When you look at what some politicians are saying, and at some media coverage, and at a lot of internet commentary you could think that the possible separation of eastern Ukraine is an unprecedented earth-shattering event - as if borders are absolutely fixed, sacrosanct, and unalterable.
When you look at history, though, if this were to happen it would be another event that would be added to a long list of separation and/or unification events.
- These are some examples that quickly came to mind:
Panama
The Panama Canal Zone
Ireland
West Berlin
East Germany / West Germany
Okinawa
Taiwan
Trieste
Kosovo
Nagorno-Karabakh
Hatay
Nothern Cyprus
South Sudan
Eritrea
Namibia
The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic
South Ossetia
Abkhazia
Transnistria (Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic)
Tibet
Bangladesh
Goa
Biafra
Algeria
Western Sahara
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Republika Srpska
The Brčko District
The Czech Republic
The Slovak Republic
The Suez Canal
The Golan Heights
The West Bank
Gaza
The Sinai Peninsula
Yemen
- And these are some that we might hear more about in the future:
Iraqi Kurdistan
Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan)
Cyrenaica
Quebec
Scotland
Greenland
The Basque Country*
* The 'Autonomous communities of Spain' is an interesting read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
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I'm tired. It's been a long day.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
This post about Ukraine is just something that I was thinking about today. Some will read all kinds of things into it. If you are so inclined, have fun. I really don't care. I have much more important things to deal with right now.