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Mobiyuz β€” British Balkanization

#alternatehistory #britain #britishisles #ireland #unitedkingdom #balkanization #alternatehistorymap
Published: 2019-03-26 09:33:01 +0000 UTC; Views: 5170; Favourites: 87; Downloads: 18
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Description I feel like as far as maps of balkanization in the British Isles go, most people take the easy route: break the UK into its 4 constituent countries and be done with it. And why not? These 4 nations have a fairly consistent internal national identity; a person from Caithness and a person from Lothian will most likely both call themselves "Scottish" if asked, random people in Kent, London, and Manchester will all likely respond to "English", people from Cardiff and Merionethshire will agree on "Welsh", and so on. Of course, Northern Ireland is a muchΒ more complicated situation in that regard, but that's a nest of vipers we'll step around today.

Of course, there are cultural differences that, while not on the scale of a national identity, certainly creates regional identities. England famously has a split between the stereotypical ideas of a posh, commerce-oriented south and a hardscrabble, industry-oriented north. Scotland also has a famous split between Highlands and Lowlands, and Northern Ireland is...dear god, Northern Ireland. Meanwhile, there's also been plenty of division in the past, with England's "Heptarchy" that inspired Game of Thrones' worldbuilding, various separations between the Germanic settlers and Celtic natives, and Ireland has its traditional four provinces (though fun fact: it used to be five before Meath got absorbed into Ulster and Leinster.)

So, without regard to any real likelihood of anything, I present to you a totally arbitrary balkanization of the British Isles that I feel goes a bit deeper than most people might do, taking elements such as the Heptarchy, Kingdom of the Isles, the Germanic-Celtic split, and traditional regional definitions and mashing them all together to make one big beautiful mess of a thing. I love it.
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By a margin of one vote, the British Isles won the poll. I think that I'll probably go down the list, so next would be Eastern Europe.
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Comments: 13

Lordfirenation [2022-12-10 21:17:53 +0000 UTC]

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GWNF74 [2019-03-30 02:02:01 +0000 UTC]

Everyone gets balkanized, both of the Isles get the royal piss taken from them.

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WargofAnthropo-cene [2019-03-29 14:36:53 +0000 UTC]

The Hebrides should like to called the Western Isles.

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Mobiyuz In reply to WargofAnthropo-cene [2019-03-29 20:38:06 +0000 UTC]

Fair enough.

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menapia [2019-03-28 23:08:45 +0000 UTC]

The only time us Irish get worked up about regional division is when there's a football or hurling match coming up e.g. the All-Ireland Cup or the Leinster/Ulster/ Connaught, / Munster finals.

When the teeny county of Wexford won the All Ireland years back people went nuts

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0B-Nf…

You will still occasionally hear this song on Wexford local radio.....I had to put up with all this excitement as I was visiting my country cousins in Wexford at the time, they had big friggin bonfires on hilltops as the bus carrying the winning team thru Leinster.

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Mobiyuz In reply to menapia [2019-03-28 23:09:15 +0000 UTC]

I mean, there's also the whole Northern Ireland thing...

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menapia In reply to Mobiyuz [2019-03-29 11:17:00 +0000 UTC]

Imagine if the Brits decided to throw the Northerners in front of a train, heck imagine the trouble of maintaining that extra region, because god knows our govt. has always tried doing things on the cheap.

On the other hand introducing those new political parties etc. into the Irish system would wreck the cosy deals that basically rule in Irish politics.Β  Most countries have a left-right divide we've got two major parties who hate each others guts, are equally conservative(unless they play populist) and mostly divide over which side their party founders were on during out 1920's Civil War.

It would also probably crack the cosy position of the C.Church and their presumption that they should have first say over stuff like education.

Here we are with schools being run on taxpayer money and most Bishops are still "Patrons" of the local schoolsΒ  and try to maintain a Baptism apartheid* i.e. to get your kid into a local school it's a good idea to have a baptism cert just in case the "Patrons" try to play sectarian favourites.

You could probably guess what it's like going thru an institution like that if you're even vaguely inclined to independent thought.....blah blah blah blah Amen, thru Primary and then more of the same in a Secondary school which had a seminary next door.


*there's now a laicisation campaign, it's going v. slowly

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dylanmc6 [2019-03-27 23:21:02 +0000 UTC]

What's the reason why you put a bunch of lakes into the world map?

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Mobiyuz In reply to dylanmc6 [2019-03-28 00:11:58 +0000 UTC]

My patience with you has worn thin. Either you're being an idiot on purpose or you're somehow impossibly ignorant of the fact that lakes exist just about everywhere on the planet, large and small and anywhere in between.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake

I'm not interested in dealing with you anymore. You're now blocked.

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dylanmc6 In reply to Mobiyuz [2019-04-09 03:44:21 +0000 UTC]

I'm aware that lakes exist.

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CarlmanZ [2019-03-26 20:03:32 +0000 UTC]

0/10 no sodor.



(jk still good regardless)

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SillyTiger39 [2019-03-26 10:14:29 +0000 UTC]

Cool.

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Mobiyuz In reply to SillyTiger39 [2019-03-26 10:14:36 +0000 UTC]

Thanks.

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