Ignoring the massive cost, legal hurdles, and the opinion of the residents/government/outside powers, if you could magically grant independence to certain territories or form new bigger nations from existing ones with no repercussions to yourself, what new countries would you create?

Please treat this as a non-serious post, let’s not get into a massive political debate, those never end well.

  • This is site is gonna be western-centric so I’d not even bother with those countries:

    So my answer is:

    Hong Kong, Vietnam, Guangdong Province become one nation

    Republic of Yue (粵共和國)

    Historically we came from a common group of people… so… this make sense lol

    A lot of Vietnamese words are similar to Cantonese.

    So we just make this a dual-language nation of Cantonese + Vietnamese (plus we’d give protected status for minority languages/“dialects” and allow schools in their regions to use 50% of the time to use their language/“dialect” only, the other 50% they have to pick either Cantonese or Vietnamese as the main language, and also the other one become their sort of like “minor” language studies in college terms… so this de facto means the Northern part of this nation use Cantonese, Southern part use Vietnamese as the main one…

    So someone running for president of the Republic of Yue is legally required to pass fluency test in both national languages to make sure people are united…

    Oh fun fact: the 粵 Chinese character (as in 粵語/Cantonese) representing Guangzhou and Cantonese related words, and the 越 Chinese character in 越南 (Vietnam) are pronounced the exact same in both Cantonese and Mandarin.

    Anyways… I’m gonna tag my favorite HKer on Lemmy @NorthWestWind@lemmy.world

    Hope you’d enjoy living in our Republic of Yue fantasy where Cantonese is a national language for once (can you imagine if Cantonese won the debate to become China’s official language? 🥹)

    /non-serious of course… but this would be a very funny country… imagine Cantopop with Vietnamese sprinkled inside? lolol

  • agentTeiko@piefed.social
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    21 days ago

    All the lines drawn by Europe’s Colonial period are erased in Africa and Mid east and new lines are drawn by ethnic groups or otherwise defined by those groups. After which those new nations create a block of African Union like the European Union works.

  • disregardable@lemmy.zip
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    21 days ago

    The territory of Kaliningrad belongs to Lithuania. It’s not like there isn’t enough space in Russia, give me a break.

  • RebekahWSD@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    Every country is broken down one step. Individual states or provinces are now their own country. If still too large, break into counties or the like.

    Whack it with a hammer! Break them up!

  • snoons@lemmy.ca
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    20 days ago

    United States’ west coast and Alaska’s panhandle are now Canadian. There is now only one Korea. United States of Europe exists now. Russia is broken up into many separate states regarding the population that lives there. A new state is created somewhere inside China on the border that as now… Uyghurstan I guess.

    *How ccould I forget about Ireland?! D: Ireland is now just Ireland.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    Kurdistan. They have been broken up, and are a nation spread over a number of countries that all hate them: Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria.

    • leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      20 days ago

      In the same vein, Catalonia. The “principality" for sure, with Northern Catalonia (currently in France) and the western strip (currently in Aragon, Spain), with or without Aran (if we can decide our future so should they, though an independent Occitaine is probably a pipe dream, so I’d be partial to a confederation if it’s fine by them), open to a confederation with the rest of the Catalan Countries (Andorra, the Balearic Islands and Valencia) if it’s fine by them; the people in L’Alguer (currently in Sardinia, Italy) should be able to decide if and where they want to fit in.

      Also Scotland, though they’re not split.

      Any nation without a state that wants to have one (and would have the means to survive as one, but there are some pretty small states out there and most of the ones that aren’t sinking under the sea seem to be doing fine), really.

  • bizarroland@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    I’d probably take the Western Seaboard from the USA and Canada, so California, Oregon, Washington, whichever province Vancouver is in, and Alaska, and form a new country out of that.

    Might fuck around and take Nevada, too, because nobody’s using it. And also that tiny little dangly bit of Mexico just under California that’s like a little peninsula.

    While I’m at it, I’ll take the top leg of Idaho also, just because nobody’s using it.

    • blarghly@lemmy.world
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      20 days ago

      whichever province Vancouver is in

      BC

      And also that tiny little dangly bit of Mexico just under California that’s like a little peninsula.

      Baja California

      I vote adding the rest of Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. I say this mostly as a Coloradoan who wants to be part of the west coast union and realizes the importance of geographical connectivity. But also, you’d get a lot of very cool mountains and deserts in thr deal.

      • bizarroland@lemmy.world
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        20 days ago

        We’ll see, since I’ve already laid claim to mine, you can lay claim to yours and be like buffer country between old America and Cascadia.

        In exchange for your country of Blagraria providing a layer of separation between Cascadia and the states, we’ll offer you favorable trade agreements that you can then use to parlay into income from the old America.

        And if they do something stupid like trying to attack you to take you over, we’ll have your back with our massive trade financial resources and natural resources.

        And of course we’ll make sure to blanket Nevada in solar cells and set up distribution networks and we’ll sell you solar electricity at fantastic prices.

        • blarghly@lemmy.world
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          20 days ago

          Considering you didn’t know the names of BC and Baja, we’ll be taking those, along with some strips of land to connect them (would be nice to get Banff, too). After all, we would like ocean access for trade purposes.

          • bizarroland@lemmy.world
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            20 days ago

            Its war then.

            A, I already called dibs on the land.

            B, I offered you more than a fair agreement where you would profit immensely in exchange for providing us a small amount of protection.

            C, I would urge you to reconsider, because what do you think East America is going to do when they realize that your country is vulnerable due to a lack of trade income? If you carry forward with this war plan of yours, we’re going to levy economic sanctions on you and the only way you will be able to get materials in is from the north-south corridor between Canada and Texas.

            • blarghly@lemmy.world
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              20 days ago

              You called dibs with handwaving. The international court of dibs doesn’t recognize such chicanery.

              And regardless of your legal standing, I plan to offer unfettered trade access to Redneckistan to the TJ cartel. Combined with the natural skills of our friends in Montana and Wyoming, I think it would be unwise to begin a war. Sanctions or no, I can’t see you coming out ahead bringing Portlandian hipters to the front lines - whether or not their mustache might belong to a civil war general.

              Accept our rightful ownership of British Colombia and Baja California (both Norte y Sur) or be prepared to lose even the claim you have rightfully dibsed.

    • Katrisia@lemmy.today
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      20 days ago

      Yup, I would like to see the Californias united.

      We have three pieces nowadays. North California (Alta California, today’s “California”) and South California (Baja California, today broke into two). Two were already bad… Let’s move into one, please.

      (But don’t let the US administration get ideas).

    • amorangi@lemmy.nz
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      20 days ago

      They Northern states would have been better off in the long run if they’d have just left the retard states break away in the civil war.

      • Katrisia@lemmy.today
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        20 days ago

        I was going to answer that Mexico as it once was, from current US southern states to Panama. Then, the northern US states, Canada, and Alaska could be their own tranquil cold lands.

        Maybe even a division by old territories and languages so that Bolivar’s dream came true. From old Mexico (New Spain) to Cape Horn (or whatever the southernmost point lies). I cannot say that country would have been better than the USA (in terms of atrocities, wars, etc.), but I’m still curious.

        Also, Brazil not imposing Portuguese to their citizens. They used to speak a criolle language, if I remember correctly. If a kind Brazilian reads this, maybe they can correct and explain it.