A place to share history memes!
Rules:
No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, assorted bigotry, etc.
No fascism, atrocity denial, etc.
Tag NSFW pics as NSFW.
Follow all Lemmy.world rules.
Banner courtesy of @[email protected]
I had somebody trying to tell me Bhutan was the perfect communism a couple of weeks ago.
It's a monarchy where everybody lives like medieval peasants so that the rich and powerful can run the world's most exclusive resort off their labor.
Wild guess. A tankie.
Nope, just crossed wires :)
I was just thinking about a conversation I had with someone here a while ago who asked whether there was a country which doesn’t prioritize GDP, then seemed to be annoyed that Bhutan, the country I found fitting that description, wasn’t rich (though iirc, conditions have improved since they stopped prioritizing GDP).
I’m not trying to start drama, I’m not invested, but I am autistic and this explains why the conversation wasn’t successful, so thanks 😊
The Federal Republic of Germany is non-imperialist, since it's imperialist predecessors ceased to exist and a new nation was formed
A likely excuse!
Well, the FRG (BRD) is the legal successor of the German Empire. The GDR (DDR) always emphasized, it/she is not.
That is so but the German Reich as an entity still exists but completely lost his people and all state organs, institutions and public authorities. Technically is still has land, that is occupied by FRG and Poland today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_Germany
There are some Germans that think they can declare themselves citizens of the German Reich. But that can't be as there are no authorities of the German Reich anymore that can conduct immigration processes.
What if they declare themselves as an immigration officer and print up themselves some citizenship papers?
Well, they essentially do that. Regularly, blue Deutsches Reich passports are found among the so called Reichsbürger. However, it is not considered 'immigration', since as they are German ~~nationals~~ natives they are not immigrating into the German empire.
Just because you declare to be someone doesn't make you that someone. ;-)
Right.
comes to mind.
That is somewhat true, yet following the theory of continued existence (Fortbestandstheorie), as both German states on German ground united into the BRD, the BRD is no longer only partially identical with the German empire, but subject-identical.
Assuming one accepts the USSR and its bloc as inherently non-imperialistic.
If so, though, good news: the DDR still exists. There’s an uninhabited island off Cuba that Fidel Castro gifted to the DDR, which has not passed into possession of the Bundesrepublik.
The Ernst Thälmann Island (Cayo Ernesto Thaelmann) was only named after the KPD leader, but not gifted to the DDR in terms of its territory. While, the English Wikipedia article is not distinct in that point and mentions the island being "gifted", the German one is very clear, that only its name should honour the substitute saint of the DDR Ernst Thälmann while the territory remained part of Cuba.
Historians hate this one weird trick!
Just ask Greece how non-imperialist Germany is. /j
Also: Economic warfare is a form of warfare, too.
Ah yes putting conditions on loaned money equals warfare
Strawman
Genius strategy. Just rename your country and change its constitution etc, your new country will have committed zero atrocities! Never mind that you'll continue to profit from the predecessor country's imperialism.
Please tell me how Germany continues to profit from Imperialism
Assuming you're genuinely asking (not always easy to tell on the internet, sorry):
The same way every formerly imperialist country benefits from imperialist legacy. Global economic inequality is neither a coincidence nor the result of some natural order. It's of little benefit if I do a detailed write up on this topic since there's tons of those coming up in a search engine. Here's an example: https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/economic-impact-colonialism
I know it's not on Germany specifically, but imo it explains the principle quite well. Hope it helps, otherwise, 'does the west still profit from imperialism' was a useful search query for me.
Republic of Ireland. Never invaded a foreign country's soil, formed literally to get rid of imperial rule.
Estonia works too.
Most counties which formed by separating from an empire.
I mean, I guess you'd need to narrow the definition a bit.
I was thinking of a lot of former colonialised nations, but lots of those also have history of conquest before they became colonised.
Then Finland? Well, by our actions, pretty much. But O can't say that it was because people didn't want to.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Finland
Perhaps "proto-imperialist" would be better suited to describe that. Well, irredentist, officially. (Rather rare, didn't know that word.)
Bit of a problem there, yeah. This hostage taker needs to define both "imperialist" and "country", or I'm shoving his ass into 2006-founded Montenegro and accepting zero complaints about it.
Unified by war I don't know if you'd find one, but even just "no genocide" you'll only find a few. I was shocked with the Wikipedia page about genocide seeing how many countries had done it, or are doing it.
Yeah. Its pretty much constant throughout history. I have hope that can change, but it's absolutely ongoing and we've got a ways to go.
South Sudan? New country must be so much better than the imperialist countries with a history
It's a fool's errand. What you really want is a country with a strong social safety net and vivid regrets about their recent imperialism.
Had a lady ask the room if anyone felt guilty after a Texas history discussion.
Reminds me of this meme.
In literally everyone's history you'll find groups taking advantage of lesser thans for personal gain. We didn't load the cannon or sharpen the spears. We can learn, acknowledge and progress (ideally)
Guilt as an emotion doesn't do anything for you. Use it for something at least.... like kidnapping people and requesting extradition to fantasy land. Lol
Liechtenstein or Andorra perhaps. Bit too small for "empire". Or Kosovo, given that they haven't been independent for that long.
I don't think Korea has ever been imperial, they've always been too busy not being conquered
Korea had the longest unbroken chain of slavery of any society in human history, spanning over 1500 years.
How does slavery make a nation an empire?
In spirit I suppose. But they have been an empire for a while: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Empire
Not really sure that 13 years with no imperial ambitions counts as an empire. Unless the words are all that counts, I'm which case the US isn't an empire
Are you trying to No True Scotsman the Korean Empire? They’re on the list! They even lasted longer (by 1 year) than Nazi Germany did as an empire!
Anyway I’d encourage you to look at the list. There have been many empires in history. You don’t have to be one of the “great empires” (such as the Kushite Empire) to be on the list.
Whelp, there's Godwin's law
You have run out of substantive things to say. Fair enough!
I'd instinctively put Vietnam in that same bag.
I did think about Vietnam, but I think they were pretty aggressive towards Cambodia during and after their war of independence. I'm also not sure how much you want to include the Dai Viet as part of the current state or where you would rate it's imperial-ness
A bunch of the younger nations probably qualify. Both Norway and Malaysia might, depending on your criteria for imperialism.
Sentinel Island
Slovenija