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Many countries have had a non-violent birth, but generally, it takes a considerable will of actual people actually living there to achieve it. For instance, th
by ptaipale 10y ago
Many countries have had a non-violent birth, but generally, it takes a considerable will of actual people actually living there to achieve it.
For instance, the dissolution of personal union between Norway and Sweden, where Norway got independence in 1905.
Malaysia was rather glad to get rid of Singapore in 1965.
Much of the dissolution of the British Empire happened without actual violence in the independence, although there has been considerable violence in many of the places afterwards.
Even the independence of Baltic states and other Soviet republics in 1991 at the collapse of USSR came without real war; there was some violence but you can't really call it a violent birth.
- madaxe_again 10y agoYou are talking about places which already had governments and had an orderly transition of power - not a new state being founded from nothing. To say there was no violence in the Baltics is highly disingenuous - Latvia gained independence through bloodshed, lost it through bloodshed, gained it again through bloodshed, lost it through bloodshed, then finally glastnost - which was largely non-violent. I was quite literally at their independence memorial today in Riga.
- ptaipale 10y agoWell, an orderly transition of power and a functional government are clearly a requirement for forming any new country, peacefully or violently. If you didn't set up a government, you've got no country because you have no way of managing anything. As I said, with Baltics I was specifically referring to 1991 which was largely non-violent. Yes, not entirely without violence, but these modern countries were not forged by military power, they were forged by the will of the nation.
- madaxe_again 10y agoSo, the war of independence was non-violent? Honestly, learn history beyond the last 25 years before you shoot your mouth off. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvian_War_of_Independence https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvian_War_of_Independence
- ptaipale 10y agoWould you please read my post and notice I was referring to the formation of the current Latvian independence, and events of 1991? Not the wars of 1918-1920 of which I am quite well aware, thank you. (I even have some distant family members who were fighting in the related, similar war in neighbouring Estonia at that time.)
- madaxe_again 10y agoYet none of those would today exist as independent states if not for the earlier conflict - they would have been Russia.