Ukraine's European Revolution?

[Queequeg]

By the way what is the difference between a Cossack and a Ukrainian?  For some reason I thought they were the same thing.

A lot of Ukrainians are Cossacks and most would have some Cossack blood in them, but Ukrainian includes Halychians and Volhynians and Rusyns who were hundreds of miles from the steppes and hills of the Pontic-Caspian steppe that the Cossacks called home.

[Admiral Yi]

I thought Cossacks were escaped serfs, i.e. Russians.

[Queequeg]

That's what a lot of Ukrainians are.  Kharkiv, Donetsk and the surrounding region had been either Turkic or Iranian for several thousand years before the establishment of the various Cossack sichs. 

[Valmy]

United States of Central America broke up and has generally been fine. I think there were a lot worse solutions than the partition of Germany. 

Oh yeah Central America has been awesome ever since.

[Queequeg]

I'm not sure having it politically united and between Colombia and Mexico would have made it a whole lot better.

[Kleves]

Bowing to the reality of the Russian military occupation of Crimea a day after Russia announced it was annexing the disputed peninsula, the Ukrainian government said on Wednesday that it had drawn up plans to evacuate all of its military personnel and their families and was prepared to relocate as many as 25,000 of them to mainland Ukraine.

Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and sailors have been trapped on military bases and other installations here for more than two weeks, surrounded by heavily armed Russian military forces and loosely organized local militia.

While the provisional government in Kiev has insisted that Russia's annexation of Crimea is illegal and has appealed to international supporters for help, the evacuation announcement by the head of the national security council, Andriy Parubiy, effectively amounted to a surrender of Crimea, at least from a military standpoint.

[Admiral Yi]

Smart move Ukraine.  Very grown up.

We're playing a long game here.

[Viking]

Sweden-Norway did okay, and Iceland-Denmark.

Sweden-Norway was a Royal Union without any integrated institutions apart from the diplomatic service, and that wasn't true for the last 20 years of the union.

Denmark-Iceland was a case of one province (iceland) being run like a viceroyalty. Any institutions that iceland had were locally established with royal ascent. Furthermore the separation of Iceland from Denmark started in 1874 and finished in 1944 and was a cooperative process for the most part (except the last bit when denmark was under german occupation.

Both of these cases are mutually agreed separations by governments motivated to see the process happen peacefully and cordially. Thats why scandies all love each other, they did this peacefully and respectfully after having fought like cats and dogs since the first viking chieftains called themselves kings.

[Valmy]

I'm not sure having it politically united and between Colombia and Mexico would have made it a whole lot better.

We are talking about a short period of time when what post-Spanish America was going to look like was up in the air.  It was going to be messy regardless of how things went.  I was just amused that was your example of a success story.  'Look at how great things went for Haiti and the Dominican Republic!'

[DGuller]

India's partition went well. 

[Valmy]

India's partition went well. 

Good one.

[Barrister]

Is there any historical example, ever, where partition of a country was the easy and sensible solution?

The partition of Czechoslovakia didn't solve any pressing problem but it was definitely easy.

Maybe there's the makings of a generalizable principle of international relations in there somewhere. 

The partition of Czechoslovakia was comparatively painless, but Czechoslovakia was always seen as the union of two separate groups - the Czechs and the Slovaks, with a clear line of demarcation between the two.

I see others covered the various scandi splits.

[The Brain]

I see others covered the various scandi splits.

The most epic of splits?

[garbon]

I see others covered the various scandi splits.

The most epic of splits?

You haven't seen me do a split.

[Barrister]

I thought Cossacks were escaped serfs, i.e. Russians.

My understanding was that being a cossack was more a way of life than a specific ethnicity or language.