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.
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 21 hours ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Comments
yesman@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Patnou@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
Ok I’ll bite Washington State Basketball Huskies
valen@piefed.social 18 hours ago
Costa Rica doesn’t have an army. They spent that money on the environment.
mech@feddit.org 3 hours 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 3 hours ago
mech@feddit.org 3 hours ago
The one where Iraq invaded Iran?
That one?
BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 hours 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?
schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 21 hours 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 21 hours ago
Lichtenstein seems pretty chill, but I don’t know much about their history
einkorn@feddit.org 20 hours 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 21 hours ago
I’ve always associated Switzerland with consistent neutrality, but someone with more historical knowledge may correct me on that.
redsand@infosec.pub 1 hour 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.
mitram@sopuli.xyz 21 hours 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 4 hours 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 19 hours 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.
NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 21 hours 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 21 hours ago
The Shire.
slazer2au@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
Unless you have read the books…
Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 20 hours ago
I have.
DrBob@lemmy.ca 21 hours 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 21 hours 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 20 hours 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 21 hours ago
Hasn’t Canada had to answer for various war crimes?
DrBob@lemmy.ca 20 hours 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 19 hours 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 18 hours 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.
Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 6 hours 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 3 hours ago
When the numbers were far lower they used more area to support people and they all wanted the better places too.
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 16 hours 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 4 hours ago
Ah, the old, “well they were doing it when we got here, we may as well keep doing it” argument.
DaMummy@hilariouschaos.com 19 hours 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.
zxqwas@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
The Swiss have managed to stay out of wars for a very long time and are famously neutral.
hedders@fedia.io 2 hours 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 3 hours ago
BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 hours ago
Survival tool. :)
Kolanaki@pawb.social 4 hours ago
Vatican City. San Marino. Vanuatu. Palau. Lichtenstein.
ExperiencedWinter@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
You sure about including the Vatican in that list? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_States
Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 hour 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?