony over Qatar, which it enjoyed during the 20th century. Qatar has differences with the Saudis on a number of issues, it broadcasts Al Jazeera, which supports the Arab Spring movement, and it does in fact maintain relatively good relations with Iran, Saudi Arabia's key Iran is largely Shia Muslim, while Saudi Arabia sees itself as the leading Sunni power. That, plus the fact that they compete economically and have opposite relations to the United States, justifies the conflict between those two. And further to the east, in Asia, another rivalry exists between Japan and Russia. It may be hard to believe, but Japan and Russia are technically still at conflict. The reason is simple, ownership of the Kuril Islands. Russia refers to this string of over 50 small volcanic islands as the Kurils, while Japan calls them the Northern Territories. The islands, largely under Russian jurisdiction today, offer little strategic or economic value, however Japan maintains a claim on four of the southernmost islands. The history of the Kurils goes back to the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 where Japan was victorious and claimed sovereignty over the islands. Japan held the islands until the end of World War II when, with the fall of the Japanese Empire in 1945, they lost them. The Soviets took them with US agreement but then the US backed away from that agreement with Japan now being their ally and the issue has remained unresolved until today. Back in Europe, Serbia and Bosnia don't exactly get along very well. A ton of comments suggest a dispute between Serbia and a lot of other countries, but Bosnia seemed a specifically interesting case. Bosnia itself has a part of its country called Republika Srpska, which is mostly populated by Serbs, and it seems to be the origin of the dispute between them. When Yugoslavia broke up, the Bosnian war took place between Bosnia and Srpska, backed by Serbia, who wanted either independence or to remain in union with Serbia itself, be it through Yugoslavia or individually. This led to an effective war between Bosnia and Serbia itself. The conflict remains until today, although the armed conflict thankfully came to an end. The way Bosnia is ruled grants great autonomy to Republika Srpska, but local leaders still And finally, an intercontinental dispute between Spain and Morocco. Although it's technically not intercontinental, considering that Spain controls a number of territories on the Moroccan coast, which are precisely one of the biggest issues that cause conflict. I would say the Spain-Morocco rivalry is based on three main things, although all of them are interconnected and some caused by others. First, the fact that there is a historic rivalry between the Spanish kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula and the Muslim kingdoms of North Africa. The rivalry in this aspect is completely resolved, but I believe that it does take some toll on this issue still, especially because the Spanish Reconquista ended later than, for instance, the Portuguese, which has great diplomatic relations with Morocco. In addition, Spain still owns several territories in Morocco today, the so-called Plazas de Soberania, two entire cities, Ceuta and Melilla, and other small areas which Morocco obviously isn't happy about. And third, Spain has been somewhat ambiguous or even fully supportive over the claims of West Sahara So, Those are a few more of the rivalries that exist between countries throughout the world, understanding that they exist for various reasons, some of them still valid today, some only existing today, being recent, and others caused by historic grievances that still last until modern times, even though some are gladly fading away, some more serious than others, and thankfully none seem to be escalating save one or two unfortunate exceptions. Country rivalries are something that sadly are pretty common throughout the world, So, if you know of any other Thanks so much for watching this video, subscribe if you want and I will see you next time for more general knowledge.