Costa Rica doesn’t have an army. They spent that money on the environment.
Has there ever been a country who did not have an enemy or pick a fight? And was pretty much like all of you do you we will do us. kind of like isalationism but charitable when it counted?
Submitted 3 weeks ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Comments
valen@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
Of course, there are many countries in the world with not much history of engaging in conflict at all. Many of them are very small or located in places that have no strategic or economic value to anyone.
The first country I thought of is Liechtenstein.
Crt_static@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Lichtenstein seems pretty chill, but I don’t know much about their history
einkorn@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
Well, if you outsource your military to the Swiss …
The House of Liechtenstein has been involved in a lot of history though.
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’ve always associated Switzerland with consistent neutrality, but someone with more historical knowledge may correct me on that.
mitram@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Their mercenaries were famous throughout Europe and the dependency of the great European powers on those mercenaries led to Switzerland being left mostly in peace.
That’s what I’ve read, but I’d love to be corrected.
Sualtam@lemmus.org 2 weeks ago
I personally think it’s geography. The Irish, Scots and Germans were important sources of mercenaries and that didn’t stop anybody from attacking them.
Also Switzerland fought quite some wars throughout history against great powers like France and Austria too.
DaMummy@hilariouschaos.com 3 weeks ago
Davos is in Switzerland btw. So of your country has a problem with the WEF, and corporate corruption in general, Switzerland is to blame. Palentir has recently bought some media companies in Switzerland as well.
redsand@infosec.pub 2 weeks ago
They’re militarily neutral but their banks are super corrupt and stocked with fascist. So much nazi plundered wealth went into Switzerland and never came out. You read that right cheeseholes, Switzerland is a beautiful, well run country and the corruption of UBS alone will collapse Davos into a black hole.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
Vatican City. San Marino. Vanuatu. Palau. Lichtenstein.
ExperiencedWinter@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You sure about including the Vatican in that list? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_States
Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
The country of Vatican City has never been to war.
Brings up the question as to where OP draws the like. If a country was established after a violent revolution, would that count if that newly established country has not yet gone to war?
NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
I don’t think this answers your question, but this might interest you if you haven’t heard of it before: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentinelese
Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
The Shire.
slazer2au@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Unless you have read the books…
Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
I have.
DrBob@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Canada? We’ve been in a bunch of fights but haven’t picked them ourselves. Consider the bloody battle for Han Island as an example. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisky_War
ooterness@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Canada was an open participant in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, and a clandestine participant in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which kinda sounds like picking a fight to me.
DrBob@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
I don’t have an answer for Afghanistan. We suck. Iraq? My understanding is that we wouldn’t go without a UN resolution which was not forthcoming. We have officers posted in other countries for various exchanges and they fought with their host countries. So we had a few hundred people there in various roles. I don’t know about the clandestine participant but.
Crt_static@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Hasn’t Canada had to answer for various war crimes?
DrBob@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
We have. Notably during the World Wars. But we didn’t instigate those conflicts. We managed to avoid Viet Nam. We were involved in Korea but that was following a UN resolution.
DaMummy@hilariouschaos.com 3 weeks ago
The Inuit might have something to say. The children found in the mass graves by churches can’t really speak. Canadians speak English & French. Remind me where England and France are, and what their history is with colonialism.
kiterios@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Imo, if you go back far enough, it is unlikely. No matter how peaceful or charitable a country may be now, they had to lay claim to their land at some point. And making those claims usually meant displacing or conquering someone else.
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Fun fact. When Captain Vancouver sailed up the strait eventually named Juan de fuca, he spotted an aboriginal group in canoes, painted aggressively and paddling furiously. He passed a village, near what was ripple Rock, occupied by another band, soon thereafter.
On the return trip, that village was occupied by the group he saw in the canoes earlier.
Even before Canada was a country, the people occupying it were displacing others.
Of course, the Clovis people may have something to say about displacement as well.
nocturne@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
Ah, the old, “well they were doing it when we got here, we may as well keep doing it” argument.
Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
And making those claims usually meant displacing or conquering someone
That’s not correct. There were fewer people in former times. The world’s population is growing. The differences in numbers are astonishing. Therefore they had much more “free space” then.
snooggums@piefed.world 2 weeks ago
When the numbers were far lower they used more area to support people and they all wanted the better places too.
mech@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Iceland?
Independent since 1918, they were occupied by the British and later Americans during WW2 to prevent occupation by Germany.
Their only contribution to any war is being a NATO member, but they don’t have a standing army.codewizard@hear-me.social 2 weeks ago
mech@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
The one where Iraq invaded Iran?
That one?
BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Though hasn’t Iran also provided funding and aide to known international terrorist organizations? Like you know, what the USA does for the “freedom fighters” and such?
zxqwas@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The Swiss have managed to stay out of wars for a very long time and are famously neutral.
hedders@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
Back in the day, Switzerland was one of Europe's main sources of armies-for-hire. We see the echoes of that today in the Swiss Guard in Vatican City, for instance.
codewizard@hear-me.social 2 weeks ago
zxqwas@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They did not stay out of war by not being armed, rather the opposite. A mountainous country with a large army would be very difficult to invade in the first place and then very costly to control.
BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Survival tool. :)
urheber@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Germany i think
DaMummy@hilariouschaos.com 3 weeks ago
During WW1, Spain stayed neutral, and then went on to have the “Spanish Flu” named after them. Even though it didn’t originate from there, they were just neutral during the war, and had no quarrels in announcing their deaths, while the countries at war didn’t wonna announce that their soldiers were dying at a high pace.
yesman@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
No, it’s like college football: when you get a new country you have to choose a rival. If you don’t, then it defaults to France.
Patnou@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Ok I’ll bite Washington State Basketball Huskies