As I read that Scotland may become independent in 11 days I realize that the English and the Castilians kingdoms have had a similar historical fate. Both first conquered, annexed or joined together via treaties/marriages nearby kingdoms and territories and became what is now Spain and UK. After that was accomplished both then went overseas to conquer a remarkable chunk of the world. As a result English and Spanish became the two largest Western languages. So these two very small nations, the English at the Castilians had at one point incredible empires with what today would be half a billion people (Castilians) and over a billion people (England). In the late 1700s, and mostly during the 1800s and some remains in the 1900s, these colonial empires fell apart apart to the point that what remained of the former glory was the original core Kingdoms of what today is UK and Spain. But now, over 200 years after key colonies were lost, the early nearby annexations or unions, Scotland and Catalonia, may also become independent. 5 or more centuries later the mighty kingdoms may go back to their humble origins. Why have the Germans, French or Italians, with minor exceptions, have had such a tendency for reunification, and the British and Spaniards for fragmentation, could be the subject of many books. Probably it has something to do between what is seen as a union of equals vs a forced annexation. But reality is that as of today, half of the Scottish want out and may well get out on September 18th and a similar percentage of Catalans seem to want out and I am not sure for how long will the Kingdom of Spain will stay together hiding behind the 1978 Constitution. Personally union or independence in both cases is fine with me. But what is not fine is to keep people in a union they don’t want. Better to vote and see. In the case of Catalonia, if there is a referendum I would hope that it goes beyond a yes or no for independence. What is needed is a previous negotiation that would give more clarity for voters on key issues such as, would Catalonia be in the Euro or out, in the EU or out, what part of the Spanish national debt would it take with it, would it vote as a whole for independence or per province (if Spain is divisible so should be Catalonia) and so on. I am in favor of a referendum in both cases, but with very clear visibility of what yes or no mean the day after. - See more at: english.martinvarsavsky.net/general/england-and-castile-a-parallel-history.html#sthash.OycZ83RC.dpuf
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 21:29:58 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015