Countries that almost existed: Balkan Union
Still from a 1941 German propaganda film about the invasion of Yugoslavia An alternative to the Intermarium, the Balkan Union would have seen Greece and Yugoslavia leading the way in federating the Balkans and Central Europe. The plan was concocted by Britain’s wartime foreign secretary, Anthony Eden, who convinced the heads of the Greek and Yugoslav governments-in-exile to take the first step.…
Countries that almost existed: The Republic of Pontus
1917 map of a proposed Republic of Pontus (Wikimedia Commons) After the end of World War I, American president Woodrow Wilson proclaimed that all the nationalities of the Turkish Empire had a right to autonomous development. This prompted the Pontic Greeks to call for independence. Ethnic Greeks had lived on the southern coast of the Black Sea for centuries, first under Byzantine, then under…
Countries that almost existed: SS State of Burgundy
Nazi leaders Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler meet at the Wolf’s Lair military headquarters near Rastenburg, October 13, 1943 (Ullstein Bild) Burgundy, now a region in central France, has historically been all over the map of Western Europe. The medieval Kingdom of Burgundy straddled the Mediterranean coast. The Duchy of Burgundy, at its greatest extent, ran from the Low Countries in the north…
Countries that almost existed: North American Technate
Map of the proposed Technate of America (Technocracy Inc.) The Great Depression gave various new political philosophies a lease on life. Chile lurched to the far left. Brazil and Portugal turned to the corporatist right. Germany elected the Nazis. In Canada and the United States, the technocracy movement arose. It proposed replacing all politicians with specialists: economists, engineers,…
Countries that almost existed: Intermarium
Map of the proposed Intermarium, a federation of Central and Eastern Europe We’re starting a new series today: countries that almost existed. First up: the Intermarium. Literally “between seas”, this was a Polish proposal for the federalization of Central and European Europe. (more…)
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