this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2026
42 points (95.7% liked)

Ask Lemmy

39499 readers
1376 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Ignoring the massive cost, legal hurdles, and the opinion of the residents/government/outside powers, if you could magically grant independence to certain territories or form new bigger nations from existing ones with no repercussions to yourself, what new countries would you create?

Please treat this as a non-serious post, let's not get into a massive political debate, those never end well.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] RyanUrq1328@programming.dev 25 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)
[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

I hope to see this in my lifetime

[–] darth_grunkus@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

We already missed the deadline for this to be the Star Trek timeline.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] wraekscadu@vargar.org 18 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

How about the concept of a nation itself ceases to exist? How about free movement of people, very weak states, consumer cooperatives as the only capital controlling entities who are allowed to buy labor only from worker coops? Economic democracy, competition, choice and so on?

How about a world without kings and non consented rulers, a world where we stop wanting to conquer each other, and instead focus on conquering the limits set on us by nature? How about a world where we build a Dyson swarm, solve interplanetary, interstellar, and dare I say intergalactic travel?

Aight imma go cry myself to sleep now

[–] DomeGuy@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

If there are no nation-states, how do we determine what amount of force is justified for self defense? Who enforces violations of that rule and what are the available punishments? What is our recourse when said enforcers decide to ignore any violence against people who deleted their reddit accounts?

Anarchy is a great ideal, but there are some things governments do that we shouldn't trust to self-organizing collectives. Unless "union of transphobic gang rapists pedophiles" is something you want to defend.

(Bit snarky, but honestly curious as to your answer.)

[–] Schmoo@slrpnk.net 3 points 3 weeks ago (11 children)

Anarchy is a great ideal, but there are some things governments do that we shouldn't trust to self-organizing collectives.

What makes states more trustworthy than self-organizing collectives?

load more comments (11 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] zabadoh@ani.social 18 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

One world under my benevolent iron fist, ruled from my volcano base.

[–] TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] IntrovertTurtle@lemmy.zip 5 points 3 weeks ago

Doctor Evil, actually.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

This is site is gonna be western-centric so I'd not even bother with those countries:

So my answer is:

Hong Kong, Vietnam, Guangdong Province become one nation

Republic of Yue (粵共和國)

Historically we came from a common group of people... so... this make sense lol

A lot of Vietnamese words are similar to Cantonese.

So we just make this a dual-language nation of Cantonese + Vietnamese (plus we'd give protected status for minority languages/"dialects" and allow schools in their regions to use 50% of the time to use their language/"dialect" only, the other 50% they have to pick either Cantonese or Vietnamese as the main language, and also the other one become their sort of like "minor" language studies in college terms... so this de facto means the Northern part of this nation use Cantonese, Southern part use Vietnamese as the main one...

So someone running for president of the Republic of Yue is legally required to pass fluency test in both national languages to make sure people are united...

Oh fun fact: the 粵 Chinese character (as in 粵語/Cantonese) representing Guangzhou and Cantonese related words, and the 越 Chinese character in 越南 (Vietnam) are pronounced the exact same in both Cantonese and Mandarin.

Anyways... I'm gonna tag my favorite HKer on Lemmy @NorthWestWind@lemmy.world

Hope you'd enjoy living in our Republic of Yue fantasy where Cantonese is a national language for once (can you imagine if Cantonese won the debate to become China's official language? 🥹)

/non-serious of course... but this would be a very funny country... imagine Cantopop with Vietnamese sprinkled inside? lolol

[–] CombatWombat@feddit.online 11 points 3 weeks ago

Cascadia! We’ve even got our own separatist journal here in the fediverse, the Cascadia Journal.

[–] agentTeiko@piefed.social 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

All the lines drawn by Europe's Colonial period are erased in Africa and Mid east and new lines are drawn by ethnic groups or otherwise defined by those groups. After which those new nations create a block of African Union like the European Union works.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Every country is broken down one step. Individual states or provinces are now their own country. If still too large, break into counties or the like.

Whack it with a hammer! Break them up!

[–] MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 weeks ago

So you want the whole world to look like the Holy Roman Empire?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] justdaveisfine@piefed.social 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I would give the west side of Amarillo, Texas to the cows where they could run as their own sovereign nation.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] snoons@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

United States' west coast and Alaska's panhandle are now Canadian. There is now only one Korea. United States of Europe exists now. Russia is broken up into many separate states regarding the population that lives there. A new state is created somewhere inside China on the border that as now... Uyghurstan I guess.

*How ccould I forget about Ireland?! D: Ireland is now just Ireland.

[–] disregardable@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

The territory of Kaliningrad belongs to Lithuania. It's not like there isn't enough space in Russia, give me a break.

[–] TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 3 points 3 weeks ago

As a lithuanian, please don't, we don't want it x3

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] amorangi@lemmy.nz 2 points 3 weeks ago

They Northern states would have been better off in the long run if they'd have just left the retard states break away in the civil war.

[–] Militias@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

I want the Baltic Sea surrounded in a similar fasion as to how Rome once enveloped the Mediterranean Sea!

i.e. A United Nordics + Balticum + Poland + Germany (maybe just the parts of Poland and Germany that are near the sea though?)

[–] PmMeFrogMemes@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

California breaks off to hang out with Hawaii. Alaska can come too.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] early_riser@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

Take Georgia the country and Georgia the state and merge them, no more confusion.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Kurdistan. They have been broken up, and are a nation spread over a number of countries that all hate them: Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria.

[–] leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 weeks ago

In the same vein, Catalonia. The “principality" for sure, with Northern Catalonia (currently in France) and the western strip (currently in Aragon, Spain), with or without Aran (if we can decide our future so should they, though an independent Occitaine is probably a pipe dream, so I'd be partial to a confederation if it's fine by them), open to a confederation with the rest of the Catalan Countries (Andorra, the Balearic Islands and Valencia) if it's fine by them; the people in L'Alguer (currently in Sardinia, Italy) should be able to decide if and where they want to fit in.

Also Scotland, though they're not split.

Any nation without a state that wants to have one (and would have the means to survive as one, but there are some pretty small states out there and most of the ones that aren't sinking under the sea seem to be doing fine), really.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Every country of more than 100 million people must split in half .

And repeat.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] scytale@piefed.zip 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Candid answer: Re-unite Yugoslavia and they will dominate international basketball.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (6 children)

I'd probably take the Western Seaboard from the USA and Canada, so California, Oregon, Washington, whichever province Vancouver is in, and Alaska, and form a new country out of that.

Might fuck around and take Nevada, too, because nobody's using it. And also that tiny little dangly bit of Mexico just under California that's like a little peninsula.

While I'm at it, I'll take the top leg of Idaho also, just because nobody's using it.

[–] Katrisia@lemmy.today 2 points 3 weeks ago

Yup, I would like to see the Californias united.

We have three pieces nowadays. North California (Alta California, today's "California") and South California (Baja California, today broke into two). Two were already bad... Let's move into one, please.

(But don't let the US administration get ideas).

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] Sunsofold@lemmings.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

Lots of fun stupid ideas here...

  • Everyone in the world is now their own microstate with their current position as the start point for a voronoi style distribution of territory.
  • Canada and Canadia are now legally distinct, coterritorial nations. Anyone who refers to themselves as Canadian has the effect of renouncing their citizenship to Canada and joining Canadia. Anyone who refers to themselves as Canadan does the opposite.
  • The world is now divided into nations by elevation rather than latitude and longitude.
  • All locations are redistributed by their affixes. All -stans are one nation. All -villes are another. All -tons and -towns another. All San- and Santa- are another. And so on, and so on. Any conflicts based on having multiple affixes are decided by a fight to the death between randomly chosen locals who prefer one or the other.
  • All areas are formed into nations based on the most common seasoning in that region.
[–] 30p87@feddit.org 4 points 3 weeks ago

Delete all states and borders

[–] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago
[–] fonix232@fedia.io 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Any country larger than ~100k km^2 - simply because even at that side there are vast cultural and economic differences that require different governing styles, and have different attitudes to certain topics.

With smaller countries come smaller, more localised decision making that benefits the most people of the region, and thanks to being small, it puts emphasis on these smaller states working together instead of being antagonists of their neighbours.

Oh and it also solves the issue of a small percentage of the population electing a complete buffoon with unfettered access to nuclear launch codes.

Hell, bring that 100k down to 20k and it's still a manageable system that better represents 80+% of the population than a large government of a large country.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] smeg@infosec.pub 3 points 3 weeks ago

Flanders (and Brussels) join the Netherlands.

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Break away for sure. The California Republic would surely have its problems but far less than the US right now.

But really I'd like to see every country balkanized. Big empires are nothing but trouble. Ideally each city would be its own polity, and they can have regional compacts if desired.

[–] finalarbiter@piefed.social 3 points 3 weeks ago

States of the Great Lakes. We'd be midwest nice™

[–] Martineski@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 weeks ago

One global nation with no borders.

[–] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

For sure split up the USA.

Maybe then they'll be too occupied to meddle with other nations

[–] mbp@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 weeks ago

whispers

Free Cascadia

Chechia and Slovakia. A lot of people consider the split to be pointless and the ethnic groups are basically the same.

[–] andrewta@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The United States, Mexico, Cuba, plus the territories of the US would all be merged into one country. I just want to watch the right wingers freak out

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Norin@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

It’s time for the American lake states to unite as one. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, and maybe a few others if they’re cool about it.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

Israel can go to mars

load more comments
view more: next ›