Revanchism is linked to irredentism, to which Manse Everard refers. See Italia Irredenta.
Thus, historical political movements might recur both in future history and in alternative history.
It pays to google every word rather than just to infer their meanings from context, which is what I used to do.
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
We do see some mention in THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN about how, for a time, there was some bickering and skulduggery by Ythrians and Imperials after the Terran/Ythrian War. However, the terrifying rise of Merseia eventually caused both Domain and Empire to resolve such disputes amicably, because the Roidhunate was a threat to both of them.
Sean
Empires tend to produce areas of deeply interpenetrating ethnicities; their breakups are the more bloody for that.
Reorganizing the area between Central Europe and Anatolia into nation-states along lines basically developed in Western Europe involved a very drastic "sorting" process, during the 'reconquista' that gradually drove the Ottomans out of the area. Further north the same thing happened in a much briefer period and in more concentrated form.
There used to be a joke that if you put a chameleon on a color-coded ethnographic map of SE Europe and Turkey, the poor beast would explode.
But the same sort of map now shows a quite close correlation between political boundaries, languages and religio-ethnic boundaries, after the 'terrible simplifiers' got through with it. The process is ongoing.
In Cyprus, for example, the old order was preserved by the British Empire, with Greeks and Turks alternating village by village and sometimes street by street or even more closely.
If Cyprus had been given to Greece (as nearly happened several times, when Britain needed Greek support for one reason or another) then it would, like Crete (which was also very mixed in the 19th century) be all-Greek now. As it was, the conflicts of the 1970's "sorted" it into two homogenous halves.
Something quite similar happened in Bosnia in the 1990's -- once the hand of the Yugoslav state was removed, the place went up like a volcano, and when a semblance of peace was restored there were three pretty much homogenous enclaves, a state of affairs which has persisted since despite the peacekeepers.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Yes, from both you and other writers I have read of how supra national empires were often very, very mixed ethically and religiously. And that often enough the only way such places had any kind of peace was from one of these empires ENFORCING the peace. And that imperial breakups were almost always attended by bloody "sorting outs."
I don't know what can be done if people, quite simply, don't want to like each other or live peacefully together. Maybe a reasonably tolerant and easygoing empire like Austria-Hungary or Anderson's Terran Empire is the best we can get.
Sean
Sean,
But there are also histories of people living in harmony. Empires use divide and rule tactics.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
But rarely and seldom, and it's not wise to think that will become the common rule. Even the US, before the current, disastrous mania with some Americans, for unlimited immigration, practiced a de facto policy of ASSIMILATING non-Anglo American immigrants into accepting the norms and values of those Anglo/Americans. I call that a kind of divide and rule. I'm sorry, but I don't share your optimism.
Sean
Sean,
I think there was harmony in Palestine before Israel arrived.
Freedom of choice: an Asian arriving in Britain can "Anglicize" himself or import his Asian life-style or aim at a blend or do something else. Max diversity.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Regretfully, I disagree. Israel/Palestine, along with Egypt, was conquered by the Ottoman Empire under Selim the Grim (r. 1512-17). When it wasn't cruel and oppressive Ottoman rule was lax, corrupt, negligent, etc. And of course non-Muslims like the Jews and Christians were ground under by the Islamic laws of Dhimmitude. So, it was not harmonious!
And I have no objection to diversity in minor or harmless ways. But, Sharia law should not be tolerated in any form or degree in the UK.
Sean
Correction, Selim the Grim of Turkey did not die in 1517. He died in 1520.
Sean
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