Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Mark Shea Getting "Eastern" Europe Wrong


I will not say the states in Eastern, sorry, Central Europe are doing wrong to restrict immigration.

I will however say that Mark Shea's comment on the matter is a bit awkward. What do they teach them at Washington State University?

Catholic and Enjoying It : Question on Racism
December 4, 2017 by Mark Shea
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/markshea/2017/12/question-on-racism.html


Here is the context, quoting just a bit from each:

Reader
... From what I can tell, countries such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech and Slovakian republics are restricting immigration to maintain themselves as "ethno nationalist states." ...

Mark Shea
The bulk of European states have been nothing but ethnic states for most of their history. America stuck out as odd by being a nation founded, not on an ethnos, but on a creed. ...


France : French, Occitan, Breton, Basque, occasionally (as right now) German in the East (when otherwise, it has been some Germany which has been French in the West, or even a state inbetween).

Spain : Castilian, Catalan (sometimes considered Occitan), Basque, Galician.

Italy : Italian, Ladin (Occitan), German.

Austria (present frontiers): German, Croat, Slovenian.

Switzerland : German, French, Italian, Romansch (Occitan)

Germany : German, Platt-German, Low Sorbian, High Sorbian, formerly also Frisian.

Belgium : French, Dutch, German.

Netherlands : Dutch, Frisian.

Luxemburg : French, German, Luxemburgish (a dialect of Rhine Franconian).

While we are at small states:

Monaco : French, Monegasque (Occitan).

Andorra : Catalan (sometimes considered Occitan, as said), French, Spanish.

San Marino and Vatican State are, however, purely Italian.

"Eastern Europe" as in East of Germany is a bit more complicated. And, many like to claim being, like Germany and Austria, Central Europe.

Is Prague ethnically Czech or German? Are the Sudets ethnically Czech or German? Is Silesia Czech, Polish or German?

Atlas Obscura : When a City and a Bishop Went to War Over Beer
Vittoria Traverso December 01, 2017
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/medieval-city-bishop-war-beer-poland-wroclaw


If the rest is Silesian (a language neither Polish nor Czech, in fact, just as Platt-German is neither German nor Dutch), perhaps Breslau was as German as Prague?

Now, Czech Republic territory has most of the time been - like Austria, like Germany, like Switzerland previous to 1648, like not just half German but also other parts of Eastern France (notably some Occitan parts), like Slovenia, like parts of Italy, like Silesia : Holy Roman Empire.

In fact, Holy Roman Empire of Germanic Nation refers less to German being spoken on the most part of the territory and more to élite being Franks and allies - i e an élite of "Germanic Nation". "Holy" does refer to a Creed : the Nicene Creed, already before Otto I with Filioque (hence the conflict with Photius).

Poland and Hungary have been to Holy Roman Empire a bit like Cuba and Philippines have been, since 1899, to United States.

And Hungary has covered Slovakia, Croatia (most of it, except Dalmatia), and Transsylvania in what is now Romania. The other historic components of Romania were Moldova and Vallachia. And a little bit of Moldova is right now an independent country with Romanian and Ukrainean bi-ethnicity or bilingualism.

Prague, Sudets and Silesia, like Prussia (East and West) have however, since 1945 been cleansed from ethnic Germans, largely. In Sudets the Hitler National Socialism was briefly popular between the Wars in defense against the Beneš National Socialism.

And if we go to real Eastern Europe, as well as North Europe, you won't get mono-ethnic countries either.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris XX
St. Anno II of Cologne
5.XII.2017

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